VCE Extended Investigation case studies
VCE Extended Investigation · Put your knowledge to work in context.
VCE Extended Investigation is a Victorian Certificate of Education study for Units 3 and 4, published by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). The VCAA page for the study lists an accreditation period from 2025, meaning the study design applies to Units 3 and 4 from that year. The study is built around students designing and carrying out their own extended investigation, then reporting on it, with the VCAA page pointing to areas of study, outcomes and assessment in the study design document, plus separate pages for planning a program, teaching and learning, and assessment. The VCAA page also lists general assessment advice, an externally-assessed task declaration form, and examination specifications, past examinations and reports as assessment resources, and notes a link to the VCE Season of Excellence. The VCE Extended Investigation case studies are 5 cases and about 3,246 words.
1The Vanishing Effect: When a Pilot Study Refuses to Scale
Priya is investigating whether a 10-minute nature walk improves sustained attention in Year 11 students. In her pilot with 18 volunteers, mean reaction time on a 5-minute vigilance task improved by 42 ms after the walk versus a rest condition, and she is excited.
633 words, about 3 min2The Questionnaire That Measured Two Things at Once
Marcus is investigating whether students who report higher 'academic pressure' also report poorer sleep quality. He writes a 12-item online survey.
677 words, about 3 min3The Interview Sample That Agreed With Itself
Aisha is running a qualitative investigation into how students decide whether to disclose a mental health difficulty to a teacher. She conducts semi-structured interviews with 9 students.
594 words, about 3 min4The Report Over the Word Limit
Dev is finalising his externally assessed investigation report. The required sections are introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion, with a strict overall word limit that includes in-text citations but excludes reference list, tables, and appendices.
644 words, about 3 min5The Oral Presentation That Ran Out of Time
Lena has a 10-minute oral presentation on her investigation into whether retrieval practice improves retention of chemistry formulae, followed by 5 minutes of questions. Her slides contain 14 bullet points per slide across 18 slides, including three dense data tables, and she plans to read them.
698 words, about 3 min