STUDENTS across Victoria woke up to their VCE results this morning after an exam period marred with errors, but amidst the controversy, there have been some fantastic results by local students.
Eight students at Bass Coast College received results over 90 with 90 per cent of students expected to receive first-round offers on their first three tertiary preferences.
Raphael Spiteri-Stevens was named Dux with an ATAR of 97.85.
“I’m very happy,” Raphael said at lunchtime.
“I expected 98 plus but I’ll take the 97.85,” he laughed, noting he was looking to go to Monash University to study engineering.
“My favourite subject was specialist maths.”
Fellow high achievers Dillen Andrighetto and Dylan Cleary both achieved what they had imagined, with plans to attend Monash University for biomedicine and engineering respectively.
Louisa Poll’s family were “surprised, but happy”.
“It’s the best anyone in our family has ever done,” Louisa remarked.
Tate Rigby, Zac Mabilia, Kira Mascaros, Brodie Mitchell, Ciara McCraw and Katie Fisher rounded out Bass Coast College's high achievers (in no particular order).
Year 12 coordinator, Vaughan Gleeson was proud of the students.
“They’ve been a great group all year from the tertiary camp at the beginning through. Everyone has their own ideas of success and it’s been great to see some kids do better than they anticipated,” Mr Gleeson said.
Bass Coast College Campus Principal Ross Bramley echoed Mr Gleeson’s comments.
“I’m most pleased that we are meeting the needs of such a variety of different students,” Mr Bramley said.
“Our results in vocational major (VM) just keep improving and the amount of subjects we are able to offer both VCE and VM students – we can offer most things that kids want to study, which is fantastic!
“I’d also like to thank our teaching staff, all our ES staff, Year 12 Coordinators Vaughan Gleeson and Tim Hooper, Senior Programs Principal Aaron Coyle, and Assistant Campus Principal Alison Gill, and our parent community, who have all supported this year’s year 12 class o achieve the wonderful results we’ve seen.
“We’ve seen an increase in 90 plus scores and an increase in 80 plus ATAR scores, and had some fantastic results in other areas that don’t necessarily contribute to ATAR scores but contribute to their achievements this year.”
Three students have also been shortlisted by Top Arts and Top Screen for 2024.
On Phillip Island, Dux of Newhaven College, Sienna Michie, celebrated with an exceptional ATAR of 98.65.
Newhaven College’s Finn Leary was close on her tail with an ATAR of 97.7.
“Other high achieving students with ATAR scores above 90 were Tilia Pires-Andersen, Ella Berry, Leo Savona, Niamh O’Connell, Max Arceo, Dion Pires-Andersen, David O’Neill and Alice Mabilia,” Newhaven College Principal Tony Corr said.
“Special recognition to Year 11 student Cecily de Gooyer who achieved the perfect Study Score of 50 in Music Industry VET. To achieve a study score of 50 is the highest possible result in a subject and an exceptional performance.”
Ten Newhaven College students received an ATAR above 90, whilst 30 per cent received an ATAR above 80 (top 20 per cent in the state).
Leongatha Secondary College are also celebrating excellence across both VCE and VM with Alana Lopez-Freeman named Dux of 2024 achieving an ATAR of 94.15, amongst the top 17 per cent in the state.
Alana had some sound advice for fellow and future students saying, “When you are trying to work really hard, it is easy to get caught up with comparing yourself to others, but focusing on yourself is the most important thing.”
“My plan next year is to attend La Trobe University to complete Biological Science," she said.
Lucy Patterson and Luke Murphy were fellow Leongatha Secondary College high achievers earning impressive ATARs of 88.34 and 86.1 respectively.
One hundred and forty study scores were above 30 at Leongatha with a mean study score of 28.7 (out of 50).
More results to follow throughout the day.
Exam bungle
According to a Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority the total number of exams impacted by the blunder this year is 65, with an expert panel finding 69 students across five subjects have shown ‘anomalous results’,”
“None of these students were clustered by school or any other relationship that could be determined, suggesting that there was no co-ordinated behaviour to access examination material,” Interim Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority chief executive Marcia Devlin said.
“To avoid any consequent disadvantage for other students, the Panel recommended that those 69 students were removed from the standard study score calculation, including the distribution of study scores.
“The scores of the 69 students were then inserted into the overall distribution at a matched point, after the study scores had been distributed.”
No students had marks deducted from exam results.
Statewide 61,998 students completed their VCE this year with a four per cent increase in schools offering VCE VM on last year.
More than 22,700 VCE graduates have received study scores of 40 or higher, more than 688 have received the maximum study score of 50, and 3,160 students have been awarded the VCE Baccalaureate.