How to Improve Your WACE English Exam Score: 2025 ATAR Examination Report Breakdown

WACE ATAR English was sat by 9,433 Western Australian students in 2025. The exam has three sections: comprehending unseen texts, responding to studied texts and composing your own text. The SCSA's examination report and marking key show exactly what separated strong answers from weaker ones.

This guide breaks down the 2025 ATAR English examination. It covers how students performed in each section, every question on the paper, what the official marking key said strong answers would do, and the SCSA's advice for future candidates.

Key Takeaways

• 9,433 students sat the 2025 ATAR English exam. The average score was 61.36%, and the highest was 98%.
• Section Two (Responding) was the strongest section, with an average of 63.72%. Sections One and Three averaged just under 60%.
• The examiners' biggest concern was prepared answers that were adapted to fit a question, and overly long Section Two essays that drifted from the question.
• Students often confused key syllabus terms: context vs setting, mode vs form, values vs attitudes, and language patterns and style.
• The SCSA's top advice: read every word of the question, especially the command word, and choose the question that best suits the texts you know well.

2025 Exam Results at a Glance

Source: SCSA 2025 ATAR course examination report: English.

Source: SCSA 2025 ATAR course examination report: English.

Exam scores formed a bell curve centred on the high 50s to mid 60s, with relatively few students above 80%. That means a well-prepared student can stand out with just a few extra marks in each section.

WACE ATAR English Exam Structure

The exam has 10 minutes of reading time and 3 hours of working time. Section One answers should be about 200–300 words each, and you cannot use the Section One texts to answer Section Two.

💡 For more on how WACE exams work, read how WACE exams are structured.

Section One: Comprehending (30 Marks)

Both unseen texts were about magpies:

• Text 1: "Magpie", an edited extract from Esther Woolfson's memoir Corvus: A Life with Birds (2018), about the writer's relationship with a magpie she cared for.
• Text 2: "10 Foolproof Ways to Defend Yourself from Magpies", a satirical opinion piece by Ben Pobjie (ABC News, 2017), offering absurd advice such as surplus SWAT gear, "surface-to-magpie ordnance" and negotiating over the nature strip.

The SCSA said performance in this section was strong, with students generally coping well with two written texts.

Question 1 (15 marks)

Analyse how the relationship depicted in Text 1 has been constructed using language features.

What the marking key expected:

• name the relationship, most likely between the writer and the magpie, or more broadly between people and the natural world
• analyse two or more language features that build that relationship.

The marking key listed many valid readings of the relationship: intimate or maternal, emotional and comforting, educative, built on mutual respect, interdependent, or even exploitative for keeping a wild bird in captivity.

Stronger answers: offered a nuanced interpretation, treated the text as a deliberate representation, and showed a clear cause-and-effect link between each language feature and the relationship. For example, first-person pronouns shape the relationship from the writer's human perspective.

Question 2 (15 marks)

Compare how stylistic choices have been used to represent magpies in Text 1 and Text 2.

What the marking key expected: identify how magpies are represented in each text, then compare the stylistic choices that build those representations.

Based on the SCSA 2025 ATAR English marking key.

Stronger answers: recognised the meditative tone of Text 1 and the satire of Text 2, connected stylistic choices to each text's form, purpose and audience, and wrote a synthesised comparison rather than discussing each text separately. The SCSA said the best answers made sustained connections between the texts.

Section Two: Responding (40 Marks)

Students answered one of six questions, using any text they had studied.

What the Marking Key Rewarded

• Question 3 (language patterns): identify repeated, alternating or contrasting elements, or patterns common to a genre (such as the colour palette of film noir), and explain how they deepen or intensify the themes. Strong answers justified why the choices form a pattern.
• Question 4 (interpretations): give your own interpretation, identify another audience (which does not need to be radically different), and explain why interpretations differ, for example through context, values or reading strategies.
• Question 5 (context): link specific elements of construction to insights about a context. The marking key specifically noted that students should understand the difference between setting and context.
• Question 6 (generic conventions): identify the genres of two texts, compare how their conventions were controlled, subverted or altered, and link this to each text's purpose.
• Question 7 (inclusions, emphases, omissions): give a personal response (in line with "your") and connect it to what the creator chose to include, emphasise or leave out.
• Question 8 (mode): identify a perspective with its contextual basis, correctly identify the mode (written, visual, aural, gestural) and evaluate its impact, for example by weighing pros and cons.

What the Examiners Said

Overall performance in Section Two was pleasing, with many sustained, well-developed essays. Stronger answers had:

• a clear focus on the exact requirements of the question
• substantial, relevant evidence from the text
• a coherent line of argument.

Weaker answers:

• were overly broad, including material only loosely connected to the question
• ignored the command word or misunderstood key concepts
• were overly long, drifting from the question, simplifying it or adapting a prepared answer.

💡 Not sure what "analyse", "examine" or "evaluate" are asking for? Read our guide to WACE key words in exam questions.

Section Three: Composing (30 Marks)

Students answered one of five questions, choosing a form suited to the audience, context and purpose.

What the Marking Key Rewarded

• Question 9: a symbol clearly inspired by the image, such as the skateboard, the reflection or the contrast between old and new, used as a motif throughout.
• Question 10: a genuinely local landmark or tradition, a well-reasoned argument for preserving it, and language and arguments pitched at a youth audience.
• Question 11: landscape that is truly integral to theme or character, not just background. Landscape could also be figurative, urban or a seascape.
• Question 12: a clear new audience (for example, introducing vlogging to older adults), a passionate personal voice, and engagement with the "spark of wonder".
• Question 13: the situation in the image used purposefully, such as an in media res opening, a humorous anecdote in a speech, or a memory in a memoir.

What the Examiners Said

Students produced an impressive range of forms, including podcasts, interviews, feature articles, memoirs, scripts and narratives.

Stronger answers showed control, authenticity and awareness of audience, with a clear and sustained voice, often drawing on personal topics.

Weaker answers paid limited attention to key words in the question, did not connect purpose and audience, or couldn't establish and sustain a form. Some lacked a clear purpose, characterisation or structure, or relied on basic language features.

The SCSA's Advice for Candidates

• Read each question carefully and respond to all its demands. Pay close attention to the command word (discuss, analyse, compare, evaluate), as each requires a different approach.
• Choose the question that suits your strengths, matching the texts you know well and the concepts you understand most securely.
• Show understanding of the whole text, not just a few familiar examples.
• Use evidence purposefully and in context.
• Use syllabus terms precisely: context, style, mode, language patterns, voice and genre.
• Stay focused on the question. Don't adapt material prepared for a different question or include everything you know.
• In Composing, establish and maintain form, voice and purpose.
• Plan and edit your answers wherever possible.

Commonly Confused Terms

Based on the SCSA 2025 ATAR English examination report and marking key.

How to Prepare for the WACE ATAR English Exam

• Practise Section One under time pressure, writing 200–300 word answers that analyse language features and compare two unseen texts.
• Know two or three studied texts in depth, with evidence from across each text, so you can adapt to any of the six Section Two questions.
• Practise unpacking questions by underlining the command word and key concepts before planning.
• Avoid memorised essays. Prepare flexible arguments and evidence instead.
• Build a glossary of syllabus terms and practise using them precisely.
• Have two or three composing forms ready (such as a feature article, short story or speech) and practise adapting them to different prompts.
• Sit full past papers in 3 hours to practise spending about an hour on each section.

For more preparation:

• read our guide to acing WACE ATAR English
• check the WACE exam timetable 2026 for this year's exam dates
• learn how WACE scaling works
• understand how the WACE ATAR is calculated.

Need Help With WACE English?

Our WACE English tutors work one-on-one with students to analyse unseen texts, write focused essays on their studied texts and craft compositions that stand out to SCSA markers.

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Sources: School Curriculum and Standards Authority, 2025 ATAR course examination: English, marking key and summary examination report.