What’s VCE — the curriculum offered in Victoria, Australia?

I’m a high school student currently in Year 11, and I’ve been attending Peninsula International School Australia in Malaysia since the first year of junior high. The Victorian curriculum “VCE” we study there is fairly complicated, and I wanted to organize the information for myself, so I’m writing this down.

What is VCE

First, as background, VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) is a certificate provided by the state of Victoria in Australia, which is famous for Melbourne.

Victorian Certificate of Education - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Australian secondary education goes up to Year 12, and VCE is completed over the final two years, so it starts after Year 10. Some of you may have noticed — compared to other curricula, VCE is longer.

For subjects, you choose six subjects around Year 11, and in Year 12 you can drop one subject. Then, after completing those five subjects and taking the final exams, you receive a common Australian score called the ATAR. That score is used to enter Australian universities.

About ATAR

Someone wrote a pretty good explanation about ATAR, so I’m linking it here:

ATARを通して理解する日本とオーストラリアの教育の違い｜梅屋敷

オーストラリアの大学受験は、大学や専門学校の入学を希望する生徒に通っている学校の成績と最終学期に行う卒業試験の得点を加味した得点をATARというポイントにして、上位の生徒から希望する大学に入学するシステムになっています。 ATARとは、Australian Tertiary Admission Rank の略です。Tertiaryは第三次という意味で、イギリスやオーストラリアでは、小学校をプライマリー　primary education 中学高校をセカンダリー　secondary education 大学や専門学校をターシャリー tertiary educationと区分しています。

note.com

Pros and cons of VCE

The biggest advantage of VCE is that it’s largely based on elective subjects. In Japan there are subjects you have to study even if you don’t want to, but with VCE you can choose subjects you’re good at and raise your scores. (There are some compulsory subjects.)

Also, the ATAR score calculated from this ranks students in the same year across Australia. For example, a score of 80 means you’re in the top 20%, and 90 means the top 15%. So it measures academic ability relatively fairly.

As a disadvantage, it’s demanding. The weighting is 50% final exam and 50% regular assessments, so it requires a long period of preparation plus exam-focused study, making it a long haul and really exhausting. The final exam is a one-shot test and cannot be retaken, so that score sticks with you.

Also, the recognition of VCE is considerably lower compared to IGCSE or IB, and naturally there are many countries outside Australia where the ATAR score is not usable. If you return to Japan, for example, you may need to take additional exams such as TOEFL.

Also, whether it’s a disadvantage or an advantage depends on the perspective, but since VCE goes up to Year 12, you don’t have to attend colleges (places called foundation, diploma, pre-u). (As I will discuss later, that was a major disadvantage for me.)

Don’t take VCE in Malaysia!! Garbage!!

…After hearing the pros and cons, VCE itself didn’t sound so bad — I even thought it might be better than the system in Japan — but unfortunately, in my situation everything worked out badly.

First, as I mentioned at the start, I’m taking VCE at Peninsula International School Australia in Malaysia, but this school is short on teachers because other schools poach them, and there are very few teachers who are well-versed in VCE. (Is it like this at other schools too?) Because of that, the textbooks and materials don’t seem to fully adhere to VCE, and only VCE-style questions appear on tests, so for some subjects you end up relying heavily on self-study. (Of course there are good teachers, but…)

Because of that, the range of elective subjects available is very limited. Last year there were subjects like Art and Data Analytics (equivalent to computing), but those have been discontinued this year. That reduced the options, and taking the remaining science subjects (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) has effectively become mandatory — it feels like a forced focus on the sciences. If you love math and science, that’s fine, but I don’t really like them… (I’ll do my best.)

The kicker is transfer policy. Typically, at other schools (those offering IGCSE, for example) it’s common to attend a college — an institution before university — after finishing Year 10 or Year 11, and because VCE covers content equivalent to IGCSE by Year 10, until 2020 there was an option after Year 10 to either go to college or continue with VCE. If you’re going to Australia, VCE is fine, but if you’re heading to other countries, more common options like A-levels or Cambridge programs might be better. However, from 2021 the Malaysian government changed its policy, and students taking Australian curricula including VCE must go directly to university after completing Year 12. See the PDF attached at the link (MQA) for details.

The Official Portal Of MQA

Your page description here

www.mqa.gov.my

…So because of all that, if you aren’t set on going to Australia and haven’t decided which country you want to go to, IGCSE or similar programs will definitely give you more options. I regret taking VCE. I didn’t research much before choosing it, and now it’s too late. Honestly, I should have been suspicious when I couldn’t find any information about VCE anywhere.

If anyone reading this knows anything more about VCE, please tell me. Also, if there are any mistakes in this article, I’d appreciate it if you could let me know via Twitter (X) or similar.