Year 10 Learning for Life The Victorian Certificate

Year 10 Learning for Life The Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and pathways 40 CHARLES STREET, KEW VICTORIA 3101 AUSTRALIA TELEPHONE +61 3 9854 3600 FACSIMILE +61 3 9853 9457 EMAIL: TRINITY@TRINITY. VIC. EDU. AU WEBSITE WWW. TRINITY. VIC. EDU. AU

Session Objective • In order to help students make good subject selection choices, this session will cover: • • Pathways from year 10 Options at Trinity VCE and VCAA VTAC, scaling and ATAR TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Options at Year 10 Enter the work force Trade/Apprenticeship VCAL IB VCE/VET TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

VCE – Victorian Certificate of Education • The VCE is awarded to students who successfully complete their secondary education. • Students graduate with the VCE by satisfactorily completing at least 16 units. • Three of these units must be from the English group, plus three Units 3 and 4 sequences in studies other than English • Within VCE, students can undertake vocational education and training (VET) through School. Based Apprenticeships or at a training organisation. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

VCE – Victorian Certificate of Education • Each unit has outcomes which describe what students are expected to know and be able to do. For satisfactory completion (S or N), students need to demonstrate the outcomes outlined for each VCE study. • Unit 1 and 2 are not awarded a study score (S or N) • For Unit 3/4 there are two types of graded VCE assessment: school-based assessment and external exams. • External exams (written, oral, performance or electronic) are set and marked by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Not all study scores are calculated the same way … • Studio Art • Units 3 and 4 School-assessed Coursework: 10 per cent • Units 3 and 4 School-assessed Task: 60 per cent • End-of-year examination: 30 per cent • Biology • Unit 3 School-assessed Coursework: 16 per cent • Unit 4 School-assessed Coursework: 24 per cent • End-of-year examination: 60 per cent. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

• Further Mathematics • Unit 3 School-assessed Coursework: 20 per cent • Unit 4 School-assessed Coursework: 14 per cent • Units 3 and 4 Examination 1: 33 per cent • Units 3 and 4 Examination 2: 33 per cent • Mathematical Methods • Unit 3 School-assessed Coursework: 17 per cent • Unit 4 School-assessed Coursework: 17 per cent • Units 3 and 4 Examination 1: 22 per cent • Units 3 and 4 Examination 2: 44 per cent TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

How are Study scores calculated • VCAA adds SAC scores (internal assessments) to examination scores to arrive at a ‘raw’ total. • Raw totals used to rank all students in the study. • Students allocated grade out of 50 based on ‘bell shaped’ distribution. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Normal Distribution TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

What happens after you are ranked in your individual subjects? • VCAA give you a score out of 50 for each subject based on where you ended up in that subject’s rank order • This represents your Study Score for each subject. • These scores will appear on your certificate. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

How the ATAR is calculated? • • • The VCAA pass on your study scores to VTAC scale your study scores VTAC calculate your ATAR Is not a score Is not out of 100, it is a rank between 0. 00 and 99. 95 • E. g. an ATAR of 75. 00 means a student is in the top 25% of the Year 12 age group • Many courses select on the ATAR and other requirements TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

TRUE or FALSE • Specialist Mathematics is scaled up because it is (very) hard? TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Scaling and your ATAR • VTAC scales your study scores in each subject to reflect how hard it is in each subject to access higher scores. • Based on the students in the subject, not the subject itself. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Why Scale? • Take two students of the same ‘ability’ let’s call them ‘clever’ • One enrols in a subject full of ‘very clever’ people • Other enrols in a subject full of ‘not very clever’ people. • Both work with same degree of application • Will they end up in the same spot in their subjects relative rankings? TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

• Clever student in subject of ‘very clever’ people will be lower ranked in the subject and will receive a lower study score as a result. • Harder to access higher scores means that the computer scales these scores up to calculate ATAR. • Clever student in subject full of ‘not-so-clever’ people will finish higher ranked in the subject and will receive a higher study score as a result. • Easier to access higher scores means computer scales these subjects down to calculate ATAR. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

After Scaling how do they get ATAR? • Using scaled study scores • Computer takes English + Next best 3 subjects + 10% of 5 th and 6 th subjects (if applicable) TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Some rules and anomalies • “Forbidden combinations” - There are restrictions to how many studies from the same study area grouping and how they can contribute to your aggregate. • As a result of government policy to encourage the study of languages, each language is adjusted up by adding five to the initial VTAC scaled study score average. TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

• Totals used to rank every student in state. • ATAR scores allocated based on ranking. • Top. 05% of state get 99. 95 • Next. 05% get 99. 9 • Next. 05% get 99. 85 • Down to ‘≤ 30’ for bottom 30% of state TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Interesting ATAR totals (2020) • 99. 95 needed at least 209. 81 (50+51+50+50+5+5 = 211!) • 99. 90 needed at least 207. 51 • 99 (top 1% of state) needed 191. 91 (46+46+4+4=192) • 80 (Top 20% of state) needed 137. 46 (33+33+3. 2+3. 2=138. 4) (Remember that 34 puts you in the top 28% of the subject) • 70. 35 needed 123 (30+30+3. 0=123) (Remember that 30 is the average for every subject) TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

VCE @ Trinity • VCE is normally a two-year program (Year 11 and Year 12) • Students do 6 subjects in Year 11. Possible combinations include: o 6 Unit 1 & 2 subjects o 5 Unit 1 & 2 subjects and for high performing students (average study score of 84 or a high B+) 1 Unit 3 & 4 subject • Students do 5 subjects in Year 12 (5 Unit 3 & 4 subjects) TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

Messages to take with you • Pick subjects that you are interested in • Pick subjects that you are good at • Pick subjects you need for courses (assuming the above) • Do not pick subjects based on scaling • Scaling is extraordinarily clever and VERY FAIR • Ignore media hype on scaling – they do not understand it properly TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW

TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KEW