3 months ago
7
At her school’s final assembly last month, Ava Collins took home four academic awards, including being her school’s top English and physics student. Yet, she will be among the last of 2025’s student crop to finish.
The timetabling of her exams means Collins has to wait until 5.15pm on Wednesday to finish school – almost six weeks after her first exam and a week after most of her friends finished.
Ava Collins, 17, will sit her German exam on Wednesday, the last day of exams for the Class of 2025.Credit: Joe Armao
“I’ve found keeping the momentum a little bit of a challenge,” the 17-year-old said. “But I’m also grateful that I didn’t have exams on consecutive days and have had time to breathe.”
About 2 per cent of the 67,000 students eligible to complete VCE this year are yet to put their pens down for the last time.
That will happen on Wednesday when, according to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, the last 1674 students officially finish school.
Though Collins will be among the 416 VCE students to sit the German written exam, the last of four exams this cohort of year 12s will sit, she is the only student studying German at Mentone Girls’ Secondary College. Having studied German on Saturdays through the Victorian School of Languages, it will be just her and an examiner in the room.
“Normally, I have my friends around, and we motivate and reassure each other, so it will feel different,” she said.
Like Collins, Castlemaine Secondary College student Will Haslam is also set to take his final exam alone. One of just 126 students sitting the Spanish written exam, he will be taking the test in a church hall in Castlemaine.
But when he puts his pen down for the last time, Haslam will then have just 40 minutes to travel from his final exam to his school’s graduation ceremony in Bendigo.
Will Haslam, 18, will be one of the last members of the Class of 2025 to finish school.
He says the tight timeframe is in keeping with his exam experience, which has been a marathon 35 days long and involved numerous long-distance car trips.
Haslam’s first exam was the Spanish oral assessment on October 14. For that 15-minute test, he made a two-hour round trip from Fryerstown, in Victoria’s goldfields region, to a hotel in Essendon.
Like Collins, Haslam said the extended exam period had its benefits, including more time to prepare, but that staying focused had been a challenge.
“Sometimes I find I get really bored and distracted and demotivated,” he said. “But I’m going to the gym and keeping school hours and still seeing friends.”
Loading
The 18-year-old said he decided to learn Spanish after a family holiday to Argentina as a child, studying virtually through the Victorian School of Languages.
”It’s one of the most spoken languages in the world and I love travelling, so I’m sure it will be useful,” he said.
For Melinda Teoh, finishing school on Wednesday will allow her to prepare to sit another exam: her driver’s licence.
“That’s definitely more fun to prepare for than VCE,” the 18-year-old said.
Teoh will sit the Chinese as a second language (advanced) exam with about 30 other peers from Balwyn High School. They are among the 544 VCE students who will sit the exam on Wednesday.
Across Victoria, another 588 students will sit the Chinese second language exam, held at the same time.
Teoh said she was glad her exams were spread out because she had the time to both study and relax.
As well as preparing for her driver’s licence exam, she will use December to plan a schoolies trip to Japan with friends in February.
After that, all going to plan, she will be off to Monash University to begin a bachelor of biomedical science.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority sets the exam timetable according to the number of students enrolled in each subject to minimise clashes and ensure students don’t sit three exams in one day.
Students will receive their results on December 11.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Most Viewed in National
Loading
