Australia's college entrance examination model is complex, with a variety of exams and ratings, and parents and students will certainly get dizzy at first glance at the vague acronyms. How is the score calculated? What is the best subject to choose? This article will introduce you to the Australian college entrance examination VCE examination model.
The History of VCE
Predecessor of VCE: HSC
Talking to older Australians reveals that they are often unfamiliar with the word "VCE" and often use the spoken word "Matric" to refer to it. This "Matric" is an acronym for "Matriculation". If you look it up in a dictionary, it means "college entrance test" in writing. However, this entrance test is quite different from today's unified examination. Before the seventies, college admissions did not have a single test. Instead, universities set their own entrance exams to supply previous high school graduates. At that time, the Royal Exhibition Building is not only the final exam room, but also the annual entrance examination room, and the entrance test is often more popular.
However, there are many disadvantages in the entrance examination. At the end of the year, every high school graduate often has to go back and forth in the university entrance examination room, and the college entrance examination question standard is often uneven, but also makes the examinee tired to deal with. Finally, as part of the Whitlam reform, the entrance exams for all universities in Victoria were integrated into a unified high school graduation test (but left behind entrance exams for subjects such as medicine, the beginning of today's UMAT)
Instead of HSC, blue comes from blue.
As a unified examination of enrollment and admissions in Victoria, the historical significance of HSC can not be underestimated. But on the other hand, although HSC has solved the problem of fragmented college entrance examination at once, it also has a lot to discuss. First of all, HSC has fewer subjects and more rigid forms. It is difficult to solve the needs of quality education and fair education by continuing to implement the elite selection system of college entrance examination. Secondly, HSC basically continues the final mode of "one test is fixed for life" in the college entrance examination, accumulates the neglect to the daily achievement performance, shows the malpractice of the examination-oriented education step by step. However, these two problems can not be solved by minor repairs, but by a completely reformed system. So in 1987, government, the Labour Party of Victoria, led by Kane, formally put forward the alternative plan of HSC-VCE (Victoria Certificate of Education), as a parallel high school examination system with HSC, began to be implemented on a pilot basis.
The VCE system greatly expands the number of subjects that can be chosen, and arranges the match between the ordinary scores of each subject and the results of the college entrance examination, so it is widely welcomed by the majority of high schools and high school student in Victoria. Finally, in 1992, HSC officially became history, and VCE became the state's only official high school exam.
Pay attention to vegetative Education and keep pace with the Times
Careful students may find that in the early days, such as the original Specialist Maths volume in 2001 and 2002, the words "Pilot Study" were added to the bottom of the subject "Specialist Mathematics" in parentheses, indicating that it was an experimental subject, and by around 2005, The word "experimental" is no longer available. In fact, VCE itself at the beginning of the HSC is also a "Pilot Program", although there has been a fundamental innovation in the system, but the specific operation of the need to cross the river. Subjects such as Specialist Maths, in particular, have been experimented with until they are added to the VCE's official list of courses.
At the same time, the emphasis of VCE is not only on the basic subjects for universities, but also on the achievement of quality education and interest training. So far, VCE has opened a total of 136 subjects. In the process of keeping pace with the times, a landmark initiative of VCE is the split of the curriculum. The split from difficulty, including the expansion from the original Chinese to the first language, the second language Advanced and the newly added Chinese Language and Culture, ensures that candidates can be faithful to their interests in choosing subjects rather than the utilitarian nature of the exam. At the same time, the division of IT into Computing and Informatics, is also more helpful for candidates to choose their own interests and directions in advance, and help them to develop smoothly in universities.
Go to the world and become the mainstream
With the continuous improvement and promotion, VCE system gradually became more and more perfect, and its reputation also rose. In addition, the international reputation of the University of Melbourne, Monash University and other Victoria universities is also growing, VCE's "brand" has also been sought after. In recent years, VCE scores have also begun to be accepted by more and more institutions outside Australia. Now, with VCE scores, you can apply to certain schools in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and even the United States. On the other hand, many international schools in China have started offering VCE programs to enable their students to take the VCE test directly after high school and apply to Australian universities. Among them, Chinese first language alone has more than 2000 Chinese registered examinees in China.
The VCE Northern Hemisphere examination, set up in 2017, is an important step towards the internationalization of VCE. In order to facilitate summer graduates from China, South Korea and other places, VCE holds formal examinations in the Northern Hemisphere in July of each year. The examination papers are drawn up by the Victoria State examination Institute and are identical in shape to the formal examination in December in VCE, Victoria. The move will allow thousands of candidates in the Northern Hemisphere to enjoy VCE's course dividends in a more timely manner, while also laying a key foundation for the globalization of VCE. With the maturity and perfection of VCE system, it is believed that VCE will be accepted by more and more students and universities around the world.
How does ATAR calculate?
ATAR is the acronym for Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, translated in Chinese as "Australian College entrance ranking." To put it simply, ATAR is the ranking of all examinees in the country, that is, the most important college entrance examination score for students to enter the university, with a full score of 99.95. For example, a ATAR score of 99 means the candidate has a higher score than 99 percent of new candidates across the country, but lower than 1 percent of new candidates.
The ATAR score consists of two grades, one from the final test held in October-November, and some from the normal SAC test held at school. To get an ATAR, you need to study at least four VCE Unit 3 and 4 subjects, although there is no upper limit, but the ATAR score will only take in six subjects at most.
The total score of the ATAR came from English, as well as 100% of the three subjects with higher scores, plus 10% of the two remaining subjects. These scores add up to a score between 0 and 210 called Aggregate, and then get the corresponding ATAR score from everyone's Aggregate ranking.
Do you have any secrets about choosing classes?
The compulsory course of VCE is English, and English is one of the top four subjects, whether good or bad. All universities have a limit on the scores of English subjects. Students who have a (EAL) score of 30 or more (a full score of 50) are generally allowed to enter the university. Therefore, learning English is particularly important.
Some college majors have extra requirements for scores in other subjects in high school. For example, if you want to enter the major of medicine, you must require the grades of chemistry; the majors of science, commerce and so on also have certain requirements for the achievement of mathematics or science. Therefore, in choosing VCE subjects, students need to consider the major direction of the university first, leaving enough room for their choice.
Although some majors do not require specific grades in certain disciplines, they are beneficial to the study of universities. For example, the Finance Department has no compulsory requirement on business subjects, but if there are high school accounting,economics knowledge, it will lighten a lot of the burden of freshmen. Although the department of science has no compulsory requirement on physics, if it is necessary to study engineering subjects in university, the college students have certain physics knowledge by default, so the basic physics theory will be finished quickly.
Does the SAC score matter?
SAC scores are mainly used to monitor the day-to-day performance of examinees at school, combining multiple SAC scores in a year with final Final exam scores into the final study score.SAC in different subjects. Most liberal arts subjects (English, accounting, etc.) account for 50% of the total SAC, and most science subjects (mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc.) account for 33% of the total SAC.
Although the SAC may seem very important, it is the November Final Exam that determines our final score. Since Final exam scores can be used to adjust the ranking of students in the school, so adjust everyone's SAC scores, so occasionally SAC students do not have to pay too much attention. As long as the Final Exam according to their own normal level of play, SAC performance is insignificant.
What is GAT?
The full name of the GAT, "General Achievement Test," is a mandatory test for all 12th graders, or all candidates for the 12th grade VCE exam, in June. The three-hour run includes two open-ended compositions and 70 multiple-choice questions. A total of three parts are covered:
- Written communication: includes two compositions
- Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics / Science: all multiple choice questions
- Humanities, the arts and social sciences humanities: all multiple choice questions
Although GAT does not normally count in the ATAR scores, it will not affect the students' ATAR scores, but the main purpose of this test is to adjust the ATAR in some special circumstances. For example, during the final Final Exam, if students are unable to take the exam in an emergency (accidental injury, etc.), or because of other reasons, the Final Exam scores are below the normal level. Then VCAA will use the results of GAT and school performance (including SAC and Mid-Year Exam, etc.) to estimate and adjust the ATAR scores of students. In view of this situation, no one can predict ahead of time, students do not take GAT too lightly oh.
After reading this article, have you become clearer about the VCE test model? This knowledge is essential if you want to send your children to secondary school in Australia!
