VCE General Achievement Test study guide
VCE General Achievement Test · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The General Achievement Test (GAT) is a pen-and-paper test of general knowledge and skills taken by students in the course of completing their senior secondary studies, administered by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. It is intended for VCE students, and it serves two purposes: it plays an important role in the quality assurance of VCE assessments, and it gives students an opportunity to demonstrate that they meet the Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Standards expected at a senior secondary level. The test draws on writing, numeracy and reasoning, but it is not a subject-specific exam. VCAA states that no special study is needed. The VCE General Achievement Test study guide has 3 sections and about 990 words.
01Writing: Purpose, Structure and Control
The GAT writing task asks you to produce a sustained piece of prose in response to a short prompt, usually with a stated audience and purpose. Markers reward clear thinking expressed in controlled, varied English.
334 words, about 2 min02Numeracy: Proportion, Percentage and Practical Data
The GAT numeracy questions test everyday mathematical reasoning rather than formal algebra. Core concepts include percentages (increases, decreases, and reverse percentage), ratio and proportion (scaling recipes, maps, mixtures), rates (speed, wages per hour, cost per unit), unit conversion (length, mass, time, currency) and interpreting tables and graphs (reading axes, identifying misleading scales).
322 words, about 2 min03Reasoning: Argument, Evidence and Inference
The GAT reasoning questions test your ability to evaluate arguments, draw valid inferences and recognise patterns, without requiring specialist knowledge. Key concepts are conclusion versus evidence (what is claimed versus what supports it), assumption (an unstated premise the argument needs), validity versus truth (whether a conclusion follows versus whether the premises are actually correct), correlation and causation , and deductive patterns such as if-then reasoning and syllogism.
334 words, about 2 min