WACE English ATAR assessment and marking, explained
The assessment table, how grades and marking keys work, and how school marks combine with the exam.
Year 12 English ATAR combines a school mark and the ATAR exam equally. Schools mark against their own task criteria and award grades using SCSA's grade descriptions. The exam is marked with SCSA's marking keys. A new Year 12 syllabus starts on 1 January 2027, with the same assessment table and exam design.
The school assessment table
| Type | Weight |
|---|---|
| Responding | 35% |
| Creating | 35% |
| Examination (school) | 30% |
Grades and grade descriptions
Schools rank students and award grades from A (excellent achievement) to E (very low achievement). Teachers judge against SCSA's grade descriptions, which describe responding to texts and creating texts separately, and against annotated work samples.
The ATAR exam
| Section | Weight | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| One: Comprehending | 30% | Two short responses on two unseen texts. |
| Two: Responding | 40% | One extended response from a choice of six, on studied texts. |
| Three: Composing | 30% | One piece of writing from a choice of four or five. |
Rather than numbered bands, SCSA's marking keys describe, question by question, what successful and stronger responses do, with guidance on expression for each section.
How school marks are moderated
- School marks are statistically moderated onto the scale of the school's exam results.
- The final combined mark is the average of the moderated school mark and the exam mark (50:50).
- SCSA also runs consensus moderation meetings for selected courses, where teachers review work from other schools.
AI and WACE English
SCSA treats work produced by AI applications without acknowledgement as not the student's original work. Each school's senior assessment policy must cover unacknowledged AI use, and out-of-class tasks need authentication strategies.
Giving feedback that uses the grade descriptions
- Name the quality, then the next step. "Your analysis is mostly descriptive" helps less than "pick one technique per paragraph and say what it does to the reader".
- Feed forward on drafts. Feedback lands when students still have time to act on it. Comments on a final piece are mostly read for the mark.
- Hide the mark on practice work. Students read feedback more closely when there is no number to look at first.
- Show the gap with work samples. Two short responses side by side teach the difference between levels faster than the descriptors do.
- Moderate early. Marking one set of practice responses together as a faculty catches drift before it reaches assessed work.
Common questions
How is WACE English ATAR weighted?
School assessment is Responding 35%, Creating 35% and a school Examination 30%. The final mark is the average of the moderated school mark and the ATAR exam mark.
Does the WACE English exam use marking bands?
No. SCSA's marking keys describe what successful and stronger responses do for each question, rather than numbered bands.
Is there a new WACE English syllabus?
Yes, from 1 January 2027 for Year 12. The assessment table and exam design brief are unchanged.