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SACE South Australia

Background

  • South Australian High School Graduation Certificate also known as the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE)

  • Students will receive the certificate after completing the high school curriculum prescribed by the South Australian Ministry of Education and obtaining a certain grade.     

  • The SACE graduation certificate is issued by the South Australian Certificate of Education Board (SACE Board of Directors) in South Australia.

Requirements to Obtain a Certificate

The SACE is a two-stage certificate. Most students study stage one in grade 11 and stage two in grade 12.   

Each subject has 10 or 20 credits, and 20 credits need to be completed in a whole year. Some credits come from compulsory courses, but most credits come from subjects chosen by students.   

 

A total of 50 credits come from compulsory courses:

  • The first phase of the Personal Learning Plan (Personal Learning Plan)- completed in the 10th or 11th grade (10 credits)    

 

  • Numeracy requirement Mathematics subjects or courses in the first or second stage (10 credits)   

  

  • Literacy requirement English subjects or courses in the first or second stage (20 credits)

     

  • The second phase of the research project (Research Project)- completed in the 11th or 12th grade (10 credits). 

Of the remaining 150 credits, at least 60 credits must be in the second stage of the subject. To obtain the SACE, students must complete 200 credits including the compulsory courses.

Evaluation Criteria

In the first stage of the curriculum, the main assessment criteria consists of the students performance at school. In the second stage of the 12th grade course, assesments consist of both internal school scores and public examinations. 70% of the performance evaluation is from internal school results, and the remaining 30% is from an external examination.

How is the ATAR Ranking Calculated?

Students must reach a minimum of a C- level or higher in the first stage and C- or higher in the second stage: and must have 90 second-stage credits to be eligible for the ATAR ranking. SACE results are converted into the Australian Tertiary Rank (ATAR) afterwards. The ATAR will be used to calculate the admission qualifications for students to enter universities and other higher education institutions.

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