Study scores, SACs and moderation, scaling, the aggregate, the ATAR, the GAT and results day, explained for students and parents without jargon.
The Victorian Certificate of Education is completed over Years 11 and 12 (sometimes starting in Year 10). Each subject, called a study, is split into four units: Units 1 and 2 are usually done in Year 11 and are assessed by the school, and Units 3 and 4 are done together in Year 12 and produce a study score. Most students complete five or six Unit 3 & 4 sequences. The study scores are scaled by VTAC and combined into an ATAR, the rank universities use for entry. This guide explains each of those pieces, what the GAT is, and when results come out.
School-assessed Coursework (SACs) are the assessment tasks your school sets during Units 3 and 4: tests, essays, practical reports, oral presentations. They are marked by your teachers and count towards your study score in a proportion fixed for each study by VCAA; in most studies SACs are between 40 and 60 per cent of the study score, with the rest from the external exam or exams. Because different schools set SACs of different difficulty, VCAA statistically moderates each school's SAC scores against the exam performance of that school's students in that study: the ranking of students within the school is kept, but the spread and level of the marks are adjusted to match how the group did on the common exam. The practical consequence is that your SAC rank within your class matters a great deal, and that your class's exam performance affects your SAC marks.
External exams are set and marked by VCAA and are the same for every student in the state. Most studies have one written exam; Mathematical Methods, Specialist Mathematics and General Mathematics have two (a technology-free and a technology-active paper); languages and performing arts add oral or performance exams. The 2026 written exams run from 27 October to 18 November; the key dates are on our VCE exam timetable page.
For every Unit 3 & 4 sequence you complete you receive a study score from 0 to 50. It is not a percentage. It is a ranking of your performance against every other student who did that study in the same year, scaled so that the average is about 30 and the standard deviation about 7. About two-thirds of students score between 23 and 37; a score of 40 or above places you in roughly the top nine per cent; 45 or above is about the top two per cent. The study score is built from your moderated SAC scores and your exam scores, each converted to a ranking and combined in the fixed proportions for that study, so a strong exam can lift a weak SAC record and vice versa.
Study scores measure you against other students in the same study, but the students who take Specialist Mathematics are not the same group as the students who take Health and Human Development. To compare fairly, VTAC scales each study score up or down according to how the students in that study performed across all their other studies. If they were strong elsewhere the study scales up; if they were weaker it scales down. This is recalculated every year from that year's results, so it is a property of the cohort, not a judgement about the subject. Typical recent patterns: Specialist Maths scales up around ten points at a raw 30, Methods and the physical sciences a few points, languages by a fixed bonus, English close to zero, and some humanities and health studies down by a few points. Our ATAR calculator applies an approximate version of this so you can see the effect.
The aggregate is the sum of your scaled score in an English study (English, EAL, English Language or Literature, whichever is highest), your next best three scaled scores, and ten per cent of your fifth and sixth scaled scores if you have them. An English is compulsory for an ATAR. Because only four scores count fully, your four best subjects determine almost everything, and a fifth or sixth adds a few points.
The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank converts the aggregate into a percentile rank between 0 and 99.95 in steps of 0.05, calculated against the whole age cohort in Victoria, including students who left school before Year 12. An ATAR of 80.00 means you are in the top twenty per cent of your age group, not that you scored 80 per cent. Because it is a rank, it is not affected by whether the exams were hard or easy in a given year. Interstate students receive an ATAR from their own state on the same scale.
The General Achievement Test is a statewide test of general knowledge and skills in written communication, mathematics, science and technology, and the humanities, arts and social sciences. Every student doing a Unit 3 & 4 sequence sits it; in 2026 it was held on Tuesday 16 June 2026. It does not count directly towards your study scores or ATAR. It is used by VCAA as a check: it helps confirm that SAC moderation and exam marking are consistent, it contributes to Derived Examination Scores if illness or misadventure stops you sitting an exam, and since 2022 it reports whether you have met the literacy and numeracy standard for the VCE Vocational Major. Prepare by doing one past paper so the format is familiar; there is no benefit in weeks of GAT study.
VCE results (study scores) and ATARs are released together, typically in mid-December, online and by app and SMS early in the morning. Exact release dates are announced each year by VCAA and VTAC; we do not print a date here because it changes. Check the VCAA and VTAC websites for the current year's release date, the change-of-preference window that follows it, and the January offer rounds.
The average is 30. A score of 35 or more is above average, 40 or more is roughly the top nine per cent of the cohort for that study, and 45 or more is roughly the top two per cent.
Both. SACs count for a fixed proportion of each study score (commonly 40 to 60 per cent) but are moderated against your school's exam results, so the exam affects both parts.
Not directly. It is used to check SAC moderation and exam marking and to calculate Derived Examination Scores if you miss an exam through illness or misadventure.
Four count fully (an English plus your best three) and a fifth and sixth count ten per cent each.
Typically mid-December, with the ATAR released at the same time. VCAA and VTAC announce the exact date each year; check their websites.
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