WACE English ATAR: Course, Assessment and Exam Guides (SCSA)

WACE English ATAR is assessed through a school mark and a three-hour SCSA examination. Your school mark comes from three assessment types (Responding, Creating and school examinations). The SCSA exam asks you to analyse unseen texts, write about texts you have studied, and compose one sustained piece of your own.

The course follows the English ATAR Year 12 syllabus effective from 1 January 2025, which is the current Year 12 syllabus on SCSA's English page and the one the 2027 cohort sits. SCSA says it is reviewing the English syllabuses.

Pick the exam section you find hardest, read its design brief row below, and time yourself on one question.

How is WACE English assessed?

Your school designs these tasks and reports a grade from A to E for the pair of units. Across the year each assessment type must appear at least once, and you must complete at least one speaking and listening assessment. For how the school mark and the exam mark are combined, see how the WACE works, and for how the ATAR is calculated see the WACE ATAR guide.

What does WACE English cover in Year 12?

Year 12 is two units taught as a pair, with 110 class contact hours. Year 11 content is assumed knowledge.

Unit 3 is about comparison. You compare how texts treat themes, issues and ideas, and how genre conventions and contexts shape what a text does. You also look at how form and mode affect structure and audience response. Alongside the analysis you create your own imaginative, interpretive, persuasive and analytical texts.

Unit 4 is about interpretation and perspective. You examine different readings of a text, challenge the values and attitudes it presents, and look closely at voice, narrative point of view, and the relationship between content, structure and context. You also test your own interpretations through debate and argument.

Both units are examinable. The syllabus content is written as skills applied to texts, not as a list of topics. The WACE key words guide explains the words SCSA uses in questions.

What is the WACE English exam like?

You get ten minutes of reading time and three hours of working time. The design brief lists no special items, only standard stationery such as pens, pencils and a ruler.

Section One uses two unseen texts. One is written, and the other is written, visual or multimodal. Poetry and drama are excluded. Each question expects about 200 to 300 words, and one question can ask you to compare the two texts. Section Two lets you draw on any text or text type you studied. Section Three asks for a sustained imaginative, interpretive or persuasive piece, and its questions are not tied to your studied texts.

The 2026 English exam is on Friday 30 October at 9:20 am, with 3 hours of working time plus 10 minutes of reading time. See the WACE exam timetable for every course.

What should you focus on?

Section Two is the largest part of the exam, and it is the section built on the texts you have studied. Section Three is the same weight as Section One, but its questions are not tied to your studied texts, so practising full-length pieces in timed conditions matters. Across all three sections the suggested working time is the same 60 minutes, so decide in advance how you will split the three hours.