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2026 VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies exam: What to learn from last year's mistakes
Hi all, in preparation for the upcoming exam, here's what to learn from last year's mistakes.
These are the 2025 questions I would redo first.
Q11: average 2.1/5; scored zero 34%; full marks 11%.
Q12b: average 2.1/5; scored zero 25%; full marks 9%.
Q10b: average 1.3/3; scored zero 36%; full marks 19%.
Q5b: average 1.8/4; scored zero 34%; full marks 16%.
VCAA's figures are rounded. These are question averages, not study scores.
1. Q11: Compare two individual actions
Where students went wrong
Students described actions separately, confused individual actions with community action, or barely connected them to an environment.
What they should have done
Choose two relevant individual actions and make at least two meaningful comparisons. For example, ethical consumerism acts through purchasing decisions while advocacy seeks to influence other people or decision-makers. Compare their reach and how directly each addresses the threat in your named environment. Explain why one might achieve more in that situation instead of declaring both effective.
2. Q12b: Compare effectiveness within the actual scope of each measure
Where students went wrong
Students repeated what the Acts or conventions were, wrote two separate evaluations, or assumed a measure such as Ramsar protected every ecosystem.
What they should have done
Use the Eastern Wilderness Walk stimulus to identify the management problem, then compare how your two selected measures address it. A wetland-focused international convention and a Victorian biodiversity law do not have identical scope. Compare their relevance to the habitats and threats in the stimulus, the protections they provide and any limits. Naming a protected area does not prove that every threat along the walk is covered.
3. Q10b: The park and the neighbouring private land are different
Where students went wrong
Some answers recommended an action without checking whether it could apply to the land in the scenario. Others described benefits without evaluating effectiveness.
What they should have done
For the 10-hectare park, a community group could undertake weed control to reduce competition with native plants. Explain that benefit, then consider whether continuing volunteer effort and follow-up are available. If proposing a private-land conservation agreement or changes to farming, apply them to the adjoining private property, not automatically to the public park. Show how action there could reduce a threat reaching the park.
4. Q5b: A conflict-resolution process needs an outcome
Where students went wrong
Students defined a process without evaluating how it could address the disagreement over banning vehicles from the CBD.
What they should have done
For community consultation, explain how both Liveable Cities and Keep Us Moving would present their concerns and how those views could influence the decision. A process could reveal where access requirements conflict with environmental aims and support a modified proposal. Its limitation is that hearing both sides does not guarantee agreement. Judge the process by its capacity to resolve this conflict, not simply by the number of people who can attend.
Source: VCAA 2025 Outdoor and Environmental Studies examination report: source. Averages and percentages above are VCAA's published, rounded figures; the explanations are my paraphrases.
Use the VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies hub and past papers and examiner reports alongside this.
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