The anxious wait is almost over
Tens of thousands of Victorian school leavers will receive their VCE results and university entrance ATAR scores on Thursday morning, ending weeks of anxious waiting.
Among the 49,000 students to receive ATARS at 7am, there will be 42 students who received a perfect score of 99.95 with their results, according to the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Center (VTAC), which says a record number of students will receive ATAR this year.
On the most eagerly awaited day of the educational calendar, more than 15,300 students will achieve a VCE study score of at least 40 or higher, with 664 students achieving a new record by achieving at least one study score of the maximum 50.
Thursday’s figures will also show the number of Victorian students choosing higher education options is increasing. This year, three percent more applications were received for the courses compared to last year.
Iris Zavros Phillips, who leaves Preshil private school in Kew this year, will be among more than 65,500 students to receive their VCE results on Thursday and among the first five Preshil students to receive their VCE results in six years.
When Iris joined Preshil as a year 5 student in 2019, the school had just dropped the VCE and moved on to the International Baccalaureate.
Preshil, Australia’s oldest progressive school, reintroduced VCE this year after a review found that a lack of options for final exams was causing too many students from Year 10 at Preshil to be sent to other schools.
The re-entry comes after the school introduced the VCE (Vocational Course) last year.
Aaron Mackinnon, who took over as director at Preshil in May last year, carried out an extensive review to tackle slipping records and bring the budget back onshore.
Preshil, always small in the independent sector, was shrinking. Registrations dropped from 256 in 2019 to just 205 in 2024, rising to 223 this year. The school finished in the red last year with $2.1 million.
“That’s one of the reasons we did the review. Students were going into Year 10 and then leaving,” Mackinnon said.
Iris, who has ADHD and dyslexia, switched to VCE this year because the structure of the curriculum appealed to her more than the IB’s broader, concept-focused approach.
The move allowed him to use his visual arts talent to create a portfolio of work that helped him secure a temporary place on the undergraduate interior design course at the College of the Arts Australia, a private college in Fitzroy.
The 18-year-old player said, “I love Preshil, it helped me a lot, but I had difficulty in IB. I know my results will be much better with VCE.”
More than 65,500 students completed the VCE this year. Of these, 15 per cent, or around 10,000, finished school with a VCE vocational course.
VCAT said on Wednesday that the average ATAR for the 2025 VCE class was 69.48, which was consistent with the average ATAR of 69.52 in 2024.
Also announced on Thursday were VCE study scores and other results for students who did not receive an ATAR, including those studying at a VCE Vocational School or those who chose not to sit VCE exams. All these students can apply for further education through VTAC. Certificate and diploma courses can be accessed by those who did not score the most points.
VCE results and ATARs available here Starting at 7am on Thursday for students who have registered to access their results online.
VCE graduates applying to higher education can update their course preferences via VTAC
Once you receive the results, you must open an account and confirm or change preferences by noon on Saturday.
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Bridie Smith is an education reporter for The Age. A former desk editor, he also reported on science and consumer affairs.Connect with: excitement, Facebook or email.
