It stands for Western Australian Certificate of Education, but we don't call it that in W.A. Our equivalent to HSC is TEE (tertiary entrance exams) which is what we refer to it as. And instead of a UAI we get a TER (Tertiary Entrance Rank) which is just the same thing. Although we don't have bands(?) like you do. We have most of the same subjects...
I think the certificate is called the WACE, it's just that it hasn't been mentioned by anyone before. Maybe it will be when we get our results, but I'm not sure.
One of the reason all those reforms took place a few years ago (the reason this forum exists!) was the NSW government felt the HSC placed too much stress on tertiary entrance, when the reality was that most HSC students didn't study after high school. That's why the year 12 curriculum for stuff like Science is so watered down now - instead of being a workable prerequisite to university science it's got more of an "interest" focus.
Its so crap though. Why in the hell do we have to do English. I wish it was watered down more. Do you Western Australians have to do compulsary subjects?
As pink_lady said, English is the only compulsory subject however we also have course prerequisites which make some subjects like maths necessary for most degrees. But anyway, are you in yr12 in 2005 pink_lady? What subjects are you studying? I think soon they are changing our system abit towards a more outcome-based format however they will still have some sort of exam. The HSC sounds really complex in comparison with our system.
yes i will be in yr 12 '05' and i'm doing 5 TEE subject, eng, discrete, biol, history and geography, yeah they are changing the system, will it be easier for the ppl younger than us to gain a good TER and get into the course they want?