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6 tips for preparing students for SACs

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Getting ready for SACs can feel like a race to cover all the required content. It can be stressful for both teachers and students. Planning a thorough SAC preparation process for students - including sufficient practice and feedback - can help everyone feel more calm and prepared, and get the most out of the work we all do to learn. Here are some tips for planning effective SAC preparation:


1. Confirm you have covered all key knowledge areas Confirm that you have covered all key knowledge areas according to the VCAA study design. This ensures alignment of SAC preparation with preparation for end of year exams. You can also provide these key knowledge dot points to your students as a checklist for their revision.

2. Teach tasks words Understanding tasks words can be just as important as content for students’ ability to earn marks in assessments. Practice using sentence starters to show the difference between task words. For example, in a ‘discuss’ question, using the model of ‘one benefit is…’ and ‘one cost is…’ is a simple way for students to understand the requirements of the question.

3. Practice SACs Attempt to do at least two practice SACs before the actual SAC. In doing so, students will gain familiarity with answering SAC style questions. Textbook questions often do not challenge students to think critically about content, or apply examples.

4. Practice under time conditions Have your students practice answering questions under time conditions. For example, a 4 mark question in business management should take 6.4 minutes, so work towards students being able to write at this pace. This is a great class activity, and will improve students’ time management in assessments throughout the year, building this as a skill in the lead up to end of year exams.

5. Review solutions together Reviewing solutions to practice SACs in class is a great way to illustrate the expected quality of response. For example, you may compare two different responses to the same question that achieved a different mark, comparing the relevance to the task word, the degree of depth, and use of examples. Through this, students will be able to better understand how marks are allocated.

6. Provide individual feedback


Provide students with individual feedback on their practice SACs. As well as the student’s ability to recall content, provide feedback on skills that will improve their expression, such as clarity of writing and structure of response.


Encourage students to re-attempt practice questions where they did not achieve full marks. We hope all teachers and students have had a successful Term 1. 2021 EXTRA Trial Exams are available to order for July delivery, whilst 2020 Trial Exams are available now.

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