'think Of It As An Insurance Policy'

The Age

Monday May 7, 2007

David Philips - David Philips is the general manager of assessment and reporting at the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

You have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain by taking a GAT, writes David Philips.

EACH year, about 79,000 VCE students sit the three-hour General Achievement Test, which is compulsory for students doing any study for VCE units 3 and 4.

Conducted around the same time as the mid-year exams, the GAT tests general knowledge and skills in written communication, mathematics, science and technology, humanities, the arts and social sciences.

You are required to take the GAT if you are enrolled for even one VCE Level 3-4 sequence, including a Level 3-4 VET (vocational education and training) unit. If you begin your Level 3-4 studies in year 11 you will take the GAT in that year, and again in year 12 if you take more Level 3-4 studies in year 12.

International Baccalaureate students also sit the GAT, as it enables the calculation of a notional ENTER score.

The GAT is an important test because it forms part of a "safety net" for your exam results and can be used to protect you against any misfortune in your assessments. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority uses the GAT to carry out a range of procedures that ensure exam results are assessed fairly for every student.

Doing the GAT is in some ways like an insurance policy. Just as we hope never to have to make a claim on our car insurance, we also hope we will never fall ill on the day of an examination, or suffer some misfortune that affects our performance. Most of us never do. But if the worst happens, a good GAT performance can help to restore the situation.

This year, the GAT will be held at 10am on Thursday, June 14. It will run for three hours with another 15 minutes of reading time. It consists of three sections:

? Writing task 1, in which you will be asked to explain the information in material that is presented to you in written and graphical form (suggested time 30 minutes).

? Writing task 2, in which you will be asked to express a point of view on an issue, and to present reasons and arguments in support of your view (suggested time 30 minutes).

? 70 multiple-choice questions, covering mathematics, science, technology, humanities, the arts and social sciences. The questions will not require any specific knowledge. Questions are presented in groups, usually of four or five. Each group of questions will be based on information presented as text, pictures, graphs or tables, and will test your understanding of the material presented, and your ability to reason and to draw appropriate conclusions from (suggested time two hours).

Managing your time is important, so don't allow any one section to run overtime at the expense of the others. It is important to answer every question, even if you're not sure of the answer. You do not have marks taken off for wrong answers, so having a go can only improve your position.

If you finish early, you can polish your writing or reconsider the answers in the multiple-choice section. Many students find it extremely valuable to save a little time at the end in order to do this.

There is no specific study activity recommended for the GAT but if you have not had a lot of experience on tests like this one you may find it useful to practice on tests from previous years. Test booklets and answers for the past five years are available at www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/exams/gat/gat.html for your use.

If you are doing studies that include multiple-choice exams in their assessments, this practice may also help you with those exams.

What is assessed by this test?

The GAT does not test you on the content of any particular course of VCE study. It assesses the range of knowledge and skills that you will have built up over the whole of your secondary schooling. These include:

? The ability to write clearly and logically and to express a point of view in writing.

? The ability to read, understand and make appropriate inferences from written materials, pictures, cartoons and diagrams.

? The ability to extract information and draw conclusions from text, charts and tables.

How are GAT scores reported?

Three GAT scores will be reported to you at the end of the year:

? Written communication - a measure of the quality of the writing that you do, taken from the two writing tasks (scored out of 40).

? Mathematics, science and technology - a score taken from the 35 multiple-choice questions that relate to mathematical, scientific or technological materials (scored out of 35).

? Arts and humanities - a score taken from the 35 multiple-choice questions that relate to materials on arts, humanities or social sciences (scored out of 35).

Because new GAT tests are developed each year, it is possible that there may be small differences in the difficulty of the tests from one year to the next. So, if you took the GAT in 2006 and received a score of 25 in arts and humanities, and this year you took it again and received a score of 23, it doesn't necessarily mean that your knowledge and skills have declined. It could be that this year's test was slightly more difficult than last year's.

To enable students and schools to make accurate judgement about improvement from one year to the next, the VCAA reports standardised GAT scores as well as the "raw scores" - the number of correct answers or, in the case of written communication, marks awarded.

Standardised GAT scores, such as study scores, are reported on scales that run from 0 to 50 and all three component scores have the same mean (30) and the same standard deviation (7) as study scores.

As a result, by looking at the standardised GAT scores, you can judge whether you performed better on one component (say, written communication) than you did in another (say, arts, science or technology).

If you take the GAT twice in successive years, you can, by comparing the standardised GAT scores, judge whether you performed better in one year than the other.

How is the GAT used?

Because these skills are important in all of your studies, your performance on the GAT is a good indicator of what you are likely to achieve in your VCE studies. Should you do less well than expected, the GAT provides an "alert" and the VCAA has procedures in place to ensure that your assessment is checked and adjusted, if necessary. Key steps in this process are:

? Checking your examination scores. If your examination score is significantly less than would have been expected on the basis of your GAT scores and other available information, your examination will be assessed again. On the basis of such a re-assessment, your examination score can go up, but not down, so the process can only advantage you.

? Moderating school-based assessments. The GAT plays a part in the moderation of schools' coursework assessments and the assessment of school-assessed tasks in art, design and technology, food and technology, media, studio arts, systems and technology, and visual communication and design. The test helps the VCAA to ensure that school assessments are comparable across all schools and therefore fair to all students.

? Derived Examination Scores. Should you be ill, or suffering from the effects of some misfortune in the period leading up to an examination, it is possible that your examination performance may suffer. In this case, you will need to apply for a derived examination score.

Your application will be assessed by the VCAA's expert panel, and if it is approved, the GAT, along with all other information on your achievement in that study, will be used to estimate what your score on the examination would have been in normal circumstances.

If the estimated score is higher than your actual examination score it will replace that score. In this process, your score on the GAT can raise your final examination result but cannot lower it.

So, while your performance on the GAT does not count as part of your study score or your ENTER, it is important to realise that the GAT is your insurance policy - it can protect you against misfortune, and the better you perform on the GAT, the more likely it is to assist you.

GAT results also assist your school to assess how well it is performing.

Each year, the VCAA provides schools with the capacity to generate detailed reports on the results obtained by their students, which they use to review and improve their programs. Schools are constantly seeking ways to help their students achieve better results, and comparison between VCE results and GAT scores can help them to make judgements about where there may be room for improvement.

Why should I do my best on the GAT?

It is important to realise that you have nothing to lose in taking the GAT. The higher your score, the more likely it is that the GAT will help you. The lower your score, the less likely it is that the GAT will make any difference.

David Philips is the general manager of assessment and reporting at the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.

© 2007 The Age

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