VCE English is the one subject almost every Victorian Year 12 student takes, and the end-of-year exam makes up half of the study score. Unlike maths or science, there are no right answers to memorise. Marks come from how well students interpret a task, build an argument and communicate ideas under time pressure.
The VCAA's 2025 examiner's report is one of the clearest guides available to what assessors reward. This guide breaks it down section by section: how students performed, which texts and Frameworks scored best, what high-scoring responses did, and the habits that held students back.
Key Takeaways
- Students averaged about 5.4–5.5 out of 10 in every section. Most responses landed in the middle of the range, and very few reached the top marks.
- In Section A, students who understood the implications of the topic scored higher. Common problems were ignoring a key word in the topic, discussing only one of two concepts and relying on memorised quotations.
- Sunset Boulevard (24%) and Oedipus the King (18%) were the most popular Section A texts. Students who wrote on Jane Eyre had the highest average (71%).
- In Section B, almost half of students (47%) chose Writing about protest, but Writing about country had the highest average score (11.2 out of 20).
- In Section C, the strongest responses integrated argument, language and visual analysis instead of working through techniques one at a time.
VCE English Examination Structure
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Duration | 3 hours writing time, plus 15 minutes reading time |
| Sections | Three sections, each worth one-third of the exam |
| Section A | Analytical response to a text (one of the two texts studied) |
| Section B | Creating a text (one of the four Frameworks of Ideas) |
| Section C | Analysis of argument and language (an unseen persuasive text) |
| Weighting | The exam is worth 50% of the study score; school-assessed coursework in Units 3 and 4 is worth 25% each |
Every section is assessed holistically against the published criteria and expected qualities (EQs). In each section, the EQs follow the same pattern:
- EQ1: the quality of the student's ideas
- EQ2: how those ideas are structured, developed and supported
- EQ3: how well the student uses language to communicate them.
The report stresses that these are interconnected. The complexity of a student's ideas sets the challenge for everything else, and strong language can't make up for ideas that don't address the task.
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How Students Performed in 2025
The report publishes each section's results on a 10-point scale.
| Section | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A – Analytical response | 0.7 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 16 | 23 | 21 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 5.4 |
| B – Creating a text | 0.5 | 0.8 | 3 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 22 | 14 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 5.4 |
| C – Argument and language | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 26 | 25 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 0.6 | 5.5 |
Percentage of students receiving each mark. Source: VCAA, 2025 VCE English external assessment report.
All three sections followed almost the same pattern. Between 60% and 66% of students scored 4, 5 or 6, and no more than 4% scored 9 or 10 in any section. Moving from a 6 to an 8 is where the biggest gains are, and the report is clear about what that takes.
Section A: Analytical Response to a Text
Students wrote an analytical essay on one of the texts they studied, choosing from two topics. In 2025, the topics were narrow and specific: they asked about particular ideas and values the author presented, not broad prompts to discuss the text in general.
Which Texts Did Students Choose?
| Text | % of Students | Section A Average | Section B Average | Section C Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunset Boulevard | 24% | 53% | 53% | 54% |
| Oedipus the King | 18% | 58% | 58% | 58% |
| High Ground | 12% | 51% | 49% | 51% |
| We Have Always Lived in the Castle | 12% | 53% | 54% | 55% |
| Rainbow's End | 7% | 50% | 52% | 53% |
| Born a Crime | 5% | 53% | 53% | 54% |
| The Memory Police | 5% | 58% | 56% | 57% |
| Flames | 3% | 54% | 55% | 56% |
| Twelfth Night | 3% | 61% | 63% | 63% |
| Bad Dreams and Other Stories | 2% | 59% | 56% | 58% |
| Chronicle of a Death Foretold | 2% | 58% | 59% | 61% |
| Jane Eyre | 2% | 71% | 65% | 66% |
| New and Selected Poems, Volume One | 2% | 63% | 64% | 65% |
| False Claims of Colonial Thieves | 1% | 62% | 56% | 58% |
| Ghost Wall | 0.6% | 54% | 53% | 54% |
| The Erratics | 0.6% | 63% | 59% | 56% |
| My Brilliant Career | 0.5% | 66% | 62% | 61% |
| Requiem for a Beast | 0.4% | 58% | 57% | 57% |
| The Complete Stories | 0.4% | 60% | 56% | 58% |
| Go, Went, Gone | 0.1% | 65% | 59% | 58% |
Average scores are shown as a percentage of the marks available in each section, for students who chose that Section A text.
One pattern stands out: students who chose a given text scored at a similar level across all three sections. Jane Eyre students averaged 65–71% in every section, while High Ground students averaged 49–51%. This suggests that text choice reflects the overall strength of a cohort or school rather than the text being "easier" or "harder". Choosing a less popular text won't by itself lift your marks.
The Three Topic Types
The report identified three types of topics in 2025:
- Propositional topics make a claim and ask students to "Discuss", "Do you agree?" or "To what extent do you agree?". For example: Love and destruction are inseparable in Flames. Discuss. Students can challenge the relationship ("inseparable"), but they can't ignore the concepts themselves ("love" and "destruction").
- Quotation topics pair a quotation from the text with a proposition or question. Students aren't obliged to use the quotation in a specific way, but how they use it shows how well they understand its meaning.
- Direct questions ask a question about the text, such as To what extent is revenge a form of justice in High Ground?
Read the Verb and the Implications
The verbs in topics describe the author's purpose, and the report warns against treating them all as a generic "presents". In 2025, topics used verbs such as celebrates, challenges, condemns, demonstrates, explores, highlights, mocks, shows and suggests. Four verbs were new in 2025: is (a cry for), depicts, glorifies and warns. New verbs will keep appearing, so it's worth building a solid understanding of what each one implies.
The report found a correlation between understanding a topic's implications and higher scores. It highlighted several strategies examiners build into topics:
- Absolute terms: "In Oedipus the King, there are no right choices."
- Connotation: "Oliver's poems suggest that it is easy to overlook what is important."
- The "silence" in a proposition: "it is women who display the most courage" implies a comparison with men.
- Comparison: "lasting change requires more than individual effort."
- A specific aspect of a concept: "Ghost Wall warns of the danger of glorifying the past" asks about the dangers only, not glorifying the past in general.
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What High-Scoring Section A Responses Did
- Interpreted the topic with nuance: A high-scoring Oedipus the King introduction agreed that seeking the truth was dangerous, then argued that Sophocles ultimately presents its pursuit as an expression of human agency.
- Used topic sentences and paragraph endings strategically: Each body paragraph opened with a clear idea and closed by reinforcing it, so the paragraphs built a connected argument rather than a list.
- Drew on a range of evidence: The strongest responses analysed language, structure, characters, plot and allusion, and treated ideas philosophically rather than literally.
- Resolved the topic in the conclusion: The conclusion answered the question, showing an understanding of the author's context, audience and purpose.
- Used sophisticated language purposefully: The report is clear that it is "the purposeful use of sophisticated language", not long words for their own sake, that earns marks.
What Held Section A Responses Back
- Misreading the topic: discussing only "villains" when the topic asked about "victims and villains", or conflating the two topics on offer.
- Ignoring key words: writing generally about Indigenous culture when the topic asked about the resilience of Indigenous cultures.
- Substituting "and" for a relationship: treating "the isolation caused by modern society" as simply "isolation and modern society". The report reminds students they can bring a dictionary into the exam.
- Weak structure: organising the essay by character, or by individual stories or poems, instead of by ideas; or using linking words like "initially" and "finally" without a real connection between paragraphs.
- Twisting the topic: steering the essay towards familiar material, or using a set of memorised quotations unrelated to the topic.
- Using quotations as proof, not analysis: quoting simply to show an event happened, rather than analysing what the words reveal.
- Relying on context or outside material: writing mainly about the backstory (a common problem with Oedipus the King and High Ground) or using evidence from outside the text, such as Trevor Noah's comedy sketches.
- Weak conclusions: stopping after the body paragraphs, or simply restating the argument.
Section B: Creating a Text
Students wrote an original text responding to one of the four Frameworks of Ideas. They had to use the set title for their Framework and draw on at least one of the three pieces of stimulus material (one of which was visual). They could choose any form, audience and purpose: to explain, express, reflect or argue.
Which Frameworks Did Students Choose?
| Framework | 2025 Title | % of Students | Average Score (out of 20) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing about country | "Origins" | 10% | 11.2 |
| Writing about protest | "Small Acts, Big Wins" | 47% | 10.9 |
| Writing about personal journeys | "Changing Direction" | 25% | 10.9 |
| Writing about play | "Life is a Game" | 17% | 10.8 |
Source: VCAA, 2025 VCE English external assessment report.
The averages were very close across all four Frameworks, so there's no "safe" choice. Writing about protest was by far the most popular, and the report noted that fewer students than in previous years mistook "protest" for a verb.
Rules to Remember
- Shade the Framework and stimulus boxes at the start of your response, and write the title at the top.
- The title is fixed. You can't change it. If you add to it, the addition is ignored.
- The title decides your Framework. If you shade one Framework but use another Framework's title, assessors go by the title. You can't mix and match titles and Frameworks.
- Stimulus ideas must come from your chosen Framework.
- Remember your reader. An unknown adult will read your response, so think about appropriate content. The report warns that sensationalised content, cloying sentiment and clichéd images or tropes are rarely the most powerful choice.
What High-Scoring Section B Responses Did
The report includes annotated high-scoring responses for every Framework. They show a wide range of forms and voices, from a reflective piece about belonging between Istanbul and Melbourne, to a dating profile written by "Protest" itself, to a speech in a golf magazine. What they had in common:
- Used the title as a focus and explored what it could mean, rather than mentioning it once.
- Integrated the stimulus, often implicitly, and developed it into a recurring image or symbol, such as origami boats becoming cranes in two separate "Changing Direction" responses.
- Built a consistent voice that connected with the reader, such as a confiding first-person narrator or an unusual second-person perspective.
- Created cohesion by returning to an opening image at the end.
- Trusted the reader to infer meaning, while guiding that inference strategically.
- Valued quality over length. One high-scoring response was only about 600 words, and the report singled it out as an example of how an economical text can explore complex ideas.
What Held Section B Responses Back
- Using the stimulus too literally, such as writing about two children playing a board game with no further link to the Framework.
- Writing a rambling text with no clear purpose.
- Engaging with simplistic ideas, or ideas only loosely related to the Framework.
- Contorting a pre-prepared response to fit the title and stimulus.
- Writing for yourself rather than the reader.
- Relying only on plot to convey ideas, with little evidence of deliberate choices in structure and language.
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Section C: Analysis of Argument and Language
Students analysed a letter to a regional community newsletter in which a local resident argued that the town should replace its New Year's Eve fireworks with a light show. The text included two images, including a photograph of a frightened dog.
Understanding Context, Audience and Purpose
The report calls this a necessary pre-skill. The background information told students the text was published in a community newsletter in a regional town and written by a local resident. Strong responses used this to infer:
- the audience: locals attached to a long-standing tradition but concerned about safety, cost and the environment
- the writer's credibility as a member of the community rather than an outsider
- the purpose: to build acceptance of a change, presented as an evolution towards a more inclusive celebration rather than an urgent demand.
What Separated the Skill Levels
The report described how responses differed from low to high skill levels:
| Skill Level | Typical Features |
|---|---|
| Low | Identified arguments and techniques, but with little or no analysis |
| Low-middle | Identified stages of the argument, but only claimed an effect ("this makes the reader feel shocked") without explaining how |
| High-middle | Explained how the argument was sequenced and why it might work, but analysed everything in order rather than choosing the most powerful elements |
| High | Selected the most important elements and explained how argument, language and visuals worked together to persuade the intended audience |
Key Insights for Section C
- Integrate, don't list: High-scoring responses didn't separate argument, language and visual analysis. They explained how these elements worked together throughout the text.
- Be selective: Students weren't expected to discuss every technique, which would be impossible in the time. The strategic selection of the most persuasive elements was highly correlated with success.
- Explain, don't claim: Saying a technique "makes readers feel guilty" isn't analysis. Explain how and why it affects this particular audience.
- Go beyond the familiar: Lower-scoring responses relied on generic comments about inclusive language and rhetorical questions.
- Analyse the visuals: Most students identified what the images showed. Stronger responses explained what they contributed to the argument, such as how a single small, isolated dog makes pets seem vulnerable and in need of an advocate.
- Don't be afraid to drop the scaffold: High-level responses tended to abandon rigid structures. One high-scoring response used nine body paragraphs, each built around a different way the audience was targeted. The report notes that a rigid three-paragraph structure led some students to write long, cumbersome paragraphs.
- Don't identify tone or visuals for no reason: Identifying a feature isn't an assessment criterion. Marks come from explaining its role in the persuasion.
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Common Threads Across All Three Sections
- The task comes first. In every section, assessors applied the criteria in relation to the topic, title or text. Fluent writing that doesn't address the task can't score highly.
- Pre-prepared material is risky. Memorised quotations, prepared Section B pieces and generic Section C analysis were all identified as limiting.
- Language serves ideas. The report repeatedly states that the purpose of language is to communicate. Polysyllabic vocabulary used poorly doesn't earn marks.
- Assessors know it's a first draft. Fluency isn't judged against perfection. Assessors recognise what students achieve under timed conditions.
- There's more than one way to succeed. The report includes very different high-scoring responses and notes that "there are many ways to be right in English".
How to Prepare for the VCE English Exam
- Practise unseen topics, not just familiar ones. Break each topic down: the key concepts, the relationship between them, the verb and the implications.
- Plan essays around ideas, not characters or chapters. Make sure every body paragraph answers the topic and links to the next.
- Build a bank of evidence across the whole text, including language, structure and form, not just a set of famous quotations.
- Write timed Section B pieces with different titles and stimuli to practise adapting ideas, rather than memorising a single piece.
- Practise Section C on a range of texts with visuals. Focus on selecting the most persuasive elements and explaining how they work together.
- Get feedback on full practice exams, then focus on the specific skills holding back your marks.
For more preparation:
- read how one of our tutors scored a 50 in VCE English
- see everything you need to know about VCE English
- studying English Language instead? See how one of our tutors scored a 50 in VCE English Language
- check how English scaled in the 2025 VCE scaling report
- see the VCE exam timetable 2026 for this year's exam date.
Need Help With VCE English?
Our VCE English tutors have scored highly in the subject themselves and work one-on-one with students to interpret topics, plan essays, develop their writing voice and sharpen their analysis, with detailed feedback on practice responses.
Source: VCAA, 2025 VCE English external assessment report.
