VCE results and ATARs come out in mid-December; the 2026 date is to be confirmed by VCAA. How to access results, what the numbers mean, the VTAC change-of-preference window, what to do if results disappoint, and how Year 11s should use the summer.
Results day in Victoria follows the same pattern every year. Early in the morning, from around 7am, VCE study scores become available through VCAA's results service, which students access with the details their school gave them earlier in the year (registration through the VCAA results and ATAR service, with options for email and SMS delivery, is set up before the exams). At the same time VTAC releases the ATAR to students who registered with VTAC, through its online account, and the ATAR statement follows. Schools receive the results the same morning and most have staff available by phone or in person. Within a few hours every media outlet has published the state's top-scoring schools and students, which is worth knowing only so that you can ignore it: the ATAR that matters is yours, measured against the courses you want.
Each Unit 3 & 4 sequence gives you a study score out of 50. It is a rank against the other students in that study in that year, set so that the average is 30 and roughly two-thirds of students fall between 23 and 37. A score of 40 or above is about the top nine per cent of the study; 45 or above is about the top two per cent. It combines your moderated SAC results with your exam results in the fixed proportions VCAA sets for the study. It is not a percentage: a 30 is average, not sixty per cent. The full mechanics are in our guide VCE exams explained.
The ATAR is not a score; it is a rank between 0 and 99.95, in steps of 0.05, showing where you sit against your whole age cohort in Victoria, including people who left school before Year 12. VTAC scales your study scores to allow for the strength of the students in each study, adds your best English scaled score, your next three best scaled scores and ten per cent of a fifth and sixth, and ranks the total. An ATAR of 75.00 means you are in the top quarter of your age group. Our ATAR calculator shows the mechanism with approximate scaling so that families can see which subjects carried the result.
After results are released, VTAC opens a change-of-preference window, usually running for several days in late December, in which you can reorder, add or remove the courses on your application before the main offer round in January. The dates are published by VTAC each year; check the VTAC website for the current window and deadlines. This is the most important week after results day and it is worth doing calmly, with the VTAC course search and each university's published lowest selection rank from the previous year in front of you. Three principles: put the course you actually want first even if your ATAR is a little below last year's cut-off, because cut-offs move and there is no penalty for a first preference that does not come through; make sure at least one preference is a course you would accept and are comfortably above the cut-off for; and look at the pathways (diplomas, associate degrees, guaranteed transfers) that universities publish, since many students who miss a course by a few points are in it a year later through one of them. Universities run change-of-preference advice days and phone lines in this window and they are genuinely useful.
First, what is not available: there is no re-mark of VCE written exams in the way many families assume, and study scores are not appealed by writing to VCAA. VCE exam papers are double-marked and the results go through statistical checks before release. What is available is limited: students can apply to inspect their examination scripts (VCAA runs a script inspection process after results, with fees and dates it publishes), which lets you see what you wrote and how it was marked but is not itself a request for a re-mark; check VCAA's current policy for what the process covers. If you sat an exam while ill or affected by misadventure and applied for a Derived Examination Score at the time, that has already been considered. Second, what actually works: the change-of-preference window, the pathway courses, and, for students whose ATAR is close to what they need, a direct call to the university's admissions office about special consideration, mid-year entry and transfer routes. An ATAR is the entry ticket to one year of one course; it is not a measure of what you can do at twenty-two.
If you are finishing Year 11 as this year's Year 12s get their results, you have the most valuable six weeks of your VCE in front of you. Unit 3 starts in late January (or earlier at schools that begin Year 12 in Term 4) and the students who arrive already knowing the first topics of each study are the ones who bank strong early SACs, which then carry through moderation. A realistic summer is three or four mornings a week: rebuild the Year 11 foundations that Unit 3 assumes (for Methods, functions, algebra and the first calculus; for Chemistry, moles and bonding; for English, the text you have been told to read over summer, read twice), then start the first Unit 3 area of study from the study design. The VCE 2027 Head Start program runs exactly this: a free VCE Skills Check, a free consultation, the first session free, then Unit 3 & 4 content taught in small groups through the summer, at the Truganina centre or online, with 2026 rates held for 2027. Use the free Year 11 Methods quizzes and Specialist quizzes to find the topics to rebuild, and the exam timetable to see the shape of the year that is coming.
Not sure where you stand? The free VCE Skills Check takes fifteen minutes and gives a topic-by-topic report the same day.
In mid-December, on a date to be confirmed by VCAA. In recent years results have been released in the second week of December from 7am, with the ATAR released by VTAC the same morning. Check the VCAA and VTAC websites for the official 2026 date.
From around 7am on results day, through the VCAA results service (study scores) and VTAC (ATAR). Email and SMS delivery, if you registered for them, arrive at about the same time.
Through your VTAC account on results day, if you registered with VTAC. Students who did not register with VTAC receive study scores from VCAA but must contact VTAC for an ATAR.
A period after results, usually several days in late December, when you can reorder, add or remove course preferences before the January offer round. VTAC publishes the exact dates each year.
Not in the way people usually assume. VCAA does not offer re-marks on request; exam papers are double-marked and statistically checked. VCAA does run a script inspection process after results; check its current policy for what that covers and any fees.
Cut-offs move each year, so keep the course as a first preference and add a safe option. Ask the university about pathway courses, diplomas with guaranteed transfer, mid-year entry and special consideration. Many students enter the course a year later through a pathway.
No. Thirty is the average for the study by design. A 35 is above average, 40 is roughly the top nine per cent and 45 the top two per cent.
Rebuild the Year 11 foundations that Unit 3 assumes and start the first Unit 3 area of study for each subject, three or four mornings a week. RHZ's VCE 2027 Head Start runs this as a program with a free Skills Check and free first session.
Fifteen minutes online, every topic for the year level, same-day report and a tutor call to talk it through.
Thousands of free, instantly marked questions, Prep to Year 12, by year level and topic, including NAPLAN and VCE maths.
Small groups from $25 an hour, 1:1 $35 to $45, at our Truganina centre or online Australia-wide.
Call 03 9509 3293, book a free consultation, or browse printable practice papers. RHZ Tutoring, 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029.