Tens of thousands of Victorian students received their VCE results on Thursday morning, after a year marred by publishing errors from the authority running the exams.
The end of the road for the class of 2024 comes after a series of exam bungles that left 69 students showing "anomalous results", according to the Victorian government.
Prior to this year's exams, it was revealed that a production error had allowed some students to access questions that were very similar to what appeared on the real tests.
It was the third year in a row of errors by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) during the examination process, with typos and errors found on exam papers in past years.
Education Minister Ben Carroll said VCE students should not worry about their results being tainted by the error.
"This is an important milestone in their education journey. They can rest assured that these results they receive are accurate, fair and reliable," he said.
"I wish I could go back and eliminate that publishing error. We can't, but I can make sure it's eliminated for next year."
Mr Carroll said students should not feel like anyone had been disadvantaged by the process and there was an opportunity to appeal.
"But always just remember, this is just one pathway and there's lots of opportunities either in the workforce, a gap year or training and the most important thing is to keep up lifelong learning," he said.
'I'll never be in maths class again'
For Braybrook College student Xiao Lynn Chia, the end of year 12 is bittersweet.
"It's quite odd to acknowledge that I'll never be in maths class again, but it's also relieving," she said.
For her VCE, she studied psychology, English, mathematical methods, specialist mathematics, physics and theatre studies and achieved an ATAR score of 99.
The 17-year-old said she hoped to enrol in a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne and major in civil engineering.
Although most of Ms Chia's subjects were not impacted by the exam blunders, she said the incident was "irresponsible" and "unfair" on students who had worked hard ahead the exams.
Ms Chia said completing psychology as an accelerated subject in years 10 and 11 had helped her prepare for year 12
"It was definitely a big adjustment having the bigger pressure of having all of things you're doing throughout the year actually contribute to your end of year school," she said.
"It was stressful but manageable for me."
She said she often tapped into her creative outlets to ease the pressures that came with her final year of high school.
"I have this running joke with my friends where every time I feel like I've studied a bit too much for an upcoming test …. I would make some sort of stuffed animal project."
Ms Chia said she was looking forward to the next phase of her life, but for now she was focused on finding a job and catching up with her mates over the summer.
"It's really easy to forget that whatever you want to do, it can happen if you find a way or if you work hard enough," she said.
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