Using AI in VCE Schoolwork: What You Need to Know

SAC is short for school-assessed coursework: the tests, essays and reports your school sets and marks during the year. In Units 3 and 4 those marks count towards your study score. Our guide to starting Year 11 explains how SACs work before then.

VCAA's VCE Administrative Handbook is the rulebook schools follow, and it lists what every student must do with school-based assessment. The first rule is to “make sure that all work submitted for assessment is their own”. Another is to “acknowledge all resources used”, including “the name and status of any person or source who provided assistance and the type of assistance provided”.

The handbook also has a short section on generative AI. Its key sentence is the same in the 2026 edition and the 2027 edition (Word document): “Unattributed or disallowed use of genAI in assessment may be a breach of academic integrity.” That names two problems, and neither is using AI as such. Unattributed means using it without saying so. Disallowed means using it where the task doesn't allow it.

Both connect to authentication, which is your school confirming that the work you hand in is your own. Your teacher does this partly by seeing your work as it develops. For school-based assessment you complete outside class, you also sign VCAA's authentication record, a form stating that the work is yours.

VCAA says students “should be clearly informed of the timelines and the conditions under which assessment tasks are to be conducted, including whether there is provision for the use of support materials and technology.” The Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools (PDF), which Australia's education ministers approved in 2023, sets the same expectation: work set for students, including assessments, “clearly outlines how generative AI tools should or should not be used”.

That means the rules can differ between subjects, between teachers and between two SACs in the same subject. One essay task might let you use AI to brainstorm but not to draft, while a maths test in class might allow none at all. When a task sheet doesn't say, you can ask your teacher before you start, for example:

• Can I use AI on this task, and for which parts?
• If I can, how would you like me to acknowledge it?
• Should I keep anything as I go, such as notes, drafts or the prompts I typed?

The other place to look is your school's assessment policy. Each year your school has to give you, in writing, its rules for school-based assessment, including how it authenticates work, and at the start of each unit it tells you the conditions for each assessment. Your teacher or VCE coordinator can point you to where your school keeps them.

VCAA's authentication rules cover work your school assesses. For everything else, the table shows whose rules apply.

For assessed work, VCAA's list of acceptable help is worth knowing. It includes “prompting and general advice from another person or source, which leads to refinements or self-correction or both”, and ideas from elsewhere that have been “transformed by the student and used in a new context”. Whether a particular use of AI counts as that kind of help on a particular SAC is still your teacher's call.

The same rules cover help from people. A student must “not receive undue assistance from another person, including their teacher, or source in the preparation and submission of work”. For help understanding a topic, you can start with your teacher or ask about study support at your school. Our tutors at TMJ Tutoring also help you prepare from your school's course outline, and the SAC itself stays your work.

When your teacher allows AI on a task, the rule to acknowledge all resources applies to it the way it does to a book or website. That means naming the tool and saying what you used it for. Your teacher may give you a format to follow. If not, a short note at the end of the work can do the job.

An acknowledgement doesn't make a use allowed, though. If a task rules out AI for drafting, saying you used it for drafting doesn't change the rule.

Sometimes a teacher can't be sure a piece of work is the student's own. VCAA's rule for that is direct: “If any part of the work or all of the work cannot be authenticated, the matter must be dealt with as a breach of rules.” Your school handles it under its own policy, following steps VCAA sets out.

You can respond during the investigation and at the meeting, and notes, drafts and saved versions can help you show how the work developed.

VCAA's rules leave room for AI in how you study for VCE. What they protect is what your SACs are there to show: what you can do yourself.

What do teachers look for when they check your work?

VCAA asks teachers to consider whether a piece of work:

• “is atypical of other work produced by the student”
• “is inconsistent with the teacher's knowledge of the student's ability”
• “contains unacknowledged material”
• “has not been sighted and monitored by the teacher during its development”

Do the same rules apply in Year 11?

Yes. VCAA's authentication rules and the steps above cover Units 1 and 2 as well as Units 3 and 4.

What should I keep out of AI tools?

Personal information. The Victorian Department of Education's generative AI policy tells government schools to direct students not to load personal information about students or staff into AI tools, “for example, student names, reports, personal histories and contact details”. The policy applies to Victorian government schools, and other schools can have their own rules on AI tools.

We checked these official sources on 6 November 2026.