Can you imagine the distress that the students must have felt when they discovered the novel they prepared for wasn’t actually covered in the exam? What do they do? Try and write about novels they haven’t read? Can you imagine the teacher’s embarrassment when he/she was informed of the huge error?
SHOCKED students from a private school in Melbourne’s southeast were unable to complete a VCE exam because they had been taught the wrong text.
Authorities have launched an investigation after eight pupils from Lighthouse Christian College in Keysborough spent a year studying a novel not on the prescribed reading list.
The error was discovered last Thursday afternoon – when the year 12 students could not find Julia Leigh’s The Hunter on their literature exam paper.
The VCE English exam is a 3-hr exam. Unlike all other subjects, it is not an elective. Every Year 12 student in the State sits for it. To study a text, night and day, only to find out during the exam that it wasn’t on the prescribed reading list would have been an earth shattering revelation for the students involved. If it was me, I would have panicked. It would have ruined the whole exam for me.
Mistakes happen, but this was a big one!
Tags: Avril Howard, Books, Education, English, Error, Exam, Julia Leigh, Keysborough, life, Lighthouse Christian College, Mistake, News, Novel Read, Parenting, Teacher, The Hunter, VCE
Topical Teaching 
November 17, 2011 at 8:11 am |
The VCE and the HSC are overrated. I have a son who dropped out of high school early in his final year. Clearly he is no academic. However, he constructed a gas barbecue during his 4th year of high school. I knew where his talents and interests lay. When he dropped out of school I gave him the choice of finding a job or enrolling in a TAFE course. He began a Basic Engineering Certificate course part way through the year. He caught up what he had missed, completed the course and then completed a few extra modules. Later he was employed by Holden in Melbourne as an apprentice boilermaker. When he was fully qualifed he did a few more modules then began TAFE teaching at night. He was then headhunted by Victoria University to teach full time in their TAFE division where he has been designing courses and assessments for several trades. If a student does well in the VCE, that is good. But the VCE alone is neither an indication of practical ability nor a predictor of success at the tertiary level.
November 17, 2011 at 5:47 pm |
I agree with your contention most ardently, however, I’d just like to point out that it was actually a Literature exam and not an English exam, as your quote from the Herald Sun states. Luckily, your mistake was ‘not a big one!’
November 17, 2011 at 6:23 pm |
Touche! Making errors gives me more reason to feel sorry for the teacher involved.
In my day it was a standard English exam. They have since changed the rule so that you can choose between an English exam and a Engilsh Literature exam. Thank you Sarah for the correction.
November 18, 2011 at 2:13 pm |
“The VCE Elglish exam is a 3-hr exam.”
Firstly learn to spell 😛
But this unacceptable and the school should be punished and students should get 50% so they aren’t disadvantaged