Requirements
As of 2020, for students to attain the WACE, they must meet requirements in breadth and depth of study, minimum achievement standards, and minimum literacy and numeracy standards."The WACE 2020"Available courses
As of 2020, there are 106 available WACE courses.List A courses
*Aboriginal and Intercultural Studies *Ancient History *Business Management and Enterprise *Career and Enterprise *Children, Family and the Community *Dance *Drama *Economics *English *English as an Additional Language or Dialect *Geography *Health Studies *Literature *Media Production and Analysis *Modern History *Music *Philosophy and Ethics *Politics and Law *Religion and Life *Visual ArtsList B courses
*Accounting and Finance *Animal Production Systems *Applied Information Technology *Automotive Engineering and Technology *Aviation *Biology *Building and Construction *Chemistry *Computer Science *Design *Earth and Environmental Science *Engineering Studies *Food Science and Technology *Health, Physical and Outdoor Education *Human Biology *Integrated Science *Marine and Maritime Studies *Materials Design and Technology *Mathematics: Mathematics, Applications, Essential, Methods, Specialist *Outdoor Education *Physical Education Studies *Physics *Plant Production Systems *PsychologyLanguage courses (also part of List A)
*Aboriginal Languages of Western Australia *Arabic *Armenian *Auslan *Bosnian *Chin Hakha *Chinese: BL, FL, SL *Croatian *Dutch *Filipino *French: BL, SL *German: BL, SL *Hebrew *Hindi *Hungarian *Indonesian: FL, SL *Italian: BL, SL *Japanese: BL, SL *Karen *Khmer *Korean: BL *Macedonian *Malay: BS *Maltese *Modern Greek *Persian *Polish *Portuguese *Punjabi *Romanian *Russian *Serbian *Sinhala *Spanish *Swedish *Tamil *Turkish *Vietnamese *Yiddish BL: Background Language; BS: Background Speakers; FL: First Language; SL: Second Language.VET industry specific courses
*Automotive *Business and Financial Services *Community Services and Health *Construction Industries *Creative Industries *Engineering *Health and Physical Education *Hospitality and Tourism *Information and Communications Technology *Primary Industries *Sport and RecreationATAR
The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a ranking awarded to most students achieving a Senior Secondary Certificate of Education in each state and territory of Australia, except Queensland until the 2020-21 admission cycle, for the purposes of university admission. The Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (TISC) calculates and awards the ATAR in Western Australia. It is a rank relative to all other school-leaving aged people in Western Australia from 99.95 to 0.00. It represents the percentage of school-leaving aged people in Western Australia that a student has achieved at an equal or higher standard, including those who do not sit the WACE or an equivalent school-leaving certificate. For example, an ATAR of 70.00 means that a student has achieved at an equal or better level than 70% of all school-leaving aged people in the state. The ATAR is calculated using the Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA). Each student’s results in each subject are standardised and scaled using each student’s results in other courses to reflect the overall achievement of each student in each subject. The TEA is the sum of each student’s best four scaled marks, plus 10% of the mark in any of the following subjects: * Languages other than English (LOTE), * Mathematics Methods, or * Mathematics Specialist. Students may use scores from up to a five-year period, but each course can only be counted once. TISC uses the best score (not the most recent score) in each course to count for the ATAR if students have repeated one or more courses. The TEA has a maximum of 430. Each student’s TEA is then ranked across the state and ATARs are awarded according to the ranking of the TEA. Each state’s tertiary admissions centre calculates and awards ATARs in their own state, but an ATAR in each state is equivalent and transferable. WACE students can therefore use their ATARs for interstate university admission, and interstate students can use their ATARs (or Queensland’s OP) for entrance into Western Australian universities. The Interstate Transfer Index (ITI) is used to maintain the equivalence of ATARs across states, and all states can use the same method using only Year 12 results, rather than any pre-Year 12 studies in conjunction with final year results.School rankings
Vocational Education and Training
Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses can contribute towards a student’s attainment of the WACE, allowing students to study courses which lead directly into employment after school. There are two main categories of VET courses: VET industry specific and VET credit transfer. VET industry specific courses contribute to both the unit and Certificate II or higher requirements of the WACE, and include both a full qualification and workplace learning. Credit transfer courses provide a way for students to attain VET qualifications separate to industry specific courses, while still contributing to the WACE requirements. As such, both types of courses contribute towards meeting the requirements of a student’s WACE. In terms of meeting requirements for the WACE, the two categories function in different ways. For the achievement standards requirement, successful completion of an industry specific course is considered equivalent to a C grade or higher result in a WACE course, whereas credit transfer courses reduce the number of C grades a student must achieve. Neither category of course contributes to the breadth of study requirements. Both courses contribute to the depth of study requirements. Industry specific courses count directly towards the depth requirements, whilst credit transfer courses are considered “unit equivalence” of regular WACE courses. Students can only count 8 credit transfer units towards the standards and depth requirements, there are no such limits for industry specific courses. A list of endorsed unit equivalence programs is available on thReforms
Move away from Tertiary Entrance Exam
From 2002 to 2010, following the Western Australian Government’s Post-Compulsory Education Review,"Our Youth, Our Future. Post-Compulsory Education Review: Summary of the directions endorsed by the Western Australian Government"Introduction of General courses
As the number of students studying VET courses doubled to sixty percent of the student cohort in the ten years to 2016 the VET component of the WACE will be reformed for Year 11 students from 2020 and Year 12 students from 2021 who can study General courses. The General course pathway can lead to university, employment, or further vocational education and training. The Western Australian Minister for Education and Training,WACE in other countries
The WACE is also available overseas in South East Asia. This offers an affordable option for international students who would otherwise not have the opportunity take this exam in Australia. Exams are invigilated and moderated by SCSA. In Singapore, the WACE program is offered at St Francis Methodist School. In Malaysia, the WACE is offered under the name of Australian Matriculation, or AUSMAT, and offers Malaysian students a study pathway recognised in Malaysia and across the globe. It is also offered at Mita International School in Tokyo, Japan from 2021.References
*External links