VCE NHT Exams: Northern Hemisphere Timetable Papers (VCAA)

An NHT exam is a separate sitting of a VCE study's written exam, held in May on the Northern Hemisphere Timetable instead of in October to November. Each NHT paper has its own questions and its own VCAA external assessment report with the answers. We hold NHT papers for seven studies: Accounting, Biology, Chemistry, General Mathematics, Mathematical Methods, Physics and Specialist Mathematics. VCAA's Physics page now says NHT exams are no longer offered, and the 2026 papers are the latest we hold.

This guide describes VCAA's NHT papers from 2021 to 2026 as they appear on the covers and in the reports, checked on 21 October 2026. It applies to Units 3 and 4. For the main October to November papers, start from VCE past exams (VCAA).

What does NHT mean in VCE?

NHT stands for Northern Hemisphere Timetable. The cover of every paper says "VCE (NHT) Examination" with a date in May, and the VCAA report that goes with it carries NHT in its title, for example "2024 VCE Physics (NHT) external assessment report".

It is the same study as the main exam, sat on a different timetable. The questions are different, and each NHT paper has its own report. Mark your answers against that report, not against the main-sitting report for the same year.

Our collection of VCAA documents does not spell out who was eligible to sit the NHT. If you think an NHT sitting might apply to you, ask your school's VCE coordinator.

Are VCE NHT exams still offered?

Possibly not, and VCAA's pages do not line up. Three things we hold:

• VCAA's Physics examination page says NHT examinations are no longer offered, and that past NHT papers and reports may still be useful to students.
• The VCAA page on future examination periods lists the 2027 written exams from Tuesday 26 October to Wednesday 17 November 2027 and gives no NHT dates.
• Version 1.1 of the VCE Administrative Handbook 2026 (released 19 August 2026) records a change note saying references to the NHT were removed.

Against that, NHT papers dated 20 to 27 May 2026 exist and are in the index below. Treat the 2026 sitting as the most recent one we can see, and check with your school or VCAA before planning around a May exam.

When were the NHT exams held?

Every NHT paper is dated in May, apart from four 2021 and 2022 papers dated 1 or 2 June. The sitting window moved a little each year:

Biology and Chemistry for 2026 are not in our collection, so the 2026 window above may be wider than it shows. The exact dates for the three most recent sittings follow. Times are when reading time starts, and every NHT paper opens with 15 minutes of reading time.

The 2021 and 2022 morning sessions began at 10:00 am. From 2023 they began at 10:30 am.

How is an NHT exam different from the October to November exam?

The date and the questions. The structure we can compare does not change:

• Same writing times. The Physics NHT paper in 2026 and the main Physics paper in 2025 both have 15 minutes of reading time and 2 hours 30 minutes of writing time.
• Same mark split. The 2025 NHT Chemistry paper has Section A with 30 questions for 30 marks and Section B for 90 marks, the same marks as the 2025 main Chemistry paper. The question counts differ: Section B has 10 questions in the NHT paper and 7 in the main paper.
• Same approved materials. The 2026 NHT Physics cover lists one scientific calculator and pre-written notes (one folded A3 sheet or two A4 sheets bound together by tape), as the main 2025 Physics cover does.
• Different date. Compare the May dates above with the main 2026 sittings: Biology on 2 November, Chemistry on 10 November and Physics on 12 November. The full list is on the VCE exam timetable 2026.

So an NHT paper makes a full-length practice paper in the same style as the main exam.

Where are the NHT papers and reports?

The table lists every NHT sitting in our collection, by study. Each study name links to its past exams page.

The three mathematics studies have a pair of papers each year. Mathematical Methods Exam 1 and Specialist Mathematics Exam 1 are the technology-free papers.

Three notes on the reports:

• VCAA titles the 2022 to 2025 answer documents "external assessment reports". The 2021 documents are "examination reports", and the 2021 Physics one is a "written examination report".
• The 2026 NHT papers have no report in our collection yet.
• Biology and Chemistry have no 2026 NHT paper in our collection. Our first years (Biology 2022, General Mathematics 2024, the rest 2021) match the NHT ranges on VCAA licensing.

Which of these papers are loaded for marked practice on AusGrader can differ by study, so the past exams page for your study is the place to check. Any paper that is, you can answer question by question and have marked against the VCAA report.

How to use an NHT paper

• Go through the main-sitting papers first. There are more of them and they match the exam period you will actually sit. The VCE past exams page lists them by study.
• Read the NHT report for that paper only. Its comments describe that sitting's questions. Do not apply a mark allocation from an NHT report to a similar-looking main-sitting question.
• Read the cover before you start. The approved materials, section counts and writing time are printed there, and in Physics the cover for 2026 shows the afternoon start where the earlier years began in the morning.
• Do not expect repeats. Each NHT paper has its own questions, so treat it as extra practice, not a preview.

For the order to revise in, see how to prepare for VCE exams. To see how an exam score turns into a study score, read the VCE study score guide.