Mid-year VCE exams come to an end
From 2013, mid-year VCE exams will be scrapped, meaning that all VCE results will be based on final exams in November.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has made the decision on the basis of complaints from schools that the mid-year exams are disruptive, particularly to those students who do not have to complete them.
Currently, all teaching programs have to be stopped to allow students participating in the mid-year exams for accounting, biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics and psychology to revise, despite the fact that less than half of all VCE students study these subjects.
œPrincipals have been saying the school year is very tight and lots of students don't have mid-year exams but everything stops for those who do,'' VCAA chief executive officer John Firth said.
Concerns have been raised from students that the axing of mid-year exams will place greater pressure on their performance in a longer exam at the end of the year.
What the changes mean for VCE students:
- Two-and-a-half-hour exams will be introduced for biology, chemistry, physics and psychology at the end of the year, which will now account for two-thirds of the students' study scores.
- Two-hour exams will be introduced for accounting and environmental science, which will now account for half of the students' study scores.
- Students will be tested on an entire year of coursework, rather than just six months of coursework.
