Liam McNally
The wait is officially over for thousands of students who have completed their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) this year, with the results officially released last week.
The overall VCE completion rate in Victoria was 97.4 per cent. Year 12 students across the state will now make the choice to go to university, TAFE, start an apprenticeship or traineeship, start working or take some time off.
Melton Secondary College student Mitchell said finishing year 12 brought a “whole wave” of emotions.
“Just the realisation of just like, ‘oh wow, we’re actually done now’… And now we’re going into the next steps. It was like really euphoric.”
Mitchell, who plans to study film, received an ATAR of 88.4, with his best study score being 44 in English.
He said he “might be in the minority” but he enjoyed year 12.
“I find it really rewarding just dedicating myself and bunkering down to work hard… And I did that through through all my subjects,” he said.
“You make so many friends throughout the whole experience, because everyone’s in the same boat, everyone’s trying, everyone’s struggling, it’s its own community in a sense.”
For the next crop of year 12s Mitchell said his best advice is that no matter how badly you’ew struggling you’re never “past the point of no return” and you can seek help to get the job done.
“There’s no point where like, if you feel like you’ve fallen behind, say you’ve missed a few days, or you’re behind on a subject, at no point is that too far gone,” he said.
St Francis Catholic College student Teresa got an ATAR score of 95.90.
She won a number of awards for her year 12 efforts and wants to study biomedicine.
Teresa said it’s scary but exciting to be leaving school.
“I didn’t find [Year 12] too intimidating, I just tried to do as well as I could, all the time,” she said.
“I just did lots of practice exams and stuff, so then I want to prepared. And, I made sure that I always slept well. I never really stayed up late [studying] because it just never helped me.
“I was actually aiming a little bit higher, but I did alright.”
