WACE Media exam 2026Exam: Tue 3 Nov · SCSA timetable
Your WACE Media exam:
When and how long
- Media Production and Analysis2.00 pm start2 h 30 min plus 10 min reading time
SCSA: arrive 30 minutes before the examination start time. Every ATAR written exam has 10 minutes reading time and 3 hours working time unless otherwise indicated. The timetable is final, and no allowance is made for misreading it.
Source: 2026 Year 12 ATAR course written examinations timetable (SCSA), checked Wednesday 23 September 2026. Where a start time, reading time or duration isn't shown, the timetable doesn't publish it: check your personal timetable and the front of your paper.
What the exam covers
We don't have past-paper frequency data for this exam, so here is the course, module by module. Make sure every module is covered.
Night-before and exam-morning checklists
The night before
Exam-week survival kit: The last 7 days · The night before and exam morning · What to bring, and what's banned · How to use reading time · If you're sick or something goes wrong · Handling exam-week stress.
Last-week revision
WACE Media cram sheet
Key formulas, definitions and facts copied from our Media syllabus pages. One page when printed.
Unit 3: Media art
Post-production is the final phase of making a media work, in which raw footage and sound are edited, mixed, graded and finished into a completed piece. It includes picture editing, sound design, colour grading, titles and export, and it is where many of the work's final meanings are made.
A treatment is a short written outline of a planned media work, describing the concept, style, mood, key scenes and intended audience in prose. It communicates the feel of the work before a full script exists, so collaborators and assessors can understand the vision.
A production role is a defined responsibility on a media production, such as director, camera operator or sound recordist. Each role carries specific tasks and decisions, and fulfilling a role competently is part of the practical skill the course assesses.
The practical production statement is a short written piece, up to two single-sided A4 pages, in which you explain your intention, target audience and the key production choices behind your media artwork. It is your chance to make your deliberate decisions visible to the examiner.
Unit 4: Power and persuasion
Genre conventions are the repeated features of content and style that let audiences recognise a type of media work, such as the interview and voiceover of documentary or the product reveal of advertising. Persuasive media borrow these conventions to set audience expectations and lend a message a familiar, trusted feel.
A dominant ideology is the set of values and beliefs that the most powerful groups in a society present as natural and universal. Persuasive media frequently reinforce dominant ideology, which is why messages that support it can feel like common sense rather than argument.
Concentration of ownership is the control of a large share of media outlets by a small number of companies or individuals. It can reduce the diversity of voices available to audiences and amplify the perspectives of owners across multiple platforms.
Positioning is the way a text guides an audience to adopt a particular attitude toward its subject. A text positions through selection, codes and persuasive techniques so that one reading feels natural and others feel unlikely. Identifying the position a text constructs is the core skill of Unit 4 analysis.