Which VCE Chemistry past paper do students score lowest on?

The 2024 Exam, averaging 50.6% across 4,969 marked attempts on AusGrader. The 2025 Exam (NHT) is the highest on 73.7%.

Which VCE Chemistry dot points give the best return on revision time?

4.1.2.1 (2.7 marks at risk per 100), 3.2.2.5 (1.7 marks at risk per 100) and 4.1.1.4 (1.6 marks at risk per 100). Marks at risk combines a dot point's share of paper marks with the marks students drop on it, so it ranks by recoverable marks and not by score alone.

How many attempts is each VCE Chemistry figure based on?

34,594 marked attempts overall, with the per-row count shown in every table. Any cut below 50 attempts is withheld instead of published.

Do these averages show how the VCAA cohort performed?

No. They are AusGrader users' marked attempts, a self-selected group practising when they chose to and often without exam timing. They corroborate what VCAA publishes about this subject and do not replace it.

VCE Chemistry hardest topics

Across 34,594 marked attempts on AusGrader, VCE Chemistry students average 54.8% on questions taken from board external papers. Explain is both the lowest scoring command verb on 50.8% and the costliest, because it carries 18.3% of the paper on its own. These are self-selected users practising when they chose to, not the VCAA cohort under exam conditions.

How to read these numbers

The figures are AusGrader users' marked attempts, not VCAA results. They corroborate what the board publishes about this subject and do not stand in for it.
Any cut with fewer than 50 attempts is withheld, which on this page is 2 papers, 9 dot points, 1 question type and 10 verbs. Every figure shown carries its attempt count.
Scores cover questions mapped to the VCE Chemistry study design from any board's external papers, which is why the sample is larger than the 9 VCAA papers alone. The paper table below is the exception and uses VCAA papers only.
Internal assessment and school-uploaded exams are excluded throughout, so these averages differ from the ones on VCE Chemistry performance stats, which count every attempt.

Score by past paper

Year	Exam	Average	Attempts
2025	Exam	58.7%	5,499
2025	Exam (NHT)	73.7%	72
2024	Exam	50.6%	4,969
2023	Exam	54.9%	5,014
2022	Exam	56.4%	5,099
2021	Exam	54.0%	4,943
2020	Exam	50.6%	6,120

The lowest average belongs to the 2024 Exam on 50.6% from 4,969 attempts, and the highest to the 2025 Exam (NHT) on 73.7% from 72 attempts. A paper's average reflects both how hard it was and who chose to sit it, so treat the spread as a guide to which papers make demanding practice.

Score by question type

Question type	Average	Attempts
Multiple choice	54.5%	31,851
Short answer	56.9%	2,730

Score by unit

Unit	Average	Attempts
Unit 3: How can design and innovation help to optimise chemical processes?	54.2%	20,382
Unit 4: How are carbon-based compounds designed for purpose?	55.6%	14,957

An attempt counts once per unit, so a question assessed across two units appears in both rows and the column adds to slightly more than 34,594.

The priority list: heavy topics with low scores

Topic	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
How can the rate and yield of chemical reactions be optimised?	25.1%	52.9%	9,244	11.8
What are the current and future options for supplying energy?	26.2%	55.2%	12,956	11.7
How are organic compounds analysed and used?	19.5%	49.5%	6,031	9.8
How are organic compounds categorised and synthesised?	20.0%	59.7%	6,986	8.1
How is scientific inquiry used to investigate the sustainable production of energy and/or materials?	9.2%	58.4%	2,406	3.8

The topic list is close: 11.8 against 11.7 marks at risk separates first from second, so topic choice alone will not order revision. The dot-point list below spreads further.

The same cut at subtopic level

Subtopic	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
Instrumental analysis of organic compounds	11.7%	47.0%	2,720	6.2
Production of chemicals using electrolysis	11.9%	57.4%	3,527	5.1
Extent of chemical reactions	9.7%	48.5%	3,998	5.0
Measuring changes in chemical reactions	9.1%	52.3%	2,675	4.3
Structure, nomenclature and properties of organic compounds	9.3%	57.1%	4,097	4.0
Primary galvanic cells and fuel cells as sources of energy	8.3%	52.0%	6,925	4.0
Reactions of organic compounds	10.7%	63.2%	3,309	3.9
Carbon-based fuels	8.8%	63.3%	4,206	3.2
Investigation design	4.2%	48.6%	1,534	2.2
Medicinal chemistry	4.5%	57.4%	1,906	1.9
Laboratory analysis of organic compounds	3.3%	44.3%	1,610	1.8
Scientific evidence	4.1%	57.2%	882	1.8
Rates of chemical reactions	3.5%	57.0%	1,980	1.5
Science communication	0.9%	82.4%	637	0.2

The same cut at dot-point level

Dot point	Content	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
4.1.2.1	organic reactions and pathways, including equations, reactants, products, reaction conditions and catalysts (specific enzymes not required) synthesis of primary haloalkanes and primary alcohols by substitution; addition reactions of alkenes; the esterification between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid; hydrolysis of esters; pathways for the synthesis of primary amines and carboxylic acids; transesterification of plant triglycerides using alcohols to produce biodiesel; hydrolytic reactions of proteins, carbohydrates and fats and oils to break down large biomolecules in food to produce smaller molecules; condensation reactions to synthesise large biologically important molecules for storage as proteins, starch, glycogen and lipids (fats and oils)	7.6%	64.4%	2,758	2.7
3.2.2.5	calculations involving equilibrium expressions (including units) for a closed homogeneous equilibrium system and the dependence of the equilibrium constant ( $K_c$ ) value on the system temperature and the equation used to represent the reaction	3.5%	50.3%	1,400	1.7
4.1.1.4	trends in physical properties within and between homologous series (boiling point and melting point, viscosity), with reference to structure and bonding	3.4%	52.7%	1,170	1.6
3.2.3.1	the use and limitations of the electrochemical series to explain or predict the products of the electrolysis of particular chemicals, given their state (molten liquid or in aqueous solution) and the electrode materials used, including the writing of balanced equations (with states) for the reactions occurring at the anode and cathode and the overall redox reaction for the cell	2.7%	41.9%	611	1.6
4.1.1.2	molecular, structural and semi-structural (condensed) formulas and skeletal structures of alkanes (including cyclohexane), alkenes, benzene, haloalkanes, primary amines, primary amides, alcohols (primary, secondary and tertiary), aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and non-branched esters	3.0%	54.6%	2,087	1.4
4.2.2.1	applications of mass spectrometry (excluding features of instrumentation and operation) and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data, including identification of molecular ion peak, determination of molecular mass and identification of simple fragments	2.4%	45.4%	231	1.3
3.2.1.1	factors affecting the frequency and success of reactant particle collisions and the rate of a chemical reaction in open and closed systems, including temperature, surface area, concentration, gas pressures, presence of a catalyst, activation energy and orientation	2.5%	49.1%	984	1.3
3.1.2.4	energy from fuels and food calculation of energy transformation efficiency during combustion as a percentage of chemical energy converted to useful energy; comparison and calculations of energy values of foods containing carbohydrates, proteins and fats and oils	2.6%	52.3%	1,015	1.2
3.2.3.3	the common design features and general operating principles of rechargeable (secondary) cells, with reference to discharging as a galvanic cell and recharging as an electrolytic cell, including the conditions required for the cell reactions to be reversed and the electrode polarities in each mode (details of specific cells not required)	3.3%	63.5%	2,182	1.2
3.2.2.3	the change in position of equilibrium that can occur when changes in temperature or species or volume (concentration or pressure) are applied to a system at equilibrium, and the representation of these changes using concentration-time graphs	2.3%	48.1%	1,992	1.2
4.3.2.2	ways of organising, analysing and evaluating primary data to identify patterns and relationships, including sources of error and uncertainty	2.7%	56.3%	863	1.2
4.2.2.2	identification of bond types by qualitative infrared spectroscopy (IR) data analysis using characteristic absorption bands	1.7%	32.0%	435	1.2
3.1.3.5	the common design features and general operating principles of fuel cells, including the use of porous electrodes for gaseous reactants to increase cell efficiency (details of specific cells not required)	2.5%	54.2%	1,926	1.1
4.2.3.4	enzymes as protein-based catalysts in living systems: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures and changes in enzyme function in terms of structure and bonding as a result of increased temperature (denaturation), decreased temperature (lowered activity), or changes in pH (formation of zwitterions and denaturation)	2.6%	55.8%	1,681	1.1
3.1.2.2	the use of specific heat capacity of water to approximate the quantity of heat energy released during the combustion of a known mass of fuel and food	2.1%	45.7%	416	1.1
3.1.2.1	calculations related to the application of stoichiometry to reactions involving the combustion of fuels, including mass-mass, mass-volume and volume-volume stoichiometry, to determine heat energy released, reactant and product amounts and net volume or mass of major greenhouse gases ( $CO_2$ , $CH_4$ and $H_2O$ ), limited to standard laboratory conditions (SLC) at $25\,^\circ\mathrm{C}$ and $100\,\mathrm{kPa}$	2.6%	56.1%	644	1.1
4.2.2.4	structural determination of organic compounds by low and high resolution proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( $^1\mathrm{H}$ -NMR) spectral analysis, using chemical shift values, integration curves (where the height is proportional to the area underneath a peak) and peak splitting patterns (excluding coupling constants), and application of the $n+1$ rule (where $n$ is the number of neighbouring protons) to deduce the number and nature of different proton environments	2.1%	46.1%	208	1.1
3.2.2.4	the application of Le Chatelier’s principle to identify factors that favour the yield of a chemical reaction	1.8%	37.0%	1,059	1.1
3.1.1.8	combustion (complete and incomplete) reactions of fuels as exothermic reactions: the writing of balanced thermochemical equations, including states, for the complete and incomplete combustion of organic molecules using experimental data and data tables	2.1%	48.9%	459	1.1
4.3.1.2	characteristics of the selected scientific methodology and method, and appropriateness of the use of independent, dependent and controlled variables in the selected scientific investigation	1.7%	37.7%	280	1.1

Which command verbs cost the most marks

Verb	Share of marks	Average	Attempts	Marks at risk
explain	18.3%	50.8%	805	9.0
calculate	12.5%	51.5%	182	6.1
identify	7.1%	52.4%	419	3.4
state	7.7%	61.6%	208	3.0
write	6.9%	65.8%	300	2.4
justify	4.5%	61.0%	54	1.8
draw	4.0%	58.3%	296	1.7
describe	2.6%	57.5%	66	1.1

Explain is both the lowest average at 50.8% and the costliest verb at 9.0 marks per 100, because it carries 18.3% of the paper. Each verb above is practised in the VCE Chemistry question bank, where the marking criteria show what VCAA expects the answer to do.

What this does not measure

Where to practise

Work the priority list from the top: How can the rate and yield of chemical reactions be optimised? and What are the current and future options for supplying energy? first, then the dot points above. Each topic page holds real VCAA questions with marking criteria attached. For what the papers actually cover, read VCE Chemistry most tested topics.

Syllabus and assessment material referenced in this guide is reproduced by permission, © VCAA. See our VCAA licensing notice. The VCAA does not endorse or make any warranties regarding this study resource. VCE® is a registered trademark of the VCAA.