For many students in Years 11 and 12 of secondary school in Victoria, Australia, the Victorian Certificate of Education or VCE will be their whole lives.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority is in charge of the VCE and if you want to go to university after school, the subjects you do for your VCE and how well you do in them will make the difference.
There are lots of subjects to choose from for your VCE including English, maths, sciences, humanities, languages, and the arts.
Let's have a look at how many subjects you can choose, the best ones to choose, the easiest ones, the most difficult ones, and which subjects you should consider doing.
How Many VCE Subjects Can You Do?
There's a certain amount of flexibility when it comes to students choosing their VCE subjects, which is good because there are over 90 different subjects to choose from.
Students must choose at least 4 subjects, including one English-based subject, to be awarded their VCE.
Up to six subjects can contribute to a student's ATAR, a ranking of your year 12 results and one of the metrics that certain universities will consider for admissions.
Most students will choose either 5 or 6 VCE subjects, but it's probably best to speak with your school about how many would be right for you based on your academic performance and your university aspirations.
The Best VCE Subjects
As every student is different and everybody will have different aspirations, it's impossible to say which VCE subjects are the “best”, but what we can say is which VCE subjects are the most popular.
As we mentioned before, there are over 90 different subjects to choose from for your VCE so make sure you look further than the few “popular” ones that we've outlined here.
Physical Education
Physical Education is another popular VCE subject choice. It's the obvious choice for students considering further study in exercise and sport science, health science, education, coaching, and other similar career choices.
It's also a very appealing subject for those who've always enjoyed PE, like to learn more actively and enjoy leading a healthy lifestyle.
Chemistry
Chemistry is one of the most popular VCE subject choices, but it's not the most popular science (as you'll see in just a moment).
However, for any student considering further study in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, pharmacy, medicine, environmental science, or similar, choosing VCE Chemistry is a no-brainer.
Legal Studies
Legal Studies is a VCE subject for those considering a career in law and is a very good choice for students looking to study a law degree.
VCE Legal Studies looks at how the Australian legal system works and the structure of the Australian government.
Biology
Biology is the most popular science for students doing their VCE and is a clear choice for any students looking to study biology or biological sciences at university and beyond.
The VCE Biology program also covers lots of interesting biology concepts including cells and organisms, energy, genetics, evolution and adaptation, ecosystems, and human impact.
Biology is also a useful VCE subject for those wanting to work in biomedical sciences, medicine, healthcare, etc.
Health and Human Development
VCE Health and Human Development is a popular subject that can lead to work or further study in health promotion, health and social services careers, research and policy, etc.
The program covers understanding health and wellbeing, managing health and development, Australia's health in a globalised world, and health and human development in a global context.
Business Management
VCE Business Management is naturally a popular choice for students looking to apply to business courses at university or work in business.
The subject covers many key business concepts including business planning, management functions, human resource management, marketing, operations management, and business environment.
Maths Methods
VCE Maths Methods is generally considered to be a more advanced mathematics option than VCE Further Maths (more on that in a moment) as it includes more complex mathematical concepts such as calculus and advanced algebraic manipulation.
This is the mathematics option often chosen by students who are considering science, engineering, or mathematics courses at university.
Psychology
For 15 years, psychology has been one of the most popular subject choices for VCE. This isn't unique to Victoria, though, as psychology is also a popular choice across the rest of Australia and in other countries for the International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced Placement (AP) classes in the US, and A-Levels in the UK.
For many students, VCE psychology is their first opportunity to really study the subject and it allows them to better understand themselves and others, something many of us look to do at that age.
Further Maths
Further Maths is a very popular area of study for students as it's a useful subject choice for admission into a lot of different degree programs.
VCE Further Maths covers things like data analysis, matrices, networks and decision mathematics, financial mathematics, geometry and measurement, and discrete mathematics.
This is the most popular VCE mathematics option.
English
As an "English-based" subject is one of the only requirements for what you have to study at VCE, it's hardly any surprise that English is the most popular subject to be chosen for students doing their VCE.
The Easiest and Hardest VCE Subjects
Every student is different and in many ways, it's really impossible to say which subjects are the easiest and which are the hardest VCE subjects.
That said, certain subject choices build upon others and could be considered more difficult and relevant to the other options in the same subject.
For example, with mathematics, there's Foundation Mathematics, General Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Mathematical Methods, and Specialist Mathematics.
Foundation Mathematics, for example, is only available in Year 11 and is for students who mightn't be doing any more maths as part of their VCE.
General and Further Mathematics give students more of an option as General Maths is in Year 11 and Further Maths is in Year 12.
Beyond Further Maths, there's Maths Methods and finally, Specialist Maths, which is generally considered the most difficult maths option but a good choice if you're looking to study maths or a maths-heavy subject at university.
For other subjects, however, it doesn't really matter which is more difficult or easy as everything is judged on the performance of all students in the state and adjusted accordingly, which means that you won't be punished for picking a subject that more students found difficult.
VCE Subjects Scaling
VCE students are given a study score upon completion of their VCE exams. This score ranges between 0 and 50, with 50 being the highest possible score.
Students are given a “raw” score at first that corresponds to their performance in assessments and exams, but as every subject is different and an entire cohort of students may perform worse in a more difficult subject, the scores are then “scaled”.
Scaling basically looks at the subjects that students have done and how they performed and adjusts the subject scores so that they're more comparable.
For example, if it's clear that students perform way better in one subject when the same students don't rank very highly in other subjects, the subject's score will be scaled down.
Conversely, lower average performances may be scaled up if it's clear from other results that a particular subject was quite difficult in comparison to other VCE subjects.
Which Are the Best Scaling VCE Subjects?
The subjects that scale up the most are usually considered to be the most difficult and will attract the highest-achieving students.
Subjects like Specialist Mathematics, Maths Methods, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, and foreign languages like Chinese, French, and German have all historically scaled a lot.
What VCE Subjects Should I Do?
Don't pick subjects solely based on scaling. While it will give you an indication of which are the most challenging, you should really consider your options based on what you want to do in the future and the subjects you enjoy.
It's a good idea to choose your VCE subjects according to the university courses that you'd like to do. Look at the requirements for these when making your decision.
Don't forget that you can always ask your school for help and advice on making your VCE subject choices and discuss which subjects you're likely to do well in based on your historical academic performance.
If you're struggling with your VCE subjects or a particular VCE subject, don't forget that there are private tutors out there who can help you with everything from specific subjects to study skills and revision techniques.
There are private tutors for all levels and budgets so you can always find something that will work for you and your academic goals!
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
