VCE Guide

VCE subject scaling, explained

Every subject's official 2025 scaling from VTAC, plus a straight answer to the question everyone actually wants answered: does picking a high-scaling subject help?

The basics

What scaling actually is

Every VCE subject is marked against a different cohort of students. A study score of 35 in Specialist Mathematics and a 35 in Food Studies were earned against very different competition, so treating them as equal would be unfair to the student in the harder cohort.

Scaling fixes that. Each year VTAC looks at how the students in a subject performed across all their other subjects. If a subject's students consistently do well everywhere else, that subject is judged to have a strong cohort, and its scores are adjusted upward so a 35 there reflects the same achievement as a 35 anywhere else.

The key thing to understand: scaling is not a bonus handed to hard subjects or a punishment for easy ones. It is a correction for who you were competing against. That distinction matters enormously when you are picking subjects, and we come back to it below.

2025 data

The biggest movers

How a raw study score of 30 changed after scaling, in VTAC's 2025 report.

Scales up the most

  • Latin+16
  • Specialist Mathematics+13
  • Chinese Second Language+11
  • French+11
  • German+9
  • Hebrew+9
  • Algorithmics (HESS)+8
  • Indonesian Second Language+8

Scales down the most

  • Industry and Enterprise-10
  • Foundation Mathematics-10
  • VCE VET Sport and Recreation-7
  • VCE VET Hospitality (Cookery)-7
  • VCE VET Business-7
  • Food Studies-7
  • VCE VET Hospitality-6
  • VCE VET Community Services-6

Figures show the change to a raw study score of 30. Source: VTAC Scaling Report, 2025.

The full table

All 94 scaled VCE subjects

What each raw study score becomes after scaling. Type to filter the list.

Showing all 94 subjects

VCE subject scaling, 2025. Scaled study score for each raw study score.
Subject Raw 25 Raw 30 Raw 35 Raw 40 Raw 45 Change at 30
Accounting 25 31 36 41 46 +1
Agricultural & Horticultural Studies 19 24 29 34 41 -6
Algorithmics (HESS) 31 38 43 47 50 +8
Ancient History 21 27 33 39 45 -3
Arabic 25 30 34 39 44 0
Art Creative Practice 21 27 32 38 44 -3
Art Making and Exhibiting 20 25 31 37 44 -5
Australian History 23 29 34 40 45 -1
Biology 25 31 36 41 46 +1
Business Management 22 27 32 38 44 -3
Chemistry 28 34 39 44 47 +4
Chinese First Language 25 33 39 45 48 +3
Chinese Language Culture and Society 28 33 38 43 47 +3
Chinese Second Language 35 41 45 49 52 +11
Chinese Second Language Advanced 31 37 42 47 50 +7
Classical Studies 25 30 36 41 46 0
Dance 23 27 32 37 43 -3
Data Analytics 21 26 32 38 44 -4
Drama 23 28 33 39 45 -2
Economics 26 31 37 42 46 +1
English 22 28 33 39 45 -2
English as an Additional Language 21 27 33 40 46 -3
English Language 27 33 38 43 47 +3
Environmental Science 23 28 33 39 44 -2
Extended Investigation 27 33 38 42 47 +3
Food Studies 19 23 29 35 42 -7
Foundation Mathematics 16 20 26 32 40 -10
French 36 41 45 49 51 +11
General Mathematics 23 28 33 38 44 -2
Geography 23 28 34 39 45 -2
German 34 39 44 48 51 +9
Greek 30 35 40 44 47 +5
Health and Human Development 21 26 31 37 43 -4
Hebrew 35 39 43 46 48 +9
Hindi 30 36 42 46 50 +6
Indonesian Second Language 32 38 42 46 49 +8
Industry and Enterprise 16 20 26 32 40 -10
Italian 33 38 42 45 48 +8
Japanese Second Language 32 38 43 46 49 +8
Karen 25 29 33 38 43 -1
Khmer 17 25 34 41 47 -5
Korean Second Language 29 36 42 47 51 +6
Latin 42 46 50 53 54 +16
Legal Studies 23 28 34 40 45 -2
Literature 26 31 36 41 46 +1
Macedonian 27 32 37 42 47 +2
Mathematical Methods 28 35 41 46 49 +5
Media 21 26 32 38 44 -4
Music Composition 26 31 36 41 45 +1
Music Contemporary Performance 22 27 33 38 44 -3
Music Inquiry 23 28 33 38 44 -2
Music Repertoire Performance 27 32 37 42 46 +2
Outdoor and Environmental Studies 20 24 30 36 42 -6
Persian 20 24 29 34 40 -6
Philosophy 24 29 35 40 45 -1
Physical Education 22 27 33 38 44 -3
Physics 26 32 37 42 47 +2
Politics 27 32 37 42 46 +2
Product Design and Technologies 19 24 29 36 42 -6
Psychology 23 28 34 39 45 -2
Punjabi 28 33 39 43 47 +3
Religion and Society 23 28 34 39 45 -2
Revolutions 23 29 34 40 45 -1
Russian 29 34 39 44 47 +4
Serbian 26 31 36 40 45 +1
Sinhala 30 35 39 43 47 +5
Sociology 20 25 31 38 44 -5
Software Development 22 28 33 39 45 -2
Spanish 31 35 40 44 47 +5
Specialist Mathematics 36 43 48 51 54 +13
Systems Engineering 21 26 32 37 43 -4
Texts and Traditions 22 27 32 37 43 -3
Theatre Studies 23 28 34 39 45 -2
Turkish 25 29 34 38 43 -1
VCE VET Business 19 23 28 34 41 -7
VCE VET Community Services 19 24 30 35 42 -6
VCE VET Creative and Digital Media 21 26 30 36 42 -4
VCE VET Dance 24 28 32 36 41 -2
VCE VET Engineering 21 25 29 34 40 -5
VCE VET Equine Studies 20 26 32 38 44 -4
VCE VET Furnishing 22 26 30 35 40 -4
VCE VET Health (Allied) 20 25 30 36 43 -5
VCE VET Health Services Assistance 20 25 32 38 45 -5
VCE VET Hospitality 19 24 29 35 42 -6
VCE VET Hospitality (Cookery) 18 23 28 34 41 -7
VCE VET Information Technology 20 25 30 36 42 -5
VCE VET Integrated Technologies 25 30 35 40 45 0
VCE VET Laboratory Skills 25 30 34 39 44 0
VCE VET Music Performance 22 26 30 35 41 -4
VCE VET Music Sound Production 22 27 32 38 43 -3
VCE VET Sport and Recreation 19 23 28 34 41 -7
Vietnamese First Language 24 29 35 40 45 -1
Vietnamese Second Language 31 36 40 43 47 +6
Visual Communication Design 21 26 32 38 44 -4

Source: VTAC Scaling Report, 2025. Subjects with too few candidates to scale individually are not listed, as VTAC scales these against a combined average curve instead.

Want to see what this means for your actual ATAR?

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The honest answer

Should you pick a subject because it scales up?

Almost always, no. And the reason is in the definition.

A subject scales up because its students are strong. Latin scales up roughly 16 points at a raw 30 not because VTAC likes Latin, but because the small group of students who take Latin tend to be high achievers across the board. Enrol in it for the scaling and you have not found a shortcut, you have signed up to compete against exactly those students.

The arithmetic is worth sitting with. In 2025, a raw 40 in Biology scaled to 41. A raw 28 in Specialist Mathematics scaled to about 40. The student who did well in the subject they were actually suited to came out ahead of the student who chased a scaling bonus and struggled.

What actually moves your ATAR is your raw score. Scaling is applied after the fact and you cannot control it. Your raw score is the only part of the equation you have any influence over, and it responds to interest, effort and good teaching.

There is one sensible exception. If you are genuinely torn between two subjects you would enjoy and perform similarly in, and one scales better, take the one that scales better. That is using scaling as a tiebreaker, which is reasonable. Building your whole timetable around it is not.

Putting it together

How scaling feeds into your ATAR

Your ATAR is not calculated from your raw scores at all. VTAC builds an aggregate from your scaled scores, like this:

  • 1
    Your best four scaled scores count in full. One of these must be an English subject.
  • 2
    Your fifth and sixth add 10% each. These are often called increments.
  • 3
    That total is your aggregate. VTAC then converts it to a percentile rank against every other student in the state, which is your ATAR.

This is why a single weak subject hurts less than students fear, and why your top four matter so much more than the rest.

Common questions

Scaling FAQ

Yes. VTAC recalculates it annually from that year's cohort, so the numbers shift slightly. The broad pattern is stable, but always use the most recent report rather than assuming last year's figures still apply.
Yes, internally. In high-scaling subjects a raw 50 can scale past 50 in the aggregate calculation, which is part of why those subjects carry such a reputation. Your reported study score is still capped at 50.
They scale like any other subject, but English is compulsory in the aggregate, so one English study score always counts in your top four. That makes it structurally more important than any other single subject on your timetable.
Yes. A Unit 3/4 sequence completed early is scaled using the same curve as everyone else who sat it that year, and it counts toward your aggregate in the normal way.
Directly from VTAC's published Scaling Report for 2025. We have not adjusted or estimated any figures. The same dataset powers our ATAR calculator.

Your raw score is the part you can change

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