The full list of exams affected by the VCE “cheat sheet” bungle has been released by the Victorian government, and includes English, which is compulsory for almost all year 12 students.
The education minister, Ben Carroll, had previously revealed that 56 of the 116 VCE exams had been affected by a “publishing error”, which saw the release of questions weeks before the tests were sat.
The questions – either identical of very similar to those in the final exams – were contained in Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) sample cover pages, which contained hidden text in seemingly blank sections.
The sample cover pages became de-facto cheat sheets, and were available online for weeks before the were pulled.
On Wednesday, Carroll released the list of affected exams, which also includes popular subjects such as biology, history, legal studies, maths (foundation, methods and specialist streams) and politics.
“There is no risk that any other exams were impacted in this way,” Carroll said.
The VCAA’s interim chief executive, Marcia Devlin, said while English and English as an additional language were included on the list of affected exams, the information for both were instructional and did not include any questions or answers.
“It is clear from the expert assessment of the material published early that no possible advantage could have been gained by any student through accessing that material,” Devlin said.
“The material that was published earlier for the English exam was either already in the public domain through advice on how the English exam is structured this year, or so general as to be of no assistance.”
She said the marking of the English exam would proceed as usual.
Devlin said early advice from an independent expert advisory panel brought in to review the exams indicated this was likely the case for other exams.
She said in many of the exams, “only a partial question or prompt was released” in the cheat sheets.
“In no case was the full examination published early,” Devlin said.
Carroll said he still had “many questions” about the saga, which was why he ordered a “root-and-branch review” into the structure and operations of the VCAA.
Last week, it was announced the chief executive, Kylie White, had resigned from the VCAA.
Carroll said the possible advantage to students who had accessed the cheat sheets would not be clear until exams had been marked.
He said he was confident VCE results would still be published by 12 December, well before the first round of university offers in mid-January.
The full list of affected subjects:
Aboriginal languages of Victoria
Accounting
Ancient history
Applied computing data analytics
Applied computing software development
Art creative practice
Art making and exhibiting
Australian politics
Biology
Business management
Chinese first language
Chinese second language
Classical studies
Dance
Drama
English as an additional language
Economics
English
Environmental science
Food studies
Foundation mathematics
Geography
Global politics
Health and human development
History revolutions
Industry and enterprise
Legal studies
Mathematical methods 1
Mathematical methods 2
Media
Music composition
Music contemporary performance
Music inquiry
Music repertoire performance
Outdoor and environmental studies
Physical education
Product design and technology
Psychology
Religion and society
Specialist mathematics 1
Specialist mathematics 2
Systems engineering
Text and traditions
Theatre studies
VCE VET business
VCE VET community services
VCE VET engineering
VCE VET equine studies
VCE VET furnishing
VCE VET health
VCE VET hospitality
VCE VET hospitality cookery
VCE VET information and communications technology
VCE VET integrated technologies
VCE VET music sound production
VCE VET sports and recreation
