VCE Psychology exam 2026: what the examiner reports say to fix before 30 October
VCE Psychology is on Friday 30 October, 9:00 am to 11:45 am, according to the VCAA timetable . The time includes reading time. We read the 2024 and 2025 Psychology examination reports and collected the errors VCAA names, using its own wording.
By StudyDesign AI editorial team. Every quotation below was copied from the published VCAA reports. The advice around the quotes is ours, not VCAA's.
The pattern across both years
The 2024 report lists its areas for improvement, and one of them is “understanding the command terms ‘evaluate’ and ‘explain’.” It then says:
“in most cases, a simple definition of the key term(s) from the question will not be sufficient.”VCAA 2024 Psychology report, General comments
The 2025 report repeats the idea in nearly every question: students name something correct but do not link it to what was asked. The sections below group the named errors by skill, so you can check yourself against them.
Linking your answer to the scenario
The population is not just the condition
“A very common error was identifying the population as simply ‘people with Alzheimer’s disease’.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 2c.ii
The report's reasoning is that the population has to include everything needed to measure both variables, which here meant Alzheimer's disease and antibiotic use. The 2024 report found a similar slip in Question 4d, with “participants or members of the sample (rather than members of the population)” described as having an equal chance of selection.
Linking to the people in the stimulus
“It is important where a context or scenario is provided that students link their response to this context/scenario.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 6c
If the question is about long-distance runners, an affective effect has to be shown affecting their running.
Justifying a data choice
“It was not enough to only quote the mean or the standard deviation value when justifying their choice.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 6b
The report wants you to say the value was the smallest compared with the other standard deviations. A number alone is not a comparison.
Mixing up terms that sound close
Spinal reflex or brain-mediated response
“mislabelling autonomic responses like sweating as spinal reflexes. Thermoregulation is mediated by the brain and is not a spinal reflex.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 1a.i
Positive and negative reinforcement
“naming positive reinforcement while describing relief (negative reinforcement).”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 4c
Question 4e then went the other way: negative reinforcement “based solely on relief, rather than the stimulus provided in the scenario (praise)”. Ask what was added and what was removed before you pick the label.
Cause and maintain
“A common error was to state that catastrophic thinking causes a phobia rather than perpetuates/maintains/worsens it.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 4d.i
Stress types and stressors
“The most common error was incorrectly identifying acute and/or chronic stress as stressors, rather than forms or types of stress.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 5a
“A common error was inaccurately referring to resilience as a strategy for coping with stress or a response to stress.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 5c
Independent variables
“The most common error involved listing the two types of stimuli used (torch light and electronic bell) as the two independent variables.”VCAA 2024 Psychology report, Question 6a
The 2024 areas for improvement also list “identifying the independent variable of an experiment”. Ask what the researcher manipulated, not what was shown to participants.
Key science skills
Validity
“The most common error was suggesting a general strength and/or limitation of the investigation that was not directly related to the concept of validity.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 5d
Methodology
In 2025 Question 2c.i, the report says some lower-scoring responses explained issues with a controlled experiment rather than why a correlational study would be more ethical, and others made the error of “stating that correlational studies assess the cause-and-effect relationship between variables”.
Comparing, not listing
“providing two facts that were not congruent (e.g. comparing medium of action for one and duration for the other)”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 1b
Pick one feature and describe both neurotransmitters and neuromodulators on it.
The longer questions
Long-term potentiation and depression
“Another common error was stating that long-term depression involves no stimulation/neural firing, which is inaccurate.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 8
The same report says a generic answer that ignores the pencil-holding scenario could earn a maximum of four of five marks.
The extended response
“This question rewarded reasoning rather than long narrative writing.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 9
“Responses using paired comparisons, direct quotes and because-statements often scored highly.”VCAA 2025 Psychology report, Question 9
Use the diagram or data in the question and give a reason after every judgement.
How to use this before 30 October
- Do a past paper under time (15 minutes of reading, then 2.5 hours of writing is the timetable window), then mark it against the examiner's report, not just the solutions.
- Write down every error of yours that matches one above. Keep the list to the terms and skills you actually mixed up.
- Redo the weakest short answers, adding the scenario detail and the because-statement each time.
For how to read a report properly, see how to use VCAA examiner reports.
What this page can't tell you
Two reports describe two cohorts. They show where students lost marks in those years, not what this year's scenarios will be. We also left out the top-scoring example answers, which the reports give in full. Read those on the VCAA site.
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