To some, it feels like two years of hell, a slow and painful procession of school assessment, homework and exams that seems never to end, all the while distracting you from far more interesting matters of friends, parties, hobbies and fun. Well, to be honest, that's a pretty accurate description of the two years of VCE, but it's leaving out a heap of the great stuff that happens as well - more independence at home and school, more control over your life, more options about what subjects you want to take, and above all, the realisation that the world out there is your world, and you can go out there and make of it what you will.

Below, we've brought together our collective minds at VCEnet to bring you a little perspective on the significance of the VCE in three ways:
- Looking backwards, looking forwards; what the VCE means a few years down the road
- Playing the Game; some hints on how to best play the VCE game
- ENTER here; an explanation to the number crunching behind the ENTER.

First and foremost in our minds is that the VCE, at a superficial level, is all about marks. It's the culmination of 13 years of schooling, and the pathway into further education for those who are interested. It's competitive, it's tough, and it's a game. On the level of assessment, the game can be compared to a giant chess match involving 50 000 people; where the outcome is less about being smarter than it is about playing smarter. With that in mind, it's vital that you ask yourself a couple of questions;

- Why are you playing the game?
- What do you want to take from the game?
- What do you need to do to make sure you get this?

The answers to these questions start with subject selection and your choices about what is important in life and at school, and these same answers inform where you want to go after school, what sort of person you want to be, and how you'll get there.

About now, if you're anything like we were a few years ago, it probably all seems like too much, as if the VCE will determine who you are going to be as person and if you will ever be a 'success.' Well, to be blunt, that's rubbish. The VCE is important, and well worth taking seriously, but it's just one factor among many that contribute to your future. What is important to note however, is that right now, the VCE is likely to be the most important factor you can do something about. So whether you're doing the VCE to get into law, a TAFE course, or just because you want to say that you've done it, it doesn't really matter as long as you're comfortable that you've done the best you possibly could.

As we were sitting, thinking about how the VCE works like a giant game, a couple of 'rules' or general pointers popped into our minds, so we've jotted them down to see what you think.

1) If we're playing a game, it stands to reason that we're playing against someone or something. It would be nice to think that we're playing against ourselves, seeing if we can better our last performance, but at a gross level, it's wrong. The reality is that we are competing against every other student doing the VCE, for an ENTER, for study scores in each subject, and for marks in each test. So how do we best 'beat' others? By working alone?

Rather, we'd contend that only by working together, with as many people possible, will you 'beat' the others. Without going into the complexities of how scores are statistically manipulated, it suffices to say that the better your class at school does, the better you are likely to do.

2) The game gets scored. The aim, generally speaking, is to get the highest possible score. The easiest and best way to get a good score is by knowing how the game gets scored. At an overall level, we've given some pointers in the last part of this article, but at the level of an individual subject - it's all in the study design. Teachers are required to give you the assessment criteria for each test you do, and we beseech you - please read them! Study designs can be downloaded from the VCAA website, http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

3) Time matters. Year 11 may be a practice match, with the crunch coming in year 12, but you'll find it much easier to play the game if you learn the rules early, and actually get in some practice playing by them. And again in year 12, don't leave it too late. It's remarkably hard to come into the game in August and still do well come October.

If anyone ever gave a good reason for doing Maths in Year 12, it would have to be so that you can get near actually understanding how they calculate study scores, scaling and the ENTER. We've sifted through the graphs, and macheted our way through a jungle of statistics to bring an explanation of how, in simple English, you get scored ... and we'll leave you to decide if it's at all fair.

Starting from the beginning - the humble class test in a subject. Although they've been renamed as ³SACs² or school-assessed coursework, these little gems are pretty close to the sorts of tests that you would have taken throughout your school life. Each of these tests will have a couple of criteria, which is the specific set of knowledge against which you are being marked. For example; in a test with a mark out of 30, there may four criteria called a), b), c) and d) where a) may be worth 8, b) worth 8, c) worth 7 and d) worth 7. You get marked on these criteria, and the total of these criteria marks give you your total test score.

Over the course of a semester, it's likely that you'll have several SACs, with a total possible score 100, or over the course of the year, a possible total of 200. Each person has one of these scores for each subject. As an interesting point, you'll find that most people end up with a score somewhere near the middle, with decreasing numbers of people with either very high or very low scores.

Ok, step forward to the exam, which in many subjects is worth about as much as all of the SACs, with a score of 200. Each person in the subject does the exam, and, as with SACs is marked against criteria to get a score. Generally speaking, most people get about the same mark on the exam as they did for SACs, so that again, most people will have an exam score somewhere near the middle, with decreasing numbers of people with either very high or very low scores.

And here's where it gets a little tricky. Because different schools set different tests, and have different teachers marking them, some schools end up with SAC scores that are higher than their exam scores, and some schools end up with SAC scores that are lower than exam scores. To try and keep things fair, the SAC scores are brought back towards each other a little bit, so that if your school generally had SAC scores that were lower than the exam scores for the school, your SAC mark will increase a little, and vice-versa.

At this point, we want to make something very clear - this measure is aimed at eliminating any difference between schools, that may arise because of how a school marks their own students. It does not drag students with very high or low scores back to the average mark within the school.

Ok, so now you have two scores - one SAC score, and an exam score. Combine these, and you have a raw subject score. Line up all of these scores in this subject for all students, from lowest to highest. Again, you will that across the state, there are lots of people in the middle, and decreasing numbers as you go further out each way. The average score, which also happens to be the most common score, is given a raw study score of 30. People with a lower raw subject score than the average will get a study score of less than 30, and those above; more than 30. Roughly two-thirds of all students in a subject will get a study score between 23 and 37, fifteen percent will get between 15 and 22, fifteen percent between 38 and 45, and two percent each below 15 or above 45. This means that study scores are not linear - 40 is not twice as good or twice as much as 20, rather it is a ranking, such that 40 is the same number of ranks above the average (30), as 20 is below it.

Take a deep breath. Get a drink, and then continue.

Some subjects are thought to be 'harder' than others. We won't both explaining exactly how they work out what makes a subject 'hard,' as it is far simpler and nearly as useful just to note that a subject is called 'hard,' if the average person who does that subject is above average in other subjects. This leads to the phenomona of scaling - where your raw study score can go up or down, depending on whether the subject is 'easy' or 'hard' (NB - languages are slightly different, as the Victorian government gives people 5 bonus study score points to try and encourage people to do them). As a general rule, maths and science go up, humanities and practical subjects do down. The amount the score goes up or down depends on what raw score you had - it will change most if had a score of 30, and by decreasing amounts the further from 30 you go. Our advice is here is simple despite the complex nature of the maths - choose subjects you are good at, not those that are scaled well; we assure you it will serve you better!

Now for calculating your ENTER. Take your scaled score for English, and then your next best 3 scaled study scores. Add them. Also work out the scaled scores for any fifth or sixth subjects that you did, divide by 10, and add to this score to the total you got for the other 4 subjects. You should get a number between about 40 and 215.

Everyone else who completes the VCE in the same year as you will have a number between about 40 and 215. The ENTER is worked out by lining up all these scores, from lowest to highest. The top 0.05 percent of that year level (15- 20 people) will get an ENTER of 99.95; these people usually having scores above 210. The next 15-20 people get 99.90, and so on, down the list, with each ENTER score having the same number of people as the last. This ranking, unlike with study scores, is linear, in that the same number of people have ENTERs between 60 and 65 as 90 and 95.

Finally, we have left a few details out for clarity and your sanity. Congratulations on making it through the explanation, should you be unclear about anything, please let us know at feedback@vcenet.com.au.