Since completing VCE back in 2022, I’ve spent over 2 years teaching and writing about everything to do with VCE. So you can trust that I know VCE like the back of my hand.
I’ve scoured through VCAA’s Grade Distributions as well as tutor and student opinion to find out which VCE subjects are the easiest .
Please note that scaling will not be considered in these rankings. We are simply focusing on how hard the content, SACs and exam is.
If you want to know which subjects may make your VCE work load *that* tiny bit easier, be sure to check this list out!
#10: Visual Communication Design
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 73.3%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 68.6%
- Examination Average (2023): 88.6%
Everyone who does Visual Communication Design (Viscom) says it is by far the most underestimated subject in VCE.
Viscom uses design principles like type and imagery in digital and traditional methods.
Students explore how designers visually communicate concepts when designing messages, objects, environments and interactive experiences.
The main mode of testing is the portfolio and final exam, both of which aren’t too difficult.
Students tend to speak very highly of the portfolio, which allows them to explore their learning in an enjoyable and fulfilling manner.
The exam makes students apply their design concepts to various scenarios. Performance on this exam tends to be quite strong, with students rarely bombing the exam.
#9: Business Management
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 64.4%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 65.8%
- Examination Average (2023): 77.4%
We’ve all seen the memes… but Business Management is sadly far more than colouring between the lines and playing games in class.
Surprisingly enough, it’s actually quite content-heavy. So get your memorisation hat on, you’ll have rope learn a lot of content!
Business Management examines how businesses use resources to achieve objectives. The Study Design goes through from the initial idea for a business concept to establishing a business, through the day-to-day management of a business.
The content that is taught in Business Management is quite simple. So the only challenge students face is keeping up with the pace of the content.
The subject has a traditional assessment method with SACs and Exams.
The SAC and Exam are very similar, both having stock-standard questions testing your knowledge of management concepts.
The hardest part about them is remembering the content.
#8: General Mathematics
- Unit 3/4 Average (2023): 65.5%
- Written Examination 1: 61.25%
- Written Examination 2: 52.25%
General Mathematics covers the study of non-calculus and discrete mathematics topics.
It’s designed to be widely accessible to all and any student, to prepare for general employment, business or further study.
Students find General Mathematics significantly easier than Mathematical Methods.
This is largely because General Mathematics tends to tackle more practical and realistic topics that we face and can use every single day.
General Mathematics is assessed through SACs and Exams. They both tend to be a bit tricky – not because of the content – but because figuring out what the question is asking can be quite difficult at times.
#7: Sociology
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 67.7%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 67%
- Examination Average (2023): 62.1%
Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. It is known as the study of social life, social change, and the social causes of human behaviour.
In VCE Sociology, students will examine key theories regarding family, deviance, ethnicity, community and social movements.
The difficulty for sociology comes from the quality of writing and research required to do well.
Students need to have extensive evidence to support all the arguments they make.
However, the questions can tend to be rather repetitive, so students find they repeat the same evidence and arguments over and over again…
#6: Media
- Unit 3/4Average (2023): 53.5%
- SAT Average (2023): 68.4%
- Examination Average (2023): 83.6%
Students learn how and why the media constructs and reflects reality, and how audiences engage with, consume, read, create and produce media products.
Many people say Media is their ‘fun’ subject.
The content is by no means difficult or troubling. But the subject is quite competitive. Losing a few marks in the exam could be the difference between a low 40 and a low 30.
However, despite how competitive the subject is, students still tend to enjoy the assessments, SACs and Exams, and even regard the Exam as a fair one!
#5: Human Health and Development
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 66.4%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 65.9%
- Examination Average (2023): 81.6%
VCE Human Health and Development (HHD) focuses on… understanding health.
Students explore health through biological, sociocultural and environmental factors, considering Australian and global contexts.
HHD gets its popularity from the simple but interesting nature of its content. Many have a genuine love and interest for its content which spans over many different career paths.
The subject’s assessments are pretty self-explanatory. The only risk people face is underestimating the subject or not realising how competitive the subject is!
#4: Physical Education
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 67.7%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 72.8%
- Examination Average (2023): 51.5%
VCE Physical Education looks at the relationship between biophysical and psychosocial rules to understand their role in participation and performance in physical activity, sport and exercise.
If you’re passionate about sport, exercise, and fitness, this is absolutely the subject for you.
It mixes up areas of biology, physics, and even sociological aspects (but it definitely doesn’t touch on the difficult topics of those areas of studies…).
Although, don’t pick this subject if you expect to kick a ball around every day. There is a lot of scientific content you need to go through!
The exam can take students by surprise (and even get a strong spread of results). So while the subject is on the lighter side, don’t take it for granted.
#3: Agriculture
- Unit 3 and 4 Average (2023): 71.8%
- Examination 1 Average (2023): 73.6%
- Examination 2 Average (2023): 45.95%
People love Agriculture so much, that many even praised last year’s exam!
Agriculture explores food and fibre production, with a focus on land cultivation and the raising of plants and animals.
While the result spread suggests Agriculture would be quite a difficult subject, the amount and difficulty of the content is quite low. The competitiveness of the cohort is also quite minimal. So it’s hard to rank Agriculture any higher – especially because the exam doesn’t cause many troubles.
#2: Food Studies
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 67.3%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 69.7%
- Examination Average (2023): 74.5%
Everyone’s favourite subject!
VCE Food Studies looks at … food. Attempting to explore food knowledge and skills in various contexts.
Funnily enough, the subject does have its fair amount of memorisation. Students can even find it frustrating, claiming the answers are all over the place.
However, what’s undeniable is that the content is very simple and that the questions aren’t exactly difficult to comprehend.
Food Studies is tested by problem-based SACs and Exams, with the hardest part of them being a possible 10-mark question.
#1: Foundation Mathematics
- Unit 3 Average (2023): 62.6%
- Unit 4 Average (2023): 62%
- Examination Average (2023): 49.4%
Foundation Mathematics is almost so easy it’s not worth doing… you lose one mark and your study score suddenly drops from 50 to 0.
The content is simple. It focuses on mathematical problems found in practical contexts in everyday life at home, in the community, at work and in study.
It’s essentially basic geometry, arithmetic and ratios.
If you’re thinking about whether or not to do it – it’s probably not for you.
That’s all!
Hopefully, this list gives you a good idea of just how easy some VCE subjects are and better inform your VCE subject selection.
Remember, there is some subjectivity to this list. I’ve seen some people who have struggled with the subjects put on this list.
What matters is that you know what you are getting yourself into.
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Max Huyton is the VIC Growth Marketer for Art of Smart and a Laws and Commerce student at Monash University. In his other life, Max spends his time reading and writing whenever he gets the chance and cooking extremely mediocre dishes for friends and family.
