Sick or something goes wrong during VCE exams: the Derived Examination Score (DES) explained (2026)

Getting sick in exam season is awful, and it's more common than you'd think. The good news is that VCAA has a process built for exactly this: the Derived Examination Score, or DES. Here's how it works, straight from VCAA's own pages (linked at the bottom). Your VCE coordinator is the person to talk to first.

Step 1: tell someone, fast

VCAA says students shouldn't miss an exam just because they don't feel able to do their best. If you're ill but going, tell your VCE coordinator and/or the chief supervisor about your condition as soon as possible.

If you can't go at all, tell your principal or VCE coordinator immediately.

If something sudden happens immediately before or during the exam period (an illness, an injury or a personal circumstance), your school can also apply for Emergency Special Examination Arrangements for you. Ask your coordinator.

Step 2: see a health professional at the right time

Timing matters:

• If you sit the exam, VCAA says a timely consultation is from two days before the exam to one day after it.
• If you don't attend because of illness, you need a specific written recommendation from a health professional that you don't attend, from someone who examined or treated you as close as possible to the day before the exam or on the day itself.

Step 3: apply for a DES

• You apply for each exam you want a DES for.
• VCAA says the application and collecting the evidence are your responsibility. Your school completes its sections (the chief supervisor, VCE coordinator and principal), and your principal makes a recommendation to VCAA.
• If your circumstances are exceptionally private and sensitive, you can apply directly to VCAA.
• The deadline is listed at the end of your own Student Examination/Assessment Timetable. Find it now, before you need it.

VCAA emails you and your school the outcome, and it's recorded on VASS. If your application is refused, you can make a second application with new evidence, and it must reach VCAA no later than five days from the date of the decision email.

Who can get a DES?

VCAA says a DES is for students who are ill or affected by other personal circumstances at the time of an external assessment, where their result is unlikely to be a fair or accurate indication of their learning. To be eligible you must:

• have completed the course leading up to the exam, and have a result for at least one other graded assessment in the same study; and
• have had an illness, injury, personal trauma or serious intervening event start (or get worse) at the time of the exam; and
• have evidence.

What a DES doesn't cover

According to VCAA, a DES is not for:

• long-term illness or other ongoing conditions (that's what Special Examination Arrangements are for, applied for in advance);
• things you could have avoided, like misreading the exam timetable;
• your own choices, such as social, sporting or school events;
• unfamiliarity with English, or issues with teaching.

A DES also isn't available for the GAT, the Music Composition and Music Inquiry externally assessed tasks, or the Extended Investigation written report.

How is a DES worked out?

VCAA calculates a range of possible scores ("predictors") from your moderated school-based assessments, your GAT component scores, your scores on other exams and your school's indicative grades. Your two graded assessment scores make the biggest contribution. If the highest predictor is greater than the score you actually got, the highest predictor becomes your final score. So applying can't lower your result.

Three exams in one day

If you sit three exams on the same day, VCAA's handbook says you automatically get a DES for the third exam (you don't need to apply), plus extra time of 10 minutes per hour for it. You do need to attend all three.

What if something goes wrong in the room?

If the exam itself is disrupted by an irregularity in the exam room, you must tell your principal in writing within three days. VCAA says your results can't be lowered through that process.

What if I miss an exam?

Tell your principal or VCE coordinator immediately. If you don't attend and don't have an approved application, VCAA records "NA" for that external assessment. If you're sick and need a DES, the written health professional recommendation (step 2) is what makes a non-attendance application possible.

Look after yourself

Being unwell during exams is stressful on top of stressful. Our exam-week stress guide has quick techniques that help in the moment, and the people you can talk to, including Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) and Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636). If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 000.