Does Year 10 English actually matter for VCE? Not for your results. Year 10 English isn't a VCE unit, so its marks don't count towards your VCE or your ATAR. It matters for your skills: the reading and writing you practise in Year 10 are the same kinds of skills VCE English asks for in Year 11, often in very similar words.
That makes Year 10 a good year to try things in English, like a new way into an essay or a riskier piece of creative writing, before VCE begins. It's also usually the year you choose your VCE subjects, and knowing what Year 11 English asks can help with that choice too.
What Year 10 English asks of you
Government and Catholic schools in Victoria teach Year 10 English from the Victorian Curriculum. It's set by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), the same organisation that runs the VCE, and its Year 10 content is called Level 10. Your school chooses the texts and tasks within it, which can include novels, films, poetry, plays, non-fiction and online texts. You read texts with complex ideas, revise your own and other students' drafts, and give structured talks suited to your audience.
Where your Year 10 skills turn up in VCE English
VCE English is usually Units 1 and 2 in Year 11, then Units 3 and 4 in Year 12. What each unit covers is set out in VCAA's study design, the official document for a VCE subject. It describes each unit through outcomes, which are what you should be able to do by the end of the unit.
Four paths from Year 10 to Year 11 English
Your own reading of a text
Your reading, other interpretations
Connect your experience with a text
How a text is put together
Writer’s choices shape your reading
How writers create meaning
Writing your own pieces
A consistent writing voice
Audience and purpose
Arguments and speaking
Values behind someone’s words
Persuasion and your own argument
Current VCE outcomes behind these paths
- Your own reading of a text: Unit 1, Outcome 1: Reading and exploring texts
- How a text is put together: Unit 2, Outcome 1: Reading and exploring texts
- Writing your own pieces: Unit 1, Outcome 2: Crafting texts
- Arguments and speaking: Unit 2, Outcome 2: Exploring argument
VCAA's planning notes also link the reading skills you develop up to Year 10 with VCE English.
The oral presentation in Unit 2 can take more forms than a formal speech, including a debate, a discussion or a digital presentation.
Our guide to reading the VCE English study design explains its units, outcomes and assessment in more detail.
What you can practise in Year 10
Most of this practice can come from the texts and tasks you already have in class.
- Reading for what a text suggests. You could explore what one word, image or camera shot in your class text suggests beyond its literal meaning. That's inferential reading, and it's where analysing a text in Year 11 starts.
- Writing down your view before a class discussion. One sentence on what you think a text is saying, written beforehand, lets you see afterwards what changed your mind and what supported your view. The curriculum calls this comparing “initial and subsequent impressions”.
- Reading arguments outside English. You could choose an opinion piece, speech or video essay that argues a view you care about. You can ask who it's trying to persuade and which words pulled you towards agreeing, which is the thinking behind Exploring argument in the current Unit 2.
- Redrafting from one comment. You could revise one paragraph using your teacher's feedback, then explain your changes. Crafting texts in the current Unit 1 asks you to describe the decisions you made in your writing, so this is practice for that as well.
To fit some of this into a normal week around other subjects, sport or work, our weekly study planner lays out a week you can print or save.
Where to get help with English
Your English teacher is the first person to ask. Bringing one piece of marked work and asking what you could change next gives the conversation something specific to work from. Your school library is free too, and it can help you find novels, non-fiction and opinion writing for the reading practice above. VCAA also publishes the VCE English study design free on its website, so you can read the Units 1 and 2 outcomes yourself before Year 11.
If you'd like one-to-one help on top of that, a TMJ tutor works from the texts, tasks and feedback you get at school, in person across Melbourne or online.
When Unit 1 starts, the close reading and redrafting you've practised in Year 10 can make the first tasks feel like a next step rather than a new subject.
Other questions about English and VCE
Do I have to take English in VCE?
Yes. To get your VCE you need three units of English, and two of them must be Units 3 and 4. For an ATAR, you also need a study score, your result out of 50 for Units 3 and 4, in one of the English studies: English, English as an Additional Language (EAL), Literature or English Language.
Which VCE English should I choose?
Each of the English studies works with language differently. Literature centres on close analysis of texts, and English Language on how language itself works. Your English teacher or your school's VCE or careers coordinator can tell you which ones your school offers, and our guide to choosing your VCE subjects helps with the rest of the choice. Our guide to VCE English, English Language and Literature compares the three side by side.
What if English isn't my first language?
You may be able to take EAL instead of English. VCAA sets who is eligible, and your school's VCE coordinator can check whether you are.
Official sources we checked
We checked these official sources on 6 November 2026.
