The VCE English exam question that had some students rejoicing

VCE English students were delighted to find their hard work paid off with a question on the final exam nearly identical to one on practice tests provided by a popular tuition company.

The boon for some of those who studied Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard capped off a dramatic start to the exam period for other students who had to battle a train line suspension.

English is a mandatory subject for all those completing an ATAR, with more than 47,000 students sitting the three-hour written exam on Tuesday.

The first section of the English exam involves writing an analytical response to one of two questions about a text, film or play students have studied. In the second section, students had to write a creative text based on a prompt. The last section asked students to analyse an argument.

A practice test question from TSSM, a specialised VCE tuition service, asked: “In Sunset Boulevard people play both the victim and villain. To what extent do you agree?”

In Tuesday’s exam, students were asked: “In Sunset Boulevard Wilder suggests that individuals can be both victims and villains. Discuss.”

Footscray High School student Herbie Grarock said the prompts also seemed similar to prompts he looked at in the 2023 exam.

“I read the question and … I felt like I’d seen this before,” he said.

Herbie said he was nervous before the exam, but that changed when he opened the booklet.

“I opened up the book and the prompts were better than I hoped so I guess I got kind of lucky,” he said.

Fellow student Noah Regassa said he was happy with his responses.

“It went pretty well for me, obviously it’s different for everyone else, but I think the prompts suited me … it’s a bit nerve wracking coming in, but I think I did pretty well,” he said.

Sylvie Ward said many of the themes for the text response correlated, which made it easier for her to answer.

“I also feel like I did pretty well, I was banking on everything coming back to me when I sat down, and I feel like it did, so I’m pretty happy,” she said.

Other students on social media pointed out that the exam had similar questions related to Oedipus the King as they had already completed from their School-Assessed Coursework (SAC).

Last year, questions on 65 of the test papers were accidentally made public before the VCE exams, which prompted a review into the state’s school exam authority.

The crisis deepened when it emerged that the authority knew there were problems with some of the exam papers a month before they became public in November 2024.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority acknowledged the exam question was similar to the TSSM practice test.

Adding to the stress for some students, a track fault near Kooyong station caused the suspension of Glen Waverley line services between Burnley and Darling stations. Buses replaced trains, and train services resumed after the 9am exam start time.

A spokesman for the exam authority said there were no reports of students missing their exams due to the train disruptions.

“Students who are late to an exam due to transport issues or other circumstances are allowed to commence the exam and will be given the full time to complete it,” the spokesman said.

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