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WACE Health Studies: complete 2026 guide to ATAR Units 3 and 4 (SCSA)

A complete 2026 guide to WACE ATAR Health Studies Units 3 and 4 (SCSA, Western Australia). How the course is assessed (school-based plus an external written exam, weightings to confirm against the current syllabus), what each unit covers, and links to every dot-point answer on determinants of health, the Ottawa Charter, behaviour change, equity and the health inquiry process.

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WACE ATAR Health Studies (Western Australia, SCSA) Year 12 is the Units 3 and 4 sequence. The focus of the course is on local, regional and global challenges to health, the determinants that drive unequal health outcomes, and the health promotion and advocacy needed to reduce inequities. The final ATAR course mark combines school-based assessment across the year with an external written examination set by SCSA.

This page is the index. Below you will find how the course is assessed, what each unit covers, and links to every dot-point answer we have written for Health Studies Units 3 and 4.

How the course is assessed in 2026

School-based assessment
Run by your school against the SCSA assessment outline, this combines assessment types such as investigation and inquiry tasks, response and analysis tasks, and tests. Evidence can include written and oral reports, posters, presentations and articles. School-based marks are moderated so schools mark to a common standard.
External assessment
The external component is a single written examination covering Units 3 and 4 together. It uses closed and open questions built around stimulus material such as scenarios, data, graphs, tables and media, and rewards applying the course frameworks rather than reciting them.
Weightings to confirm
Following the standard WACE ATAR model, school-based and external assessment are each weighted at 50 percent of the final course mark. Treat this split, and the school-based assessment-type percentages, as provisional and confirm them against the current SCSA Health Studies ATAR Year 12 syllabus and assessment outline, since SCSA sets and occasionally updates these tables.

Unit 3: Health, Determinants and Communities

Unit 3 builds the foundations of the course. You study what shapes health, how to promote it, and what fairness in health requires.

Topics. The social, environmental, economic and biomedical determinants of health and how they interact to produce inequities. Health promotion and the Ottawa Charter (five action areas, and the enable, mediate and advocate strategies). The influence of beliefs, attitudes and values on behaviour and the models that explain behaviour change. Social justice, equity and equality, and advocacy to reduce health inequities.

Unit 4: Globalisation, Consumer and Personal Health

Unit 4 extends the foundations to global and personal contexts. You study how global forces shape health, how to act as a critical consumer, the personal skills that protect health, and how to investigate health issues.

Topics. Globalisation and the global and local health inequities it shapes. Consumer health: evaluating the reliability of health information, products and services, and the role of health literacy. Self-management and interpersonal skills for healthy decision making. The health inquiry process, from framing a question to evidence-based action.

Our 2026 WACE Health Studies dot-point answers

Every link below is a focused answer to one SCSA syllabus content area. Each page identifies what the dot point is asking, gives the worked answer with accurate health concepts and an applied example, and flags the mistake most likely to cost marks.

Unit 3: Health, Determinants and Communities

Unit 4: Globalisation, Consumer and Personal Health

The WACE system, explained

See all →

Common questions about Health

How is WACE ATAR Health Studies assessed in 2026?
Like all WACE ATAR courses, the final Year 12 course mark combines school-based assessment with an external examination set by SCSA. The standard ATAR split is 50 percent school-based and 50 percent external, and the external component for Health Studies is a single written examination covering Units 3 and 4. Confirm the exact school-based and external weightings, and the school-based assessment-type percentages, against the current SCSA Health Studies ATAR Year 12 syllabus and assessment outline, because these tables are set by SCSA and can be updated.
What do Units 3 and 4 cover?
Unit 3 (Health, Determinants and Communities) covers the social, environmental, economic and biomedical determinants of health, health promotion and the Ottawa Charter, how beliefs attitudes and values shape behaviour, behaviour change models, and social justice, equity and advocacy. Unit 4 (Globalisation, Consumer and Personal Health) covers globalisation and global health inequities, consumer health and health literacy, self-management and interpersonal skills, and the health inquiry process. The external written exam covers both units together.
What is the Ottawa Charter and why does it matter so much?
The Ottawa Charter is the health promotion framework at the heart of the course. It has five action areas (build healthy public policy, create supportive environments, strengthen community action, develop personal skills, reorient health services) and three strategies (enable, mediate, advocate). The exam frequently asks you to apply the action areas and strategies to plan or evaluate health promotion that reduces inequities, so being able to apply it, not just recite it, is essential.
What is the difference between equity and equality in this course?
Equality means treating everyone the same and giving identical resources. Equity means giving people or groups what they each need to reach a fair outcome, which usually means giving more support to those who start with less. The course treats health inequities as unfair, avoidable differences caused by unequal social conditions, so equitable, needs-based responses are central to social justice. Confusing equity with equality is one of the most common mistakes.
What is the health inquiry process?
The health inquiry process is a structured way to investigate a health issue: plan and frame an inquiry question, collect primary and secondary data, analyse and interpret it, draw evidence-based conclusions, and use those conclusions to plan health promotion action and advocacy. The exam may ask you to identify a stage, evaluate the reliability and validity of data, interpret data, or turn findings into justified action.
How should I prepare for the external written exam?
Practise applying the core frameworks to scenarios rather than memorising definitions. Be ready to link determinants of health to inequities, apply the Ottawa Charter action areas and strategies, use behaviour change models such as the Health Belief Model and stages of change, distinguish equity from equality, and evaluate health information and data. The highest marks go to applied, justified answers that use the stimulus, so work through past questions and stimulus material.