VCE English exam marks beginning of the school end for Year 12s

More than 45,700 Victorian school students will today sit the all-important English test, getting the ball rolling on the nerve-racking, 2024 VCE exam season. Here’s how it will play out.

Yasmine Gousas, who is interested in archaeology, and Winton Lou, a basketball umpire, are ready for VCE exams. Picture: David Caird

Thousands of Year 12 students are a step closer to wrapping up 13 years of schooling, with today’s three-hour English test kicking off the 2024 exam season.

More than 89,000 students will sit at least one exam in the next three weeks, at one of 566 examination centres across Victoria.

This includes 937 students at Bendigo Senior Secondary College – the state’s largest cohort of exam participants at one school – and three students at the smallest examination centre, Balmoral K-12 Community College.

From 9am, more than 45,700 students will sit the highly-anticipated English exam, while just under 2500 pupils will participate in the English as an additional language exam.

More than 45,700 students will sit the highly-anticipated VCE English exam at 9am on Tuesday. Picture: Nicole Cleary

A total of 111 VCE written exams are being conducted before November 20, with verbal exams already complete for most students undertaking one of 47 languages.

The nervous wait for ATAR release day will then begin, with study scores and students’ final rankings to be released on December 12.

As exam season gets underway, students say they’re feeling both nervous and excited as they enter the final phase of their schooling.

Maribyrnong College year 12 student Winton Lou, who hopes to study Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne next year, said he had mixed feelings about this week’s exams.

“I’m excited about nearing the finish line but it’s nerve-racking because these are the biggest exams of our lives,” he said.

VCE students Yasmine Gousas and Winton Lou from Maribyrnong College. Picture: David Caird

The 18-year-old is also studying Algorithmics through Virtual School Victoria and works part-time as a basketball umpire.

“I study about 15 to 20 hours a week and I’ve managed to find a really good balance between my study, social and sporting life,” he said.

Yasmine Gousas, who is also in her final year at the school, said she was feeling extremely positive about undertaking exams.

“I’ve been doing so many past and practice exams to really get an understanding of what the examiners will ask for and this has really helped me,” she said.

“I’m hoping to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne majoring in Ancient World Studies because I want to get into the fieldwork aspect of archaeology.”

The school’s acting principal Mark Jones said the exam period was a “very busy” time for students and teachers.

“These exams are extremely important for the vast majority of students because it makes up such a significant portion of their end result,” he said.

“We’ve run two rounds of optional practice exams, which is a new initiative we’ve introduced this year to help prepare them better.

“We have a sports academy at the school and we have a lot of students who are very physically active and we try to promote that balance to keep up with exercise routines.”

Education Minister Ben Carroll wished students the best of luck ahead of the English exam.

“Congratulations to all our dedicated Victorian students – here’s to your future and seeing where it can take you. I wish you the very best in finishing your VCE,” he said.