Sick on a VCE Exam Day? How the Derived Examination Score (DES) Works

If you get sick, injured or hit by something serious right before or during a VCE exam, there's a safety net built into the system: the Derived Examination Score, or DES. It's calculated by the VCAA, you apply for it through your school, and it exists so that one terrible day doesn't decide a whole subject. Here's how it works for the 2026 exams, what counts, what doesn't, and exactly what to do if it happens to you.

What a DES is

A DES is a score the VCAA can calculate for an exam when illness or another serious circumstance means your result is unlikely to be a fair or accurate picture of what you can do. VCAA says its purpose is to make sure your final result reflects, as accurately as possible, the level of achievement expected from the work you've shown in that subject over the year.

Three things to know up front:

• It's not a bonus. It's worked out statistically from your other results in the subject.
• It can only help. It replaces your exam score only if it's higher than the score you actually got.
• It's usually not automatic. In most cases you have to apply, with evidence, by a deadline. The exceptions are sitting three exams in one day (covered below) and group applications, which a principal can make when an event affects a whole group of students.

Who is eligible

You must meet all three of VCAA's criteria:

1. You've done the course. You've completed the course of study leading to the exam, and you have a result for at least one other graded assessment in the same subject.
2. Something happened at the time. You experienced the onset or worsening of an illness, an injury, a personal trauma or a serious intervening event before or during the exam, and it either stopped you attending or significantly affected your performance.
3. You can show it. You have evidence that it affected your performance or stopped you attending.

VCAA gives examples of the last two categories:

• Personal trauma may include the death or serious illness of a family member, an accident involving a family member, or family break-up.
• A serious intervening event may include an accident on the way to or at an exam, going to the funeral of a family member or someone close to you, or being required to attend court.

What doesn't count

You can't apply on the basis of:

• not being familiar with the English language
• teacher absence or other teacher-related problems
• a long-term or chronic condition or illness
• things you could have avoided, like misreading the exam timetable or instructions, or school discipline matters
• things you chose to do, like social events, sport or training, school events or volunteer work.

Feeling underprepared, or simply having an off day, isn't one of the qualifying circumstances either.

Long-term conditions are handled a different way, through Special Examination Arrangements (such as rest breaks or extra time) that your school applies for. If an existing condition suddenly flares up around an exam, the criteria do mention the worsening of an illness, so ask your VCE coordinator whether you might qualify.

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

If you're sick on the morning of an exam

VCAA's advice is clear: attend every exam if you possibly can, and don't miss one just because you don't feel able to do your best. Here's what to do, in order:

1. Tell your school. If you're unwell but able to sit the exam, let your VCE coordinator know as soon as possible. If you get sick during the exam, tell the supervisor.
2. See a doctor or other health professional promptly. VCAA expects that consultation to happen in the window from two days before the exam to one day after it.
3. Sit the exam if you can. If your DES application is approved, the DES is only used if it's higher than the score you got on the day, so turning up doesn't count against you.
4. Apply for a DES. The steps are below.

If you can't sit the exam at all

VCAA doesn't expect you to sit an exam against medical advice, but the bar for missing one is higher:

• For illness or injury, you need a definitive written statement from an independent health professional recommending you don't attend, and you need to have seen them as close as possible to the day before the exam, or on the day itself.
• For personal trauma or a serious intervening event, you need written evidence from your school or an appropriate professional confirming why you couldn't attend.
• Either way, tell your principal or VCE coordinator immediately.

If you miss an exam and your DES application isn't approved, you'll receive 'NA' (not assessed) for that exam. That's why staying home is a last resort, not a strategy.

How to apply

1. Talk to your VCE coordinator. They'll give you access to the application and help you work out whether you're eligible.
2. Complete one application per exam. If several exams were affected, each one needs its own application. The responsibility for submitting a complete application that meets the criteria sits with you.
3. Gather the evidence. Depending on what happened, it could come from a health professional, or from a social worker, a member of the clergy, a police officer, a solicitor or a funeral parlour operator. Whoever provides it must have specific knowledge of your situation and include their contact details, because the VCAA may follow up. Your school adds its part too: the chief supervisor completes a section for each exam you sat, and the VCE coordinator or staff member who dealt with you around the exam completes theirs.
4. Your principal reviews it. They consider whether the application has merit, can add information such as your attendance record, and make a recommendation to the VCAA. If your circumstances are exceptionally private and sensitive, you can apply directly to the VCAA instead, though you still need evidence that meets the requirements.

The deadline

There isn't one date for everyone. The DES closing dates are listed on your individual Student Examination/Assessment Timetable, and oral, performance and written exams each have their own. Look yours up the day something goes wrong. Applications also can't be submitted once VCE results are released, which in 2026 is from 7:00 am on Thursday 10 December, but don't wait for that: the deadline that matters is the one on your timetable.

After you apply

A panel assesses each exam in your application separately. You and your school are both told the outcome by email. If an exam isn't approved, the VCAA gives the reasons, and you can make a second application if you have extra evidence that materially adds to the first. It must reach the VCAA no later than five days from the date of the decision email.

How a DES is calculated

For each approved exam, the VCAA calculates a range of possible scores, statistically, from your other assessments in that subject, including:

• your moderated school-based assessment results (your SACs, and SATs in subjects that have them)
• your GAT component scores
• your score on the subject's other exam, if it has two
• the indicative grade your school submitted before the exams, which is its prediction of your exam result.

How much each one counts is worked out by comparing these results with the exam scores of all the students who didn't apply for a DES. VCAA says your graded assessment scores make the biggest contribution.

If the highest of these predicted scores beats the exam score you actually got, it becomes your final score for that exam. That score sets your grade for the exam, goes into your study score, and is reported to VTAC for your ATAR. If your real exam score is higher, you keep it.

What a DES can and can't do

It can:

• protect a subject from one exam that went wrong for reasons outside your control
• cover an exam you couldn't sit, if your evidence meets the requirements
• only ever raise the exam score that's used, never lower it.

It can't:

• give you a score your year's work doesn't support. Because it's built from your SACs, GAT and other results, a DES reflects how you were tracking, not how you hoped to go.
• fix a whole year of disruption. If illness or personal circumstances have been so severe that you haven't been coping with VCE, talk to your VCE coordinator about Compassionate Late Withdrawal or Interrupted Studies.
• cover disadvantage that affected your studies more broadly. That's what VTAC's equity schemes (formerly called SEAS) are for: a separate application through VTAC that can lift your selection rank for courses, not your ATAR, with its own closing date on the VTAC website.

Two related situations

Three exams in one day. If your timetable puts three exams on the same day, you get an extra 10 minutes per hour for the third one (as extra working time or rest breaks) and an automatic DES for it, with no application needed. You must attend all three and attempt the questions to the best of your ability. The VCAA then awards whichever is higher: your actual score or the DES.

Something went wrong in the exam room. Power failures, evacuations, printing errors in the question book and excessive noise are called irregularities. If you think one materially affected your performance, tell your principal (or their delegate) in writing within 3 days of the end of that exam. If the problem was you being unwell or personal circumstances, though, VCAA says to apply for a DES instead.

If you can still sit the exam, but need help to do it

If a sudden illness, accident or personal trauma hits just before or during the exam period, your school can apply for Emergency Special Examination Arrangements, supported by evidence. Special Examination Arrangements can include rest breaks, extra working time or a separate room. If you're ill on the day of an exam, your school contacts VCAA Special Provision directly to request them, so tell your school as early as you can.

Do this now, before anything goes wrong

• Find your Student Examination/Assessment Timetable and check where the DES closing dates are listed.
• Save your VCE coordinator's email and phone number in your phone.
• If something happens, act the same day: tell your school, see a health professional within the window, and keep every piece of paperwork.

Knowing the process means that if something does go wrong, you can deal with it calmly and turn your attention back to your next exam. If nerves are the bigger issue, see how to manage exam stress. And if an exam simply went badly for ordinary reasons, read how to recover from a bad VCE exam.

The bottom line

The Derived Examination Score exists for genuine bad luck: illness, injury, personal trauma or a serious event around an exam. Turn up if you possibly can, tell your school straight away, see a health professional within the window, and apply by the closing date on your timetable. If it's approved, the DES is built from your SACs, GAT and other results, and it's only used if it beats the score you got on the day.