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ACE Rules

Clarified ACE Rules came into effect on 14 October 2024. These rules apply to students commencing HSC courses from Term 4 2024, for students sitting for HSC exams in 2025, and for students receiving the RoSA from October 2024.

For students sitting for HSC exams in 2024, the previous ACE Online rules continue to apply.

To learn more about how NESA has clarified the ACE Rules, refer to the information sheets.

Accumulating and/or repeating courses

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NESA is authorised under sections 12, 14, and 95 of the Education Act 1990 (NSW) to:

  • advise the Minister on a pattern of study for Years 11 and 12
  • prepare and distribute to schools information relating to the course of study for candidates for the HSC, and eligibility to be awarded the HSC
  • determine if students seeking the award of the HSC have satisfactorily participated in and completed appropriate courses of study.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialHSC (curriculum)Life SkillsPreliminaryRoSAVET

About accumulating courses

  1. Accumulation is when a student satisfactorily completes and accrues one or more courses. Students may be entered into Stage 5, Preliminary and/or HSC courses within the same calendar year.

Accumulating courses

RoSA and Preliminary

  1. NESA allows students to accumulate courses towards the RoSA. 
  2. There is no time restriction for students accumulating Stage 5 and Preliminary courses.

HSC

  1. NESA allows students to accumulate courses towards the HSC.
  2. Students may:
    1. accumulate HSC courses by satisfactorily completing individual or multiple courses within a consecutive five-year period. This period commences the first year the student satisfactorily completes an HSC course, but courses do not need to be studied in consecutive years1, and 
    2. extend beyond the 5 years but must restart the consecutive five-year period. Course/s from outside the consecutive five-year period would no longer contribute towards the pattern of study requirements.2
  3. Students must meet all other eligibility requirements for the HSC to be awarded the HSC credential.
  4. An HSC course and the associated Extension course(s) may be undertaken in different years within a consecutive five-year accumulation period.
  5. Where there is an exclusion between 2 courses, a student cannot have an entry in both courses. This applies to both concurrent and consecutive years in the five-year period for the accumulation of the HSC.

VET

  1. NESA allows students to accumulate VET courses within a consecutive five-year period.

Credentialling

  1. Students who are accumulating courses may access a Student eRecord3 showing each calendar year of study. The Student eRecord will record all the Stage 54, Preliminary and HSC courses (including Life Skills and VET courses) satisfactorily completed. HSC courses will be reported over a five-year accumulation period, including repeated courses but only courses completed within a consecutive five-year period will be counted for HSC eligibility.

Related ACE Rules

For further information

For advice regarding accumulating and/or repeating courses please contact Manager, Liaison Unit on (02) 9367 8387 or by email at liaisonteam@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. For example, a student may study 2 courses in year 1 and then complete the rest of the courses in year 5.

  2. For example, a student could start the five-year period in year 1 but need to extend beyond year 5, which means that a consecutive five-year period would recommence from year 2 to include results from year 6.

  3. A Student eRecord is available for download by students from Students Online and by schools from Schools Online from the end of Year 10. The content of the Student eRecord is identical to the information contained on the Record of Student Achievement/Transcript of Study (as applicable).

  4. If a student receives an ‘N’ determination in a mandatory curriculum requirement course, they won’t be eligible for the RoSA. If they leave school, they will receive a Transcript of Study that will list the mandatory course(s) that received an ‘N’ determination. If a student is given an ‘N’ determination in a non-mandatory course, the course will not appear on their RoSA or Transcript of Study.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialHSC (curriculum)Life SkillsPreliminaryRoSAVET

About repeating courses

  1. Repeating is when a student reattempts a course in Stage 5 or Stage 6.
  2. NESA allows students to repeat one or more Stage 5 or Stage 6 courses.

Repeating Stage 5 and Stage 6 courses

  1. Students may repeat:
    1. one or more Stage 5 and/or Stage 6 course(s), and/or
    2. an Extension course and/or the related 2-unit course.

Repeating HSC courses

  1. A student may repeat one or more HSC courses within a consecutive five-year period to contribute to the HSC credential.
  2. A student may complete an excluded course in a subsequent year which will count as a replacement of the original course. The most recently completed course will contribute to the pattern of study requirements1.
  3. If a student repeats an HSC course, schools must advise students about implications for:
    1. pattern of study requirements
    2. the ATAR (if applicable).
  4. Students who repeat a course must not:
    1. submit a project, submitted work, or performance, either in part or in full, for a school-based assessment or HSC exam that has already been submitted in a Preliminary and/or HSC course
    2. resubmit a practical component submitted and marked in a previous year without explicit permission from NESA.

Repeating VET courses

  1. Students may repeat VET courses. 
  2. Students who have completed a 240-hour2 Industry Curriculum Framework course with or without the exam may enter for the exam in a subsequent year. However, changes to a Framework syllabus may make them ineligible for the future HSC exam(s).3
  3. Where a student has completed a 240-hour course, further entries, even if in different study years, are counted as repeats.

Credentialling

  1. Students who are repeating courses will have all satisfactorily completed courses recorded on the RoSA.
  2. All completed HSC courses will be reported on the RoSA or the Transcript of Study, and the Student eRecord, until the student is eligible for the HSC.

Related ACE Rules

For further information

For advice regarding accumulating and/or repeating courses please contact Manager, Liaison Unit on (02) 9367 8387 or by email at liaisonteam@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. For example, a student could complete Mathematics Advanced and Mathematics Extension 1 in one year and complete Mathematics Standard 2 in a subsequent year. Only Mathematics Standard 2 would count towards the HSC credential, replacing both Mathematics Advanced and Mathematics Extension 1.

  2. Eligibility for the Human Services exam is completion of the 240- or 360-hour course.

  3. VET curriculum is reviewed annually to ensure alignment with the latest version of the Training Package(s) or nationally accredited course(s) on which it is based, and to meet learner transition requirements.