VCE Exam Timetable 2026: Dates, Times & Countdown

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VCE written exam dates 2026: confirmed key papers

The 2026 VCE written examination period runs from Tuesday 27 October 2026 to Wednesday 18 November 2026. The table below lists the papers most RHZ students sit, with the days-to-go column updated live in your browser. The General Achievement Test (GAT) was held on Tuesday 16 June 2026. Print this page (the header, footer and buttons are hidden when printing) and stick it on the fridge.

Subject	Paper	Date	Time (Melbourne)	Length	Days to go
English / EAL	Exam	Tue 27 October 2026	9:00am – 12:15pm	3 h 15 min	49 days
General Mathematics	Exam 1	Fri 30 October 2026	2:00pm – 3:45pm	1 h 45 min	52 days
General Mathematics	Exam 2	Mon 2 November 2026	2:00pm – 3:45pm	1 h 45 min	55 days
Mathematical Methods	Exam 1	Thu 5 November 2026	9:00am – 10:15am	1 h 15 min	58 days
Mathematical Methods	Exam 2	Fri 6 November 2026	11:45am – 2:00pm	2 h 15 min	59 days
Specialist Mathematics	Exam 1	Mon 9 November 2026	9:00am – 10:15am	1 h 15 min	62 days
Specialist Mathematics	Exam 2	Wed 11 November 2026	11:45am – 2:00pm	2 h 15 min	64 days
Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Psychology and all other subjects	Various	Within the window, 27 October 2026 – 18 November 2026. See the official VCAA timetable for the exact day and time.			–

Check before you rely on it. These dates and times are taken from the VCAA timetable as reported. VCAA can adjust the timetable, and your school issues an advice slip with your personal exam schedule, room and reporting time. Always confirm with your school's advice slip and the VCAA VCE examination timetable. Exam lengths above include reading time.

Print this timetable

How to read the 2026 timetable

Three things stand out when you lay the dates on a calendar. First, English (and EAL) opens the period on the Tuesday, which means every Year 12 student in the state sits their first paper on the same morning. Second, there is a gap of a week or more between English and the maths papers for most students: General Maths starts three days after English, but Mathematical Methods does not begin until Thursday 5 November and Specialist Mathematics until Monday 9 November. Third, the maths papers come in pairs sitting close together: Methods Exam 1 and Exam 2 are on consecutive days, and Specialist's two papers are separated by a single day. Science and humanities papers sit inside the same three-week window, so a student doing Methods, Chemistry and Physics may have four or five papers inside eight days. Get the exact days from the VCAA timetable and write them into the study timetable planner, which builds a plan backwards from each date.

How to use the gaps: a revision strategy that follows the timetable

Before English (now until 27 October)

English is first, it counts fully in every ATAR, and it is the paper students most often under-prepare because it feels less "learnable" than maths. Treat the final fortnight before 27 October as an English-weighted block: one timed essay every second day, alternating the three sections (analytical response to a text, creating a text, analysing argument), with a tutor or teacher marking against the assessment criteria. Keep the other subjects ticking over with short, mixed practice sets rather than full papers, so nothing goes cold, but give English the prime hours. The night before, do not write another essay: reread your best three, sleep, and arrive early.

The long gap: English to the maths cluster (28 October – 4 November)

For Methods and Specialist students this week is the single most valuable stretch in the whole period, because it is the only time the timetable hands you seven or eight clear days with a paper at the end of them. This is where full timed past papers belong. A sensible pattern is a Methods Exam 1 (technology-free) paper under exam conditions in the morning, marked in the afternoon with every error written into an error log, then the next day an Exam 2 (technology-active) paper, and so on, alternating. Two full papers a day is too many; one paper plus a targeted hour on the error log is about right. General Maths students have a shorter gap and should compress the same idea into three days: two timed papers, one day on the error log.

Inside the maths cluster (5 – 11 November)

Methods Exam 1 and Exam 2 fall on consecutive days, so there is no room for a full paper between them. Use the evening after Exam 1 for a short, calm session on the topics that Exam 2 weights more heavily (probability and statistics, functions with CAS, the extended-response style) and stop early. Specialist has a single day between papers: use it for one section of an Exam 2 paper and the error log, not a whole paper. If you have science papers landing in the same week, alternate subjects rather than stacking two of the same: the interleaving keeps recall sharper than three straight days of one subject.

After your last paper

Results are released in December. If you are in Year 11 reading this, the same timetable shape (English first, a gap, then a maths cluster) repeats every year, which is why we open the VCE 2027 Head Start program in September: students who begin Unit 3 & 4 content in Term 4 and January walk into the 2027 exam period with a full year of practice papers already banked.

What to bring and what to check

• Your school's advice slip: reporting time is typically 15 to 30 minutes before the start time printed here.
• Approved calculator (for technology-active papers) with fresh batteries, and a bound reference for Methods and Specialist Exam 2 that you have actually used in practice.
• Black or blue pens, pencils for diagrams, an eraser, a clear water bottle. No phone, no smart watch.
• Read the official VCAA timetable once more the night before each paper. The days-to-go column on this page is a convenience, not an authority.

Not sure which topics are still shaky with weeks to go? The free VCE Skills Check takes fifteen minutes and produces a topic-by-topic report the same day; the free practice quizzes cover Methods and Specialist by topic; and the RHZ practice papers are written to the current study design with worked solutions.

Frequently asked questions

Next steps

Call 03 9509 3293, book a free consultation, or browse printable practice papers. RHZ Tutoring, 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029.