QCAA Syllabus: 2025 Versions and What Changed From 2019 (QCE)

Quick answer: A QCAA syllabus is the official document that sets out a subject's units, subject matter, assessment and marking. For General subjects in 2026, the current one is the 2025 syllabus: Year 11 started it in 2025 and Year 12 in 2026, so this year's Year 12s are the first assessed under it for Units 3 and 4. Each subject has its own PDF and its own version number, listed below with a link to every subject we cover.

This guide covers the 2025 General senior syllabuses used for Year 11 and Year 12 in 2026. Anyone who completed Year 12 before 2026 sat the 2019 syllabus, and so did the cohort behind every subject report we hold.

Which QCAA syllabus applies to you?

The 2025 syllabus for your subject, if you are in Year 11 or Year 12 in 2026. QCAA's version history for the 2025 syllabuses describes the first release (version 1.0, January 2024) as "Released for familiarisation and planning (with implementation starting in 2025)". Year 11 began Units 1 and 2 under it in 2025, and the same students moved into Units 3 and 4 in 2026.

The previous documents were the 2019 syllabuses, "for implementation with Year 11 students in 2019". They stay relevant for two reasons. Past exam papers up to and including 2025 were set under them, and so were the subject reports. QCAA's 2025 Physics report records the 2025 Year 12 cohort as assessed under Physics 2019 v1.2. If you are working through papers, start from QCAA past papers (QCE), and check each older question against the 2025 syllabus as this guide describes. The internal assessments themselves are covered in QCAA internal assessments.

Which version of each syllabus is current?

Not every subject sits on version 1.0. QCAA reissues a syllabus under a new version number, and the number is recorded in a version history table near the back of the PDF. The versions we have confirmed in QCAA's own documents:

For the other subjects we have not confirmed a version later than 1.0 (January 2024), and QCAA may have issued one since. Open the version history table in your subject's PDF before you rely on a detail.

Two points about reading that table:

• Version 1.0 is a draft for planning. Version 1.1 (July 2024) was the one released for implementation in the subjects where we have the full history, and version 1.2 (October 2024) removed the ISBN and made minor updates.
• A higher number does not mean a bigger change. Biology's version 1.3 changed file metadata only, with no content change from version 1.2. Digital Solutions is the opposite case: version 1.4 is a formatting change, but the assessment section differs from version 1.0 in the split of IA1 marks and in the wording of a command verb.

What changed between the 2019 and 2025 syllabuses?

Some changes run through nearly every subject, and others belong to one subject. For the cross-subject ones, QCAA's July 2026 summary of changes for external assessment names these:

Perusal time is not a Mathematical Methods change. Its 2019 syllabus already gave 5 minutes for IA2, IA3 and both external papers. What changed there was IA2 and IA3 working time, which fell from 120 minutes to 90.

For the full list of exam dates and conditions, see the QCAA external exam timetable. The rest of this section is about the syllabus itself, using the subjects where we hold both versions.

Sciences

Biology and Physics both renamed and regrouped their internal assessment criteria. In Physics, the 2019 IA2 criteria were Research and planning, Analysis of evidence, Interpretation and evaluation, and Communication, marked 6, 6, 6 and 2. The 2025 IA2 criteria are Forming, Finding, Analysing, and Interpreting and Evaluating, at 5 marks each. Communication stopped being a criterion and is now built into the others. Physics also dropped from seven objectives to six, and a 2025 student can now do part of the IA3 as a group (selecting a claim, identifying concepts and researching).

Subject matter changes, from QCAA's 2026 summary:

• Chemistry: green chemistry principles, atom economy and molecular manufacturing are now assessed within internal assessment, not the external exam. The reaction pathway diagram is now in the formula and data booklet.
• Physics: conservation of lepton and baryon numbers is explicitly assessable in Unit 4.
• Psychology: the Visual perception topic now also covers auditory perception.
• Agricultural Science and Earth and Environmental Science: extended response questions are removed from the external assessment.
• Biology: QCAA changed cognitive verbs in the subject matter. Its example turns "describe the modes of speciation: allopatric, sympatric, parapatric" into "explain how geographic, temporal and spatial isolation influence gene flow and may lead to allopatric, sympatric and parapatric speciation".

The Biology example matters beyond Biology. The same content is now often asked at a higher cognitive level, which is why our guide to QCAA cognitive verbs helps before you write answers from older notes.

Mathematics

In Mathematical Methods, the main change is that topics moved between units. Under the 2025 syllabus:

• The second derivative and its applications move from Unit 4 to Unit 3.
• The Bernoulli and binomial distributions also move from Unit 4 to Unit 3.
• The fundamental theorem of calculus, definite integrals and applications of integration move from Unit 3 to Unit 4.
• Logarithms are consolidated in Unit 2, which makes them Year 11 content, except for applications involving base e.
• Arithmetic and geometric sequences and series are removed from the syllabus.

Unit placement matters here because it decides which internal assessment can use a topic. IA1 under the 2019 syllabus was limited to two named Unit 3 topics. Under 2025 it can use at least one topic from Unit 3 or Unit 4. Older advice about what a question can include may therefore be wrong, even when the topic is still in the course.

Other subjects

In Accounting, all three internal assessments were renumbered. QCAA's 2025 Accounting report says the 2019 IA1 examination is now IA2, the 2019 IA2 examination is IA3 under the 2025 syllabus v1.2, and the 2019 IA3 project is now IA1 (pp. 12, 18, 23). So "IA1" and "IA2" can mean different tasks in a 2019-era resource than in your syllabus. In Digital Solutions, version 1.4 differs from version 1.0 in how IA1 marks are split, and the synthesis verb in the assessment wording changed from determine to develop. Always take the task names from your current PDF.

Where to find the QCAA syllabus for your subject

Each General subject has its own syllabus PDF on the QCAA senior subjects pages, and QCAA also lists its Syllabuses app and subject contacts in the 2026 changes summary. Our subject syllabus pages sit alongside those: they list the Year 11 and Year 12 units for the subject and link on to the questions we have matched to them. They don't replace the PDF for assessment rules.

Sciences

• QCAA Agricultural Science syllabus
• QCAA Biology syllabus
• QCAA Chemistry syllabus
• QCAA Marine Science syllabus
• QCAA Physics syllabus
• QCAA Psychology syllabus

Mathematics

• QCAA General Mathematics syllabus
• QCAA Mathematical Methods syllabus
• QCAA Specialist Mathematics syllabus

English

• QCAA English syllabus
• QCAA Literature syllabus

Humanities and business

• QCAA Accounting syllabus
• QCAA Ancient History syllabus
• QCAA Business syllabus
• QCAA Economics syllabus
• QCAA Geography syllabus
• QCAA Legal Studies syllabus
• QCAA Modern History syllabus
• QCAA Study of Religion syllabus

Technologies, health and physical education

• QCAA Digital Solutions syllabus
• QCAA Engineering syllabus
• QCAA Health syllabus
• QCAA Physical Education syllabus

If you want to know how the syllabus fits into the certificate as a whole, how the QCE works covers credits, literacy and numeracy. For the board hub, go to QCAA QCE.

Common mistakes with the QCAA syllabus

• Reading subject reports as current rules. Every subject report held so far describes a cohort assessed under the 2019 syllabus. Their statistics describe the old rules. Their skills advice usually still holds, but check any criterion name against your own PDF.
• Assuming version 1.0 is final. It was released for planning. Check the version history table.
• Assuming a perusal time. It dropped to 5 minutes in the sciences and some technologies subjects, but not every subject changed, so read your subject's external assessment conditions.
• Treating older past papers as a content list. A paper set under the 2019 syllabus can test content that has moved units, been removed or been reworded. Use it for technique and check the topic against the 2025 syllabus.