Looking to get a head start on your final high school exams but not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place as we’re here to give you all the best tips and tricks to make the most of the VCAA past VCE exams!
Not only will we provide you with a collection of VCAA past exams for a variety of VCE subjects, but we’ve also included the best pointers to help you ace those subjects. On top of that, we’ve also included the marking guidelines to help make your studies a whole lot smoother.
Let’s dive into it!
VCE English Past Exams
VCE Maths Methods Past Exams
VCE Legal Studies Past Exams
VCE Biology Past Exams
VCE Physics Past Exams
VCE Chemistry Past Exams
VCE Psychology Past Exams
VCE Business Management Past Exams
VCE Physical Education Past Exams
English VCAA Past Exams
Your final exam for VCE English will consist of three different sections:
- Analytical interpretation of a text
- Comparative analysis of texts
- Argument and persuasive language
You will be given 3 hours to write these different text responses and have 15 minutes of reading time.
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
1. Engaging with the Text
Firstly, you need to get to know what you are studying. This often means going beyond a simple read through.
No matter which texts you study, there will be a myriad of secondary resources available to expand your understanding. These include films, interviews, reviews, etc.
By making use of these extra materials you not only enhance your understanding of the text, but you will also pick up ideas and ways of interpreting the text.
Boost your chances of acing the end of year VCE English exam by using our top tips!
2. How to Effectively read the Text
When you are reading through your texts you will need to make note of certain parts for analysis in your essay. There are many ways to do this, so see what works for you!
You may like to use sticky tabs and colour code them based on the quote.
For example, if you are studying Wordsworth Poetry, you could use a colour to represent nature, and another colour to represent industrialism.
Or, you can use different colours to show the different literary techniques.
You may also like to create a document for quotes or interesting parts of the text which you add to as you read.
Tip: Make sure to include page numbers in your document so you can always go back to find them later!
3. How to Learn Quotes
Often a challenging component of preparing for VCE English assessments is memorising all the quotes you want to use. It’s a good idea to start familiarising yourself with your quotes well in advance of your assessments so that you’re not in a rush!
For some people, writing their quotes on flash cards and testing themselves on them over time is the best method to remember them. You can also get a friend or family member to use the cards to quiz you.
For others, physically writing the quotes over and over is the best way to get them in their minds.
Or, you may find that by writing essays using VCE English past papers you are able to learn your quotes based on the context of what you’re writing around them, or by the sentences you are using to analyse them.
If you are at the start of the year, test each method out and see what is most effective for you!
How to use VCE English Past Papers
The new VCE English Study Design in 2024 means you only have one full practice exam available from VCAA. The other VCAA English Exams have the comparative essay section which is not applicable to you.
The other exams can be used for preparation tasks (for example, planning essay outlines in your head on the night before your exam). There are many different essay topics and argument analysis pieces across the years which you can use for study.
Have a go at the past exams below:
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE English Past Paper | Assessment Criteria and Expected Qualities |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Sample | Sample VCE English Exam | VCAA Assessment Criteria and Expected Qualities Report |
Previous Study Design
In need of some VCE English support? We can help with our team of Melbourne English tutors!
Maths Methods VCAA Past Exams
VCE Maths Methods is broken into two final exams: the first allows no notes or calculator (includes a formula sheet), and the second allows a CAS calculator and a summary book.
Your summary book is an important asset to your exam, containing relevant concepts, worked examples, formulas, calculator strategies, and exam tips to help you power through.
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
As you progress through the course, you should steadily work through answering specific questions relevant to where you’re at in the study design. Once you reach the end of your course, you should have a few attempts of going through the full exam under both untimed and timed conditions.
Try to test how well you do without using any reference material to pinpoint which areas will need further improvement.
Remember that every mark is worth 1.5 minutes, so working through questions in a timely manner is an important skill! Familiarise yourself with the different types of questions and formulate a plan as to how you will organise your time.
Whether you choose to speed your way through the easy questions or begin with the hardest, think ahead of time so you can enter your exams with one less thing to worry about!
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 (Sample Paper) | VCE Maths Methods - Written exam 1 VCE Maths Methods - Written exam 2 | No Examination Report Provided |
Previous Study Design
Legal Studies VCAA Past Exams
The VCE Legal Studies exam involves 15 minutes of reading time and two hours of writing time.
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
VCE Legal Studies is a content-heavy subject, so familiarising yourself with the content early in the subject is going to help you in the long run. While it can be easy to get lost in legal vocabulary, taking the time to wrap your head around the VCE Legal Studies Study Design can help give you a clearer picture of what you will be assessed on and which key terms and skills will be tested.
Whether you have a couple of months or a couple of days until your exam, persistent completion of the VCE Legal Studies past papers under timed conditions will help to test your answer speed and allow you to compare your responses with the corresponding examination report.
Examination reports provide advice and feedback about how to improve your mark by including responses from high-scoring students so you can take a long at how specific structures and content receive higher marks.
Not only can you refer to the exam report, but you can also turn to your teacher and peers to help stay on top of your content. Ask your teachers questions and request feedback on your practice exams so you can receive tailored suggestions.
If you work well studying with other students, pair up with a study buddy or form a study group so you can swap insight and work together to revise!
Prepping early for Year 11 or 12? Check out our complete guide to selecting your Units 1 and 2/Units 3 and 4 VCE subjects!
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | Exam Paper | N/A |
Previous Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Exam Paper | N/A |
| 2022 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2021 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2020 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2019 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2018 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2017 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2016 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2015 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2014 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2013 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2012 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2011 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
| 2010 | Exam Paper | Examination Report |
Biology VCAA Past Exams
For VCE Biology, you will only have 2.5 hours to complete your exam alongside 15 minutes of reading time. Usually being marked out of 120 points, you should look at spending around 1.25 minutes per mark.
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
Beginning to study early for VCE Biology is important to ensure that you grasp your concepts early before you become overwhelmed with exam time quickly approaching.
Writing Notes
Once you’ve gone through the VCE Biology Study Design, it’s time to start separating your notes into subheadings of the key syllabus points. If you’re a visual learner, you’re in luck as VCE Biology is rich in pictures, diagrams, and graphs, so summarising your notes through drawings is a great way to remember content.
Cross-check your notes with our VCE Biology Unit 4 summary!
Completing Past Papers
Whether you have months, weeks or days left until you sit your exam, going through VCE Biology past papers will always be a great use of your time. If you’re at the beginning of Year 12, start slow and attempt questions relevant to an area of study you have just covered.
Towards the end of the year, you should be practising full VCE Biology past papers so you can cover the full range of course content. Of course, marking your papers is vital to ensure that you learn from your mistakes, dedicate some extra study time to difficult areas, and improve your performance.
With the help of the VCE Biology Exam Report and your teachers, take note of how you can satisfy key examiner points and showcase your understanding of the question through structure and concepts.
Check out our practice SAC for Unit 3 AoS 1!
Studying Under Exam Conditions
Replicating exam conditions as accurately as possible is essential to build your confidence and ensure that you are ready to complete your exam on the day.
You will encounter a range of question styles throughout your exam, so practice spending approximately 1.25 mins per mark to help build a fast pace to ensure you can complete the exam in the allocated time.
Check out our practice SAC for Unit 3 AoS 2!
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | VCE Biology Exam Paper 1 | N/A |
| 2023 | VCE Biology Exam Paper | VCE Biology Exam Paper Report |
| 2022 | VCE Biology Exam Paper | VCE Biology Exam Paper Report |
Previous Study Design
Physics VCAA Past Exams
As with other VCE science subjects, your VCE Physics exam will involve 2.5 hours of writing time with 15 minutes of reading time. Luckily, you will be able to bring in with you two A4 or one folded A3 sheet of double-sided notes and will be provided with a formula sheet
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
VCE Physics can be a challenging subject, so getting on top of your content from the beginning of the year will help you to maximise your marks. Use the VCE Physics Study Design to organise your study areas and allocate your time, especially since you will need to condense a year of content into two A4 or one folded A3 sheet of double-sided notes (if you so wish).
When you’re building your notes, writing them out by hand is recommended for revision as it’s been shown to improve memory retention! Rather than just copying your content, producing succinct notes is important to ensure that you cover every key syllabus point and focus on areas that you struggle with rather than waste time on simple concepts.
Check out our 25 practice questions for your VCE Physics External Assessment!
To help you with studying, forming a study group or studying with a buddy can give you an opportunity to share and review your knowledge and learn from each other.
Once you start going through VCE Physics practice exams, begin with familiarising yourself with the exams specification so you can develop a game plan before you enter the examination room. Test yourself under timed conditions to see whether you can answer questions both accurately and quickly.
As you are marking your exam, you will naturally come across questions that are more difficult to complete or responses that have errors. Don’t worry! Use this opportunity to put in some extra revision for any problem areas and ask your teacher for advice if needed. Repeat the exam again and compare your performance.
Want to practice a couple of multiple choice questions for VCE Physics? We’ve got 25 question and answers for you!
Previous Study Design
Please note that no papers have been released for the current Study Design.
Chemistry VCAA Past Exams
In keeping with the status quo, the VCE Chemistry exam is 2.5 hours with 15 minutes of reading time.
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
Unlike other VCE sciences like Biology or Psychology, VCE Chemistry requires a unique approach to studying as your exam will test your ability to apply knowledge rather than recall it. As always, you should use the VCE Chemistry Study Design to guide you through the key syllabus points and organise your study plan.
VCE Chemistry is a difficult subject, so creating condensed but thorough notes will help you to cover your content in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming. Synthesising your information from your class work and textbook will provide a useful overview of what course concepts may be assessed on the exam.
Make sure you know how to use the VCE Chemistry data booklet effectively!
Once you’ve completed your notes, going through VCE Chemistry past papers is paramount to test your ability to apply your knowledge to questions. At the beginning of the year, going through practice questions based on your current topic area is a good way to build up your test-taking ability and familiarise yourself with different types of questions.
Once your exam is approaching, it’s time to go through full VCE Chemistry past papers under timed conditions and build up your confidence before you complete your very own paper.
To make the most of VCE Chemistry past papers, ensure that you take the time to correct your answers and compare them with the exam report. As well as taking notes on what aspects of model answers awarded higher marks, you can ask your teacher questions and to request personalised feedback on your progress.
To keep track of which areas require improvement, creating a template to correct your exams is a great way to organise different topic areas and pinpoint changes to be made for future attempts.
Want the steps to acing your VCE Chemistry end of year exam? Follow our guide!
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| Sample Examination | NA | NA |
Previous Study Design
Psychology VCAA Past Exams
With 2.5 hours of writing time, the VCE Psychology exam includes two weighty sections: 50 multiple choice questions (Section A) and 70 marks worth of short answer and extended response questions (Section B).
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
To help you to identify all the key knowledge that will be examined, going through the VCE Psychology Study Design at the beginning of Year 12 will help you to visualise your studying game-plan for the year ahead.
As you progress through each unit, you should write a quick summary of the key concepts and terms to help you condense the content before the stress of exam season leads to a mad rush. This can look like a rough outline, a mind-map, or cue cards depending on your style of learning and your time organisation.
Exam Prep
As exam season creeps forward, ensure that you are completing practice exams in different conditions. Compare your results using open and closed book and challenge yourself under timed conditions in complete silence to prepare yourself for the real deal.
The more you practice, the more confident you will feel in your abilities. Remember also to take note of any difficult questions or errors so you can receive corrections ahead of time through your teacher or by reference to the exam report.
The VCE Psychology exam will test your ability to answer multiple-choice, short answer and extended response questions. With 50 multiple choice questions to answer, ensure that you have the key knowledge points down pat so you get through this section in a quick space.
The short answer and extended response questions will be testing specific content knowledge from Units 3 and 4 and will examine key science skills within the ‘Cross-study specifications’. Familiarise yourself with the structure of high-achieving responses from past exams and ensure that your response showcases your knowledge and draws substantiated conclusions.
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | VCE Psychology Exam Paper | VCE Psychology Exam Report |
| Sample Questions | VCE Psychology Exam Paper | N/A |
Previous Study Design
Business Management VCAA Past Exams
The VCE Business Management exam is 2 hours long and involves a short-answer section (Section A) and a case study (Section B).
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
To get yourself familiarised with VCE Business Management concepts, you should begin with printing out your VCE Business Management Study Design to ensure you know what key concepts and terminology will be tested.
Creating succinct summaries for each area of study is the first step to developing your study notes. As you make your summaries, you will notice which areas you’re confident with and which areas require extra revision.
To help you with organising which topics need more attention, the traffic light highlighting method is a great way to visualise your progress:
Once you’ve developed your notes, work on how you will use the content to answer Section A and Section B of the VCE Business Management Exam.
Section A is short answer, so ensure that you are across concepts and understand each key knowledge dot point. It’s also a good idea to prepare some case studies that will align with each syllabus dot point so you can provide real-world examples for your concepts.
Section B is where you will need to go in-depth on a case study, so writing up a table which matches syllabus dot points with case studies is a great way to ensure that you’re effectively applying your knowledge to an exam question.
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | VCE Business Management Exam Paper | N/A |
| Sample | VCE Business Management Exam Paper | N/A |
Previous Study Design
Physical Education VCAA Past Exams
For Physical Education, you will complete one exam consisting of two sections — multiple choice and short answer, with extended response questions.
You will be given 2 hours of writing time and 15 minutes of reading time.
Study Tips for your VCAA Exams
Make sure you go in with a plan — including for reading time!
Start by skimming through the entire exam to get a feel for it, but then there are a few ways to make the best use of your 15 minutes.
Option 1: Complete the MC questions in your head — this will help you get a flying start to the exam! Better yet, some of your multiple choice answers you will know for sure are correct (through process of elimination), and this in turn will help you answer some of the short answer questions!
Option 2: Complete the longest extended response in your head. Read it over a few times then mentally plan your answer. As soon as reading time is over, complete it straight away! This helps you get all the hard writing out the way and gets the ball rolling!
Option 3: Experiment! Try Option 1 and 2 when you’re practising, or come up with your own method. Whatever works for you is what will be best!
Excelling in the Exam
Physical Education is a big subject — there’s a lot to learn, and the PE past exams will have a variety of scenarios and different ways of applying your knowledge that can throw you off. Don’t worry though, the best way to wrap your head around it all is to keep practicing!
Tip: When you are going through your practice exams, make sure you revise them and see what answers you got correct and what answers you got wrong. This is the most important part of doing practice exams — figuring out where you went wrong and correcting those mistakes for next time.
What some students find helpful is to create a book of mistakes that you make, and then writing the correct answer beneath them. This will help you create a compilation of information that you’ve learnt, ensuring you are less likely to make the same mistakes!
Current Study Design
| Year | VCE Examination Paper | Examination Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | VCE Physical Education Examination Report |
| 2022 | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | VCE Physical Education Examination Report |
| 2021 | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | VCE Physical Education Examination Report |
| 2020 | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | VCE Physical Education Examination Report |
| 2019 | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | VCE Physical Education Examination Report |
| 2018 | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | VCE Physical Education Examination Report |
| Sample examination | VCE Physical Education Exam Paper | No examination reports are provided. |
Previous Study Design
Have a week before your PE exam? Check out our 7 day study plan for Physical Education!
If you need help preparing for the GAT, read our comprehensive guide!
Are you looking for some extra help with preparing for your VCE exams?
We have an incredible team of VCE tutors and mentors!
We can help you master the VCE study design for your subjects and ace your upcoming VCE assessments with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or online! We’ve also got a team of tutors in Melbourne who can help you out.
We’ve supported over 8,000 students over the last 11 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 20%!
To find out more and get started with an inspirational VCE tutor and mentor, get in touch today or give us a ring on 1300 267 888!
Ashley Sullivan is a Senior Content Writer for Art of Smart Education and is currently undertaking a double degree in Communications (Journalism) and a Bachelor of Laws at UTS. Ashley is an editor for UTS Vertigo. She is a film, fashion, and fiction enthusiast who enjoys learning about philosophy, psychology, and unsolved mysteries in her spare time.
