Which topic carries the most marks in the VCE Psychology external exam?

How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning? carries 23.6% of the marks across the 6 VCAA papers from 2020 to 2025, ahead of How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning? on 22.8%.

How are marks split between question types in the VCE Psychology exam?

Short answer carries 62.5% of the marks and multiple choice carries 37.5% of the marks, measured across 6 papers and 720 marks from 2020 to 2025.

How many past papers is this VCE Psychology analysis based on?

6 VCAA external papers from 2020 to 2025, covering 319 questions and 720 marks. 3.3% of those marks carry no dot-point mapping and sit outside the percentages.

VCE Psychology most tested topics

Q: Has the topic balance changed in recent VCE Psychology papers?

Yes. How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning? moved down 6.5 percentage points and How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning? moved up 5.8 percentage points between the 2020 to 2022 and 2023 to 2025 papers.

Across the six VCAA Psychology external papers from 2020 to 2025, How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning? carries 23.6% of the marks against 15.4% for What influences mental wellbeing?, so the paper rewards How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning? more than any other topic. At dot-point level 4.3.1.2 carries 8.9% of paper marks, and three of the 40 dot points that the board assesses externally have not appeared in one of these papers. Every percentage below covers the 96.7% of marks that map to a study design dot point.

Computed from 6 VCAA Psychology external papers, 2020 to 2025: 319 questions, 435 question parts and 720 marks.

Unit, topic and dot-point shares below are of the 696 marks that map to a dot point, so each of those tables adds to 100%. 91 of the 435 parts are assessed against more than one dot point, and their 194 marks are divided evenly between the dot points they cover.

What these papers are

Year	Exam	Questions	Marks
2025	Exam	49	120
2024	Exam	49	120
2023	Exam	49	120
2022	Exam	58	120
2021	Exam	57	120
2020	Exam	57	120

Marks by unit

Unit	Share of marks
Unit 4: How is mental wellbeing supported and maintained?	55.4%
Unit 3: How does experience affect behaviour and mental processes?	44.6%

Marks by topic

Topic	Share of marks	Papers it appears in	Years
How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?	23.6%	6 of 6	6 of 6
How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning?	22.8%	6 of 6	6 of 6
How do people learn and remember?	21.0%	6 of 6	6 of 6
How does sleep affect mental processes and behaviour?	17.2%	6 of 6	6 of 6
What influences mental wellbeing?	15.4%	6 of 6	6 of 6

Marks by subtopic

Each topic above breaks into the subtopics below, in the same order.

Subtopic	Share of marks	Papers
Stress as an example of a psychobiological process	12.4%	6 of 6
Nervous system functioning	11.2%	6 of 6
Investigation design	13.1%	6 of 6
Scientific evidence	8.8%	6 of 6
Science communication	0.8%	4 of 6
The psychobiological process of memory	10.8%	6 of 6
Approaches to understand learning	10.3%	6 of 6
The demand for sleep	9.2%	6 of 6
Importance of sleep to mental wellbeing	8.0%	6 of 6
Application of a biopsychosocial approach to explain specific phobia	7.7%	6 of 6
Maintenance of mental wellbeing	3.9%	6 of 6
Defining mental wellbeing	3.8%	6 of 6

Marks by dot point

Dot-point numbers and wording are VCAA's own. Where a dot point is written as a list, its items run together here separated by semicolons.

Dot point	Content	Topic	Share of marks	Papers
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	How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning?	8.9%	6 of 6
3.2.1.1	behaviourist approaches to learning, as illustrated by classical conditioning as a three-phase process (before conditioning, during conditioning and after conditioning) that results in the involuntary association between a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response, and operant conditioning as a three-phase process (antecedent, behaviour and consequence) involving reinforcement (positive and negative) and punishment (positive and negative)	How do people learn and remember?	8.0%	6 of 6
3.1.1.1	the roles of different subdivisions of the central and peripheral nervous systems in responding to, and processing and coordinating with, sensory stimuli received by the body to enable conscious and unconscious responses, including spinal reflexes	How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?	5.0%	6 of 6
4.3.2.2	ways of organising, analysing and evaluating primary data to identify patterns and relationships, including sources of error and uncertainty	How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning?	4.5%	6 of 6
4.2.2.2	evidence-based interventions and their use for specific phobia, with reference to the use of short-acting anti-anxiety benzodiazepine agents (GABA agonists) in the management of phobic anxiety and breathing retraining (biological); the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and systematic desensitisation as psychotherapeutic treatments of phobia (psychological); and psychoeducation for families/supporters with reference to challenging unrealistic or anxious thoughts and not encouraging avoidance behaviours (social)	What influences mental wellbeing?	4.0%	6 of 6
4.2.2.1	the relative influences of factors that contribute to the development of specific phobia, with reference to gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) dysfunction and long-term potentiation (biological); behavioural models involving precipitation by classical conditioning and perpetuation by operant conditioning, and cognitive biases including memory bias and catastrophic thinking (psychological); and specific environmental triggers and stigma around seeking treatment (social)	What influences mental wellbeing?	3.7%	5 of 6
3.1.1.2	the role of neurotransmitters in the transmission of neural information across a neural synapse to produce excitatory effects (as with glutamate) or inhibitory effects (as with gamma-amino butyric acid [GABA]) as compared to neuromodulators (such as dopamine and serotonin) that have a range of effects on brain activity	How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?	3.6%	6 of 6
4.1.1.1	sleep as a psychological construct that is broadly categorised as a naturally occurring altered state of consciousness and is further categorised into REM and NREM sleep, and the measurement of physiological responses associated with sleep, through electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), electro-oculography (EOG), sleep diaries and video monitoring	How does sleep affect mental processes and behaviour?	3.4%	6 of 6
4.1.1.3	differences in, and explanations for, the demands for sleep across the life span, with reference to total amount of sleep and changes in a typical pattern of sleep (proportion of REM and NREM)	How does sleep affect mental processes and behaviour?	3.4%	6 of 6
3.2.2.1	the explanatory power of the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model of memory in the encoding, storage and retrieval of stored information in sensory, short-term and long-term memory stores	How do people learn and remember?	3.4%	6 of 6
4.2.3.1	the application of a biopsychosocial approach to maintaining mental wellbeing, with reference to protective factors including adequate nutritional intake and hydration and sleep (biological), cognitive behavioural strategies and mindfulness meditation (psychological) and support from family, friends and community that is authentic and energising (social)	What influences mental wellbeing?	3.4%	6 of 6
4.1.2.1	the effects of partial sleep deprivation (inadequate sleep either in quantity or quality) on a person’s affective, behavioural and cognitive functioning, and the affective and cognitive effects of one night of full sleep deprivation as a comparison to blood alcohol concentration readings of 0.05 and 0.10	How does sleep affect mental processes and behaviour?	3.2%	6 of 6
3.1.2.4	the explanatory power of Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman’s Transactional Model of Stress and Coping to explain stress as a psychological process (primary and secondary appraisal only)	How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?	3.1%	6 of 6
3.1.2.3	the explanatory power of Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome as a biological model of stress, including alarm reaction (shock/counter shock), resistance and exhaustion	How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?	2.9%	6 of 6

These 14 dot points carry 60.5% of the paper marks between them. Another 23 assessed dot points share the rest, and 3 of the 40 externally assessable dot points have not been assessed in any of these 6 papers. Content that has not appeared is still examinable.

What has moved between papers

Comparing the 2020 to 2022 papers with the 2023 to 2025 papers, two topics have moved by more than 3.0 percentage points.

Topic	2020 to 2022 share	2023 to 2025 share	Movement
How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?	26.9%	20.4%	down 6.5 points
How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning?	19.8%	25.6%	up 5.8 points

How the papers are built

Short answer carries 62.5% of the marks across these 6 papers.

Question type	Share of marks	Marks	Parts
Short answer	62.5%	450	165
Multiple choice	37.5%	270	270

Verb	Share of marks	Marks	Parts
explain	18.5%	133	40
identify	9.7%	70	26
outline	9.7%	70	28
evaluate	7.2%	52	8
describe	5.3%	38	13
justify	3.5%	25	8
analyse	2.8%	20	2
consider	2.8%	20	2

What these percentages do not tell you

Where to practise

Every topic above links to its own page of real VCAA questions with marking criteria and average scores attached: How does the nervous system enable psychological functioning?, How is scientific inquiry used to investigate mental processes and psychological functioning?, How do people learn and remember?, How does sleep affect mental processes and behaviour? and What influences mental wellbeing?. For how students actually score on this content, read VCE Psychology hardest topics, and for the full question bank start at VCE Psychology.

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