Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority report finds more exam errors

After the saga of disastrous leaks affecting 65 subject exams, a new report has found four extra subjects had errors, including three mistakes in one exam.

External reports released by the Victorian exam authority on Monday reveal errors in four more 2024 VCE subjects, including three mistakes in one exam.

This is in addition to the leaks affecting 65 subject exams revealed by Herald Sun last year.

The new reports from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) are prepared by external markers and provide the correct answers, marking statistics and commentary on how questions were answered.

The 2024 report shows there were errors in four more subjects which led to all students getting full marks for that question: Chemistry, Psychology, Economics and Applied Computing: Data Analytics.

A report found there were errors in four more subjects. Picture: Nicole Cleary

The Chemistry exam report revealed that for section A, multiple choice question 27, all students were given a full mark “as a result of psychometric analysis and review” which indicated all four options were correct.

This was the same for question 39 in Psychology, and questions four, 14 and 16 in the Applied Computing: Data Analytics exam.

Meanwhile, question one in section one of the Economics exam was invalidated as it didn’t align with the study design.

This comes in addition to a mistake in the English Language exam, which is the subject of an official complaint from teachers, leading to section A, question one being invalidated. The Herald Sun has already revealed this error.

The VCAA has also downloaded copies of dozens of exam papers, excluding VET and language subjects, revealing stark similarities to leaked material accidentally uploaded to its website last year.

This allows the full extent of the leaks to be understood in the five most profoundly affected subjects.

In the Business Management exam, the case studies for question one in section A and all of section B were very similar to the case studies leaked on the cover sheets, with the only difference being the businesses names.

In the Legal Studies exam, the case study in section B, question one - worth 21 marks - was almost identical to the leaked information for that test, with the only variation being the name of the person being charged.

Meanwhile, in Product Design, students were given a scenario that involved the same material - “mycelium” - as the leaked case study.

This scenario was to be used to answer questions one to nine, worth a total of 41 out of 90 marks.

In Philosophy, the question one prompt for section C was identical to the prompt that was leaked on the cover sheet, with this section worth 20 marks.

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said students, teachers and school communities still didn’t have “clear answers” as to the extent exams and subjects were compromised and the impact it had on their final scores.

“The same people responsible for three consecutive years of exam errors cannot be the ones to fix their own mistakes,” she said.

“Only a truly independent investigation by the Victorian ombudsman will give students the answers they deserve and help ensure these blunders never occur again.”

A VCAA spokesperson said: “Each year, written Assessor Reports for every VCE examination are made available for all teachers through the VCAA website.”

“They provide important observations for teachers and students about how students performed on different aspects of the examination.”

Originally published as Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority report finds more exam errors