VCAA publishes twelve General Maths past exams written for the current study design. Six are the end-of-year Examinations 1 and 2 for 2023, 2024 and 2025. Six are Northern Hemisphere Timetable papers for 2024, 2025 and 2026. Each one comes with published material to mark it against. Work through the older papers first, then the Northern Hemisphere set, and keep the 2025 end-of-year pair for a timed rehearsal in the last fortnight.
You are probably a Year 12 student with more papers to hand than time to sit them. The question is which ones match the course you are being examined on. A parent planning those last weeks needs the same answer.
A past exam is a paper VCAA has already set and published. VCAA is the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, which writes and marks the VCE exams. Twelve General Maths papers sit under the current study design. A study design is VCAA’s published statement of what a course covers and how it is assessed.
What comes with each year is not the same. That difference matters more than the papers do.
| Year and set | Papers | What VCAA publishes with them |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 end-of-year | Examinations 1 and 2 | An assessment guide for each paper, and an external assessment report for each |
| 2024 end-of-year | Examinations 1 and 2 | Marking guidelines and sample responses for Examination 1, an assessment guide for Examination 2, and an external assessment report for each. A Chief Assessor video with a transcript is published for Examination 2 |
| 2023 end-of-year | Examinations 1 and 2 | An external assessment report for each, and no assessment guide |
| 2026 Northern Hemisphere Timetable | Examinations 1 and 2 | An assessment guide for each, and an external assessment report for each |
| 2025 Northern Hemisphere Timetable | Examinations 1 and 2 | An assessment guide for each, and an external assessment report for each |
| 2024 Northern Hemisphere Timetable | Examinations 1 and 2 | An external assessment report for each |
An assessment guide is the marking material VCAA publishes for a paper. An external assessment report is its published report on that paper. That is VCAA’s current name for it. You may see the same file called an examiners’ report.
Northern Hemisphere Timetable papers are usually shortened to NHT. They come from a sitting VCAA has stopped running. VCAA’s note on them is worth having in full: “Students and teachers should note that Northern Hemisphere Timetable (NHT) examinations are no longer offered; however, the past examinations and reports may provide opportunities for students.” Six of those papers were written for the course you are sitting. There will be no more of them.
VCAA lists sample material above the past papers. There is a Sample written examination 1 and a Sample written examination 2, both dated March 2023. A formula sheet dated August 2024 sits with them, and a sample multiple-choice answer sheet dated October 2025. The examination specifications say the sample papers “provide an indication of the format of the examinations, and the types of questions teachers and students can expect until the current accreditation period is over”.
Reading time is 15 minutes for each paper, and writing time is 1 hour and 30 minutes. Both figures come from the VCE General Mathematics examination specifications. The specifications are VCAA’s published description of how the papers are built.
The two papers ask for different things. Examination 1 is a Multiple-Choice Question Book. It holds 40 questions worth 1 mark each, for 40 marks. Examination 2 is a Question and Answer Book of short-answer and extended-answer questions, including multi-stage questions, for 60 marks. Neither paper has optional questions. Sitting one paper is not practice for the other.
The 2026 VCE examination timetable sets both dates. Examination 1 is on Friday 30 October, 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm. Examination 2 is on Monday 2 November, at the same time. That block runs an hour and 45 minutes, which is longer than the writing time above. The timetable says why: each paper opens with a 15-minute reading period, and the times shown include it.
The current General Maths study design carries an accreditation period from 2023. An accreditation period is how long a study design stays in force. VCAA’s page prints a start year and no end year. Every paper in the table above was written under that design.
Older papers sit on the same page under a different name. Beneath the heading for previous study designs, VCAA lists papers from 2006 to 2023 as Further Mathematics. That is what the subject was called before this course. VCAA’s warning runs above them: “Students and teachers should note that, with the introduction of a new study design, the following past examinations are not necessarily a guide to the current VCE examination for this study.”
Read practically, that leaves room for single questions. Where a topic survived into the current course, a Further Mathematics question on it is worth doing. A whole Further Mathematics paper is not a rehearsal. It was built for a different course.
VCAA sets no recommended order and no recommended number of papers. The order below is ours. It rests on what each year carries to mark against, and on which paper is closest to the one you will sit.
Start with a sample examination if you have not yet seen a paper written for this course. VCAA published those to show the format. The specifications say they indicate the types of questions to expect while the current accreditation period lasts.
Then work forward through the end-of-year papers, oldest first. Sit 2023, then 2024. Mark each one against what VCAA publishes beside it. The 2023 pair has external assessment reports and no assessment guide, so it is better sat early than saved. The 2024 pair adds marking guidelines and sample responses for Examination 1, and an assessment guide for Examination 2.
One detail decides how honestly you can mark anything. The specifications state that answers to the multiple-choice questions are printed at the end of Examination 1. Answers to the other questions are not provided. Examination 1 therefore marks itself. Examination 2 needs the assessment guide or the external assessment report published beside it, and there is nothing else to mark it from. A paper is only worth the time it takes to mark it. For what to do with a report once you have one, read where Unit 3 and 4 students lose marks.
Use the Northern Hemisphere papers next, in year order, or to go again at a weak area. They were written for the same study design as the end-of-year papers. No more of them will be published.
Keep the 2025 end-of-year pair for last. Sit it as a timed rehearsal in the final fortnight. It is the most recent end-of-year pair, which is the examination you are sitting. It also carries both an assessment guide and an external assessment report. Be careful with the phrase “the latest paper”. The 2026 Northern Hemisphere papers are more recent by date, but they belong to the Northern Hemisphere set rather than the end-of-year one.
Sit the two papers in the pattern the real timetable uses at least once. That means Examination 1, then Examination 2 a few days later. Friday 30 October and Monday 2 November give you exactly that this year. A quiet desk matters for a timed paper. The State Library in the city and the library at Glen Waverley both let a Melbourne student work away from home.
A student who has worked through the three end-of-year pairs has used half of what exists. The six Northern Hemisphere papers are written for the same study design. Many students never think to use them. Two of those pairs carry an assessment guide as well as a report, so they can be marked the same way.
Once the current-design papers are gone, sitting more papers is not the next step. That argument belongs to a separate piece on practice exams, quality over quantity.
The harder problem by then is marking. Examination 2 has no published answers. An honest mark needs the guide or report that came with the paper. VCE Tutors Melbourne’s exam and SAC marking service asks for a question book and a solution. If one area is the weak spot rather than the marking, General Maths tutoring can be aimed straight at it.
Twelve sit under the current study design, counting both papers in each sitting. Half are end-of-year pairs and half come from the Northern Hemisphere Timetable. Older papers exist too, but they belong to the course that ran before this one.
Single questions, yes, where the topic is still part of your course. Treat a full paper as practice at technique rather than a trial run. VCAA’s note on those papers warns that they may not reflect the exam you will sit.
Only for the multiple-choice paper, which prints them at the back. The written paper has none. For that one you need the assessment guide or the external assessment report VCAA publishes with it.
There are two dates rather than one. Examination 1 falls on Friday 30 October and Examination 2 on the Monday after, 2 November. Both run from 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm.
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