How to Prepare for WACE Exams in 2026: A Plan Built on SCSA's Own Advice

In a WACE ATAR course with a written exam only, the exam is half your combined mark, and it's also what SCSA moderates your school marks against. Plan backwards from your own dates in the 2026 timetable (28 October to 18 November), then repeat one loop until your first exam: sit a timed past paper, mark it against the Marking Key, find what you lose marks on, and practise that. Across courses, SCSA's examination reports keep coming back to the same habit: not reading the whole question and answering every part of it.

This guide covers the 2026 ATAR course written examinations. The SCSA examination reports it draws on describe the 2024 and 2025 exams.

What the exam is worth

By the time exams start, your school-based assessment is done. What happens to it next depends on the exam.

• In a written-only course, the exam is half. SCSA calculates your combined mark as the average of your exam mark and your moderated school mark.
• Courses with a practical component split differently. The weights run from 50:50 to 80:20 by course. Physical Education Studies is 70% written and 30% practical, and its practical is now a school-based practical external assessment (SPEA), not an exam.
• Your school marks are moderated against the exam. SCSA puts each school's marks on the same scale as that school's exam marks in the same course. So your class's exam results help set the scale for everyone's school marks, which is a reason to study with your classmates.
• You have to sit it. If you miss an exam without an approved Sickness/Misadventure Application, you get no mark or grade for that course.

What counts toward your ATAR

SCSA produces your marks. The ATAR is calculated by TISC, and SCSA says plainly that it plays no part in scaling or the ATAR.

1. Your best four scaled scores. TISC adds them into a Tertiary Entrance Aggregate, which becomes your ATAR. You need four or more ATAR courses, and no more than two maths scaled scores can count.
2. Two bonuses. TISC adds 10% of your scaled score in Mathematics Methods and in Mathematics Specialist, and 10% of your best language scaled score. You get them even if those courses aren't in your best four.
3. English doesn't have to count. Nothing in TISC's rules puts English in your best four. Universities separately require competence in English for admission. The most direct way to show it is a scaled score of at least 50 in English, Literature or EAL/D ATAR. Each university lists other ways too, so check TISC's admission requirements for yours.

That shapes where your effort goes:

• You won't know your best four until results are scaled. Don't write off a course in the exam block.
• Don't let English slide. It may not count toward your ATAR, but a scaled score under 50 can leave you meeting the university English requirement some other way.

If you've read advice written for another state, be careful here. In the VCE, English always counts toward the ATAR, and in the QCE you need a C in English to get an ATAR at all. Neither rule applies in WA.

For choosing which courses to lean on, see WACE exam prep: your best 4 subjects.

Plan backwards from your timetable

The 2026 written exams run Wednesday 28 October to Wednesday 18 November. Practical exams in courses like languages, drama and music run earlier, from 26 September. None of the courses below has one.

Times are the session start. Find your own courses in the full timetable, or download your personalised timetable from the SCSA student portal, and count backwards.

• Week one is crowded. Psychology, Chemistry and English all fall in the first three days, so their practice has to start first.
• Most papers are 3 hours of working time plus 10 minutes of reading. Physical Education Studies is 2½ hours. Practise at the real length.
• Maths is one sitting in two sections. Section One: Calculator-free has 5 minutes of reading and 50 minutes of working time. Section Two: Calculator-assumed has 10 and 100. Practise both, not only the one you're stronger in.

The loop: practise, get marked, find gaps, repeat

Revision without marked practice tells you what you've read, not what you can do in the exam room. Run one loop per course, as many times as the calendar allows.

1. Sit a past paper under real conditions. Set a timer for the full working time, with reading time first. Closed book, with only the calculator and notes the exam allows.
2. Mark it against the Marking Key. SCSA publishes a Marking Key with each past ATAR exam, giving the expected answers and how the marks are split. You can mark yourself against it (how to do that honestly). On AusGrader you can answer WACE past-paper questions and get each one marked with feedback on where the marks went.
3. Sort every lost mark into a gap. Separate topic gaps (you didn't know the content) from question gaps (you knew it, but described when the key word said explain, or missed part b). They need different fixes.
4. Practise the gaps. Topic gaps go to targeted questions on that topic. The most-tested topics guide for each course shows what SCSA examines most, for example Chemistry. The hardest topics guide shows where marks are lost most often, for example Biology. Question gaps go to the next section.
5. Repeat with a new paper. A gap that comes back on the next paper hasn't been closed.

For English the loop is the same, but the practice is timed writing on unseen questions and texts.

What SCSA keeps saying costs marks

SCSA publishes a short examination report for each course every year. We read the 2024 and 2025 reports for 13 courses side by side. The same few problems come up in course after course, and they're the question gaps from step 3.

Not reading the whole question

This is the most repeated finding. Nine of the ten science reports tell candidates to read the question carefully and answer what it actually asks, and the English, Geography, PE and maths reports say the same. The 2025 Psychology report puts it as reading each question in full so you don't miss a required part or command. The 2024 English report goes further: every word in the question needs to be addressed.

Ignoring the key words

SCSA publishes a glossary of key words used in exam questions, and the reports expect you to know it. All eight humanities, business and PE reports come back to it, and so do the Biology, Human Biology and Psychology reports. The 2025 English report names the words that trip people up (discuss, analyse, compare, evaluate) and says each needs a different kind of answer.

Not using the stimulus

Every humanities, business and PE report asks candidates to ground their answers in the case study, data, source or scenario provided. In English, both reports ask for answers that deal with the whole text, not one or two familiar parts of it.

Working, arithmetic and clear digits in maths

All six maths reports name basic arithmetic or algebra slips, mostly in the calculator-free section, so practise that section without a calculator until your fractions are reliable. Five of the six ask for working that a marker can follow, and for explanations written out in words when a question asks you to explain or interpret.

Two smaller points recur. The Methods reports for both years warn about calculus with the CAS in degree mode: trigonometric functions need radians. The 2025 Specialist report asks for digits a marker can't misread, with closed zeros and ones that don't look like sevens. The Biology and Physics reports raise legibility in both years too.

Time

The reports say little about time, and what they say is practical. Use reading time to choose the order you'll answer in and to read long passages properly, and use the marks to decide how long each answer should be. The 2024 English report suggests 60 minutes for Section One. Practise under timed conditions so the pace is familiar on the day.

Exam day

• Arrive 30 minutes before the start. Candidates are seated and read the instructions in that time.
• Reading time is for reading only. You can't mark the paper in any way, even with a highlighter or a fingernail, and you can't touch your calculator. Use it to find the big-mark questions and any stimulus.
• Leaving early: not in the first hour of working time and not in the last 15 minutes. In maths you can't leave during Section One.
• Calculators and notes: Biology, Chemistry, Human Biology, Physics, Psychology, Economics, Geography and Business Management and Enterprise allow up to three non-programmable calculators of any brand. The maths exams allow up to three calculators including CAS, plus up to two unfolded A4 sheets of notes, all in Section Two only. English allows no calculator and no dictionary. Check whether your course also has a formula sheet or data booklet, and practise with it.
• Calculator memories don't have to be cleared before the exam, but bring spare batteries. A flat battery isn't grounds for special consideration.