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VCE · VCE Units 3 & 4 · official past papers

VCE English as an Additional Language past exams 2016–2025, by year and topic

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ATARMAxxing indexes 10 official VCAA English as an Additional Language papers from 2016 to 2025, with 29 questions mapped to 4 areas of study. Every paper opens on the VCAA website.

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SD 2024–2027 (current) · 2024–2027SD 2017–2023 · 2017–2023SD 2007–2016 · 2007–2016

VCE English as an Additional Language exams by year: official papers & marking guidance

Past exams indexed: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. Open the official VCAA papers, with marking guidance where available.

YearStudy designOfficial paper(s)Marking guidance
2025 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book ↗Marking guidance ↗
2024 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book ↗Marking guidance ↗
2023 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗
2022 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗
2021 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗
2020 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗
2019 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗
2018 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination (deleted-text version) ↗Marking guidance ↗
2017 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2017–2023Aural and written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗
2016 VCE English as an Additional Language examSD 2007–2016Written examination ↗Marking guidance ↗

10 official papers across 10 years (2016–2025), 10 with marking guidance, published by VCAA. These span more than one study design; the most recent is SD 2024–2027 (current). Earlier papers may cover material that has since changed.

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Unit 3, AOS 1 — Reading and responding to texts · 14 mapped questions

Dynamics of a text: characters' motivations, tensions in relationships, function of settings

Complexities of plot and the role of point of view

Ideas, concerns and conflicts in a text

Historical context, and social and cultural values in a text

How values in a text are conveyed and how readers are positioned

Also in this areas of study: Reading and viewing strategies to draw out meanings in a text · Vocabulary, text structures and language features used to construct meaning · Features of analytical writing, including appropriate metalanguage · Using key evidence from a text to support ideas and analysis · Listening comprehension strategies: prominent textual cues, stressed words, discourse markers (SAC only) · Conventions of syntax, punctuation and spelling of Standard Australian English — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Unit 3, AOS 2 — Creating texts · 6 mapped questions

Framework of Ideas: writing about country

  • 2025SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section B Framework 1 — Writing about country20 marksCreate one written text exploring ideas about country, using the set title 'Origins' and a relevant idea from at least one of three unseen stimuli — a line about the heart never leaving, an image, and an extract describing people, animals, plants, land, sea and sky as one Country.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section B Framework 1 — Writing about country20 marksSet title 'Connections'. The report notes the title was intended to draw on connection in relation to place, and reproduces a response in which a narrator reflects on migration to Australia and nostalgia for the country left behind. Chosen by 7.8 per cent of students.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Framework of Ideas: writing about protest

  • 2025SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section B Framework 2 — Writing about protest20 marksCreate one written text exploring ideas about protest, using the set title 'Small Acts, Big Wins' and at least one of three unseen stimuli — an exchange about starting with the next person who needs help, an image, and verse about a voice made louder by others joining it.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Framework of Ideas: writing about personal journeys

  • 2025SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section B Framework 3 — Writing about personal journeys20 marksCreate one written text exploring ideas about personal journeys, using the set title 'Changing Direction' and at least one of three unseen stimuli — a couplet about searching for a key to an open door, an image, and lines about losing the way in a dark forest. The most-chosen Framework in 2025, at 57 per cent of students.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →
  • 2024SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section B Framework 3 — Writing about personal journeys20 marksSet title 'Finding My Way'. The report reproduces two high-scoring responses — one reflecting on building a life in Melbourne after moving from Kuala Lumpur, one on abandoning constant comparison with others. Chosen by 57.2 per cent of students.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Framework of Ideas: writing about play

  • 2025SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section B Framework 4 — Writing about play20 marksCreate one written text exploring ideas about play, using the set title 'Life is a Game' and at least one of three unseen stimuli — a line about being truly ourselves only when we play, an image, and verse about following the rules while cheats prosper.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Also in this areas of study: Mentor texts as models of effective and cohesive writing · Purpose: to explain, to express, to reflect, to argue · Context (including mode) and a specific, situated audience · Using the given title and at least one unseen stimulus · Voice, register and vocabulary choice · Text structures and language features for cohesion · Writing processes: drafting, refining, feedback; annotations on authorial decisions — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Unit 4, AOS 1 — Reading and responding to texts · 7 mapped questions

Explicit and implicit ideas presented in a text

How values in a text are conveyed and how readers are positioned

Impact of vocabulary, text structures and language features on meaning

  • 2025SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section A Text 11 — New and Selected Poems, Volume One (Mary Oliver)20 marksTwo topics on a poetry collection: a discussion of how easily what matters is overlooked, or a quotation-led proposition that the poems celebrate life. Students may write on several poems or on at least two in close detail.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Also in this areas of study: How historical context and social and cultural values shape understanding · Responding explicitly to the set topic · Planning and sustaining an analytical response across paragraphs · Close reference, quotation and evidence selection · Editing and refining analytical writing · Conventions of syntax, punctuation and spelling of Standard Australian English — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Unit 4, AOS 2 — Analysing argument · 2 mapped questions

Contention and supporting arguments: sequence, structure, supporting evidence

  • 2025SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section C20 marksWrite an analysis of the ways arguments, written and spoken language, and visuals are used to try to persuade the intended audience. Background information sets up a regional town whose 50-year-old New Year's Eve fireworks tradition is under question; the material is a community newsletter article by a local resident, with accompanying images, arguing for a projected lightshow on environmental, safety, accessibility and cost grounds, and pre-empting the tradition objection.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Intended audience and the assumptions an author makes about it

  • 2024SD 2024–2027 (current)Task Book Section C20 marksAnalysis of a speech delivered by the chair of a gym committee, addressed to gym members reluctant to let a confectionery shop use part of the building, arguing that the partnership is the only way to save the financially strained gym. The report notes low-scoring responses misread the intended audience as local residents.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Also in this areas of study: Persuasive techniques and strategies; tone and shifts in tone · The role of visuals in supporting and augmenting argument · Features of print and digital, and audio and/or audio visual, persuasive texts · Intonation, volume, pace, pausing and stress in spoken persuasion · Context of publication and the effect of the author's identity on an audience · Rebuttal, respectful disagreement and countering arguments · Metalanguage and structure for an analysis of argument · Point of view oral presentation conventions (SAC only) — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

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