2012 will be the final year of VCE mid-year examinations

[paulsterio]

Nah 3 hour english exam is only torture coz you're constantly writing for 3 hours.
With the science exams (esp chem and physics) you wont be doing anywhere near as much writing!

That's true, I wouldn't mind too much if they compressed the Maths exams into one exam, in fact when doing practice exams, I'd do them in 3 hour blocks and I survived (A)
You have a good point!

[max payne]

wow it seems as though 2012 is the last year for everything first the new VB in 2013 and now this! ...oh yer and not to mention the end of the world:P massive coincidence though...

[Thu Thu Train]

How about citing a source, OP?
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/correspondence/bulletins/2011/December/vce_general.html

God.

[louise_2012]

I think that stonecold is definitely right re. doing this for the money.
My neighbour works for a government department and told us that all government departments (including VCAA) have been ordered to slash their spending by 8% this year and even further again next year. Which sucks for the 2013 students. Which isn't me. So I'm happy
(wait does that mean I probably won't be able to sell my bio/chem books second hand if there's a new study design?)

[Special At Specialist]

Well I don't do any science so I have no midyear exams next year (except the GAT).
But I actually prefer it this way anyway. A lot of people weren't ready for the midyear exams and no matter how well they did at the end of the year, they couldn't get an awesome study score because they messed up midyear.

I have a friend who is very smart, but only got a C+ midyear in psychology. He is probably going to get an A+ at the end of the year exam (and he is rank 1 in SAC's), but due to his midyear exam, he will probably only get a 35 study score when he had the potential to get about 40-45.

[REBORN]

so? ^ by that logic you can say a person will screw up the only exam (worth 66%) and there will be no second chance.

[Special At Specialist]

Yeah but the end of year exam is the last thing you do for that subject, so you don't need to worry after that.
If you screw up the midyear exam, you often lose motivation and just want to give up halfway through the year.

[pi]

Re: article, luckily I finished VCE before 2012. I'd hate to have to remember the whole chem course for an exam (ouch!), and have to cram two semesters of physics into 1.5hrs in the library prior to the exam. Feel sorry for the 2013+ guys

I love how they include this:

A decision on the timing of the 2013 General Achievement Test (GAT) is yet to be determined. The VCAA will consult schools and other key stakeholders early in 2012 before making a decision.

Like anyone cares...

[tea.squaredd]

Yeah but the end of year exam is the last thing you do for that subject, so you don't need to worry after that.
If you screw up the midyear exam, you often lose motivation and just want to give up halfway through the year.

Yeah so?^ With your reasoning.. .the person would get an even LOWER score if he screwed up the 66% exam.
Where as with the current design, he only screwed up 33%..

[REBORN]

^ I kinda already said that :p

[Special At Specialist]

Yeah but the end of year exam is the last thing you do for that subject, so you don't need to worry after that.
If you screw up the midyear exam, you often lose motivation and just want to give up halfway through the year.

Yeah so?^ With your reasoning.. .the person would get an even LOWER score if he screwed up the 66% exam.
Where as with the current design, he only screwed up 33%..

No because at the end of the year, everyone gets ready for exams.
In the middle of the year, people are often unprepared and are much more likely to stuff up.
In the end of the year, you should be fully prepared for exams and they won't just come at you all of a sudden like they do in the middle of the year.

[b^3]

Yeah but the end of year exam is the last thing you do for that subject, so you don't need to worry after that.
If you screw up the midyear exam, you often lose motivation and just want to give up halfway through the year.

Yeah so?^ With your reasoning.. .the person would get an even LOWER score if he screwed up the 66% exam.
Where as with the current design, he only screwed up 33%..

No because at the end of the year, everyone gets ready for exams.
In the middle of the year, people are often unprepared and are much more likely to stuff up.
In the end of the year, you should be fully prepared for exams and they won't just come at you all of a sudden like they do in the middle of the year.

Still with mid-year exams you can kinda get yourself ready to sit end of year exams. On the old system those that do mid-year exams have sat proper exams before (i.e. the mid year) and so will be more ready for the atmosphere of exams. On the new system everyone will show up to the english exam as their first exam. Some people freak out for their first exam, if it was a mid year exam they won't lose as much as say english. Having done exams under the conditions before the main bunch is an advantage, for me my trial run was doing further in yr 11 and it help me prepared better for the other exams. Others use the mid-year exams partly as their trial run (they still count though).

[REBORN]

Mid years have 8 week summer holidays as well to prepare. If you're seriously under prepared for mid years you haven't organised your time properly.

Tbh, I'm more worried about time for Chem u4 end-of-year.

[luken93]

If you're not prepared at midyear, then I'm sorry to sound rude, but why should you deserve a good score when others have prepared? I was well prepared for midyear because I worked hard, if you don't think you've had enough time then I'm sorry, but everyone's in the same boat with the same amount of time, no excuses...

[MJRomeo81]

In the end of the year, you should be fully prepared for exams and they won't just come at you all of a sudden like they do in the middle of the year.

Lmfao. You might be feeling that with one Y11 subject. I dominated both ITs all year and the fact that everything came down to ONE SINGLE DAY it kind of got to me. I still think I'll score > 40 in both but still it is scary knowing that you could (and probably will) be scared shitless that day.