SACE Stage 2 Information Processing and Publishing cheat sheet

SACE Stage 2 school assessment is internally marked by the school and externally moderated by the SACE Board; moderation adjusts school marks against external standards, not individual student ranks.

School assessment typically contributes 70% of the subject grade and the external assessment 30%; confirm the exact split in the current subject outline because weightings can change between years.

Assessment types in this subject usually include practical/folio tasks, a major project or investigation, and skills/application tasks; each type is assessed against specific performance standards.

Performance standards in Stage 2 use five grades (A to E), each described by a set of criteria; a grade is awarded on the balance of evidence across all criteria, not by averaging criterion scores mechanically.

A summative task must be completed under supervised conditions or with clearly documented supervision; drafts and redrafts are permitted only where the task design states so and must be authenticated.

Moderation samples are selected by the SACE Board, not the school; the school submits materials for a sample of students across the grade range, and results can be adjusted up or down.

Plagiarism and collusion are managed through the school's assessment integrity policy; suspected breaches are investigated and can result in zero for the task and further penalties.

Special provisions (illness, misadventure, disability) are applied for through the school's SACE coordinator before or immediately after the affected task; evidence such as medical certificates is required.

The external assessment in this subject is typically a written examination of about 2 hours, set and marked by the SACE Board, and contributes roughly 30% of the final grade.

Externally assessed work is marked against the same performance standards as school assessment, so the grade descriptors (A-E) apply consistently across both components.

Examination questions commonly require application to a scenario, explanation of processes, evaluation of options, and justification of recommendations, not recall alone.

Marks in the exam are allocated per question and shown on the paper; time should be allocated in proportion to marks, roughly one minute per mark for a 2-hour paper.

The SACE Board publishes the subject outline, assessment scope, and past examinations; past papers indicate question style and command words such as describe, explain, compare, and evaluate.

Command words carry expected depth: describe states features, explain gives reasons and mechanisms, compare identifies similarities and differences, evaluate weighs strengths and weaknesses against criteria.

Externally assessed results are reported as a grade (A-E) plus a numerical score; the school assessment and external assessment are combined using the published weighting to give the final subject grade.

Access to the exam room follows SACE examination rules: approved equipment only, no unauthorised electronic devices, and materials checked against the approved materials list for the subject.