Victorian Certificate of Education score or better known as the VCE score is a scoring used as part of your ATAR calculation. This test works by using a rank to show how well you have performed in a subject compared to everybody else in Victoria who also enrolled in the same subject within the same year.
Guaranteed equal studies treatment, VCE allows students to have a fair system for undertaking the necessary studies they want. Commonly known in Australia, VCE which is a part of ATAR provides scores for tertiary selection across the country.
This way, tertiary institutions use ATAR to compare students that have already completed combinations of VCE subjects. So how does the VCE score work?
Let's take a look at how the VCE scoring takes place.
Ranging between 0 and 50, the VCE study score indicates how well you are doing in a specific VCE subject compared with other students.
Based on the result of your externally assessed end-of-semester exam and SACS (School Assessment Coursework), VCE is designed to give a measurement of your achievement regardless of which school you attend.
Furthermore, a study score isn't a solid score, but a ranking of all students that also took the same subject that year. Based on those scores, every year has a different relativities on score ranking.
So how do you look at your score? There are 2 ways you might want to know.
First of all, let's put a bell curve into our imagination. While the middle is filled in by the majority of students, a small number lies beneath each extreme. You will have the position somewhere along that curve and that will be your raw study score.
To put it into perspective, if you have a score of 30, you would most likely outperform 50% of students who also do the same subject. If you have outperformed 90%+ of all students who also take the same subject that year, it means that you have a raw study score of 40.
However, getting good raw study scores is difficult since the strength of the student competition isn't considered and calculated. Moreover, to compensate for and equalize better scoring, the VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority) initiates a consistent level of achievement across subjects by scaling each subject's results.
Designed to show how well students perform in the subject and calculate different difficulty levels students can handle between subjects, scaled scores don't relate to the complexity of the subject. It is more about showing how competitive the subject is instead.
With these terms in play, if you take a subject that is harder to score well because of higher competition like Specialise Math, your raw score can be adjusted upwards.
Contrary to subjects like Further Math which have a less competitive subject, the score will be scaled down.
The distribution of study scores within subjects was adjusted and scaled in each subject so that it matched the group of students and they may obtain the same group in all other subjects.
To give instance, the Chemistry average study score was 30 in 2020, however, the studies averaged 34 for all their studies in Chemistry.
Showing that students who did Chemistry have a significant strength above other studies, the average VTAC study score was adjusted upwards to add more difficulty. As for 2020, the study score moved from 30 to 34 which means all of the Chemistry study scores were recalculated with this new average which is 34.
It means not just in a subject only, but across all of their subjects, the score will be scaled up or down for indicating how students do in comparison to others.
Scaled scores are important because it guarantees fair treatment for all VCE studies. This system allows tertiary institutions to compare candidates who have already completed combinations of VCE subjects and undertake the studies they want equally.
The study scores are scaled down if the student's competition strength is lower so they aren't taking an unfairly advantageous study. While the study scores are adjusted upwards so the students can get a fair scoring if the competition is high.
Actually, the importance of study scores is essential since they are used to create your ATAR which might be able to help when it comes to your further study option of choice.
With this perspective, you have to remember that each study score only represents how you performed in a subject at a time only. It means that many factors also come into play in your success.
First of all, you should study what you are more into. Studying the VCE subject you are good at and love would increase the opportunity of getting a higher score.
For the records, if you aim for a strong ATAR result, you have to aim for 40+ raw scores in 4 or 5 subjects at minimum. This is way better than hitting 2 or 3 subjects with the 50 and lower scores in others.
A good note to take is that sometimes people have misconceptions about how to choose a subject, you have to know that a high-scaling subject sometimes isn't the best to consider.
If you don't do well in it and you aren't interested in that subject, you'd better find another subject that you have your heart in. This way your chances of getting good ATAR are exponential.
As a worldwide known word, passion simply creates success. Do a subject you enjoy so you might perform better. For example, if you have a passion for Culinary, just go for it.
Regardless of the scaling, a low score that scales up will produce inferior results than a scale-down high raw score. This means it will be better if you pick subjects that can be complementary to your interest or might be required for future study purposes.
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