What the 2024 Examiner’s Report reveals about the most common scoring ceiling
One of the most revealing phrases in the 2024 VCE English Examiner’s Report is also one of the most frustrating for students. “Relevant but general.” It appears repeatedly, across all three sections of the exam, and it explains why many capable students find themselves clustered in the middle range despite knowing the content and writing fluently.
This is not a criticism of effort. It is a diagnosis of thinking.
Understanding what examiners mean by this phrase is one of the most powerful ways to unlock higher scores.
What “relevant but general” actually signals to examiners
When examiners describe a response as relevant but general, they are acknowledging that the student has understood the broad demands of the task. The response engages with the text, the issue or the argument. It does not go off topic.
What is missing is specific intellectual control.
General responses tend to operate at the level of ideas that could apply to almost any question on the text or issue. They rely on familiar interpretations, commonly taught themes, or broad moral observations. While these ideas are not wrong, they are insufficiently shaped by the exact wording of the task.
Examiners are looking for responses that show the student has made decisions about how to approach the question. General responses avoid those decisions.
How this appears in Section A
In Section A, generality often takes the form of theme-driven essays. Students identify a central idea such as power, conflict, identity or belonging and discuss it competently across the text.
The problem is that many topics do not ask whether a theme exists. They ask how it operates, how it is complicated, or how it is positioned in relation to another idea.
The Examiner’s Report notes that high-scoring responses framed their interpretations around the specific relationship or proposition in the topic, rather than defaulting to pre-existing views of the text. Mid-range responses often discussed the text accurately but did not reshape their thinking to match the task.
This is why a student can write a solid essay and still be capped. The response demonstrates knowledge, but not adaptation.
How this appears in Section B
In Section B, generality often shows up as writing that is polished but conceptually safe.
Many students produced fluent pieces that clearly related to the framework. However, the Examiner’s Report notes that weaker responses tended to rely on predictable ideas, tidy resolutions, or moral conclusions that were not interrogated.
High-scoring responses distinguished themselves by engaging with complexity. They explored tensions, contradictions and consequences. They allowed ideas to remain unsettled where appropriate.
The difference was not vocabulary or imagery. It was the depth of thought.
How this appears in Section C
Section C exposes generality very quickly. Students who rely on technique identification without analysis often fall into this category.
The Examiner’s Report highlights that many responses accurately identified contention, audience and persuasive devices, yet failed to explain how those choices worked together to position readers.
General analysis uses phrases like “this persuades the reader” or “this makes the audience feel concerned”. Specific analysis explains why this language would resonate with this audience in this context.
Examiners are not looking for more techniques. They are looking for sharper explanation.
Why general responses feel convincing to students
One of the most challenging aspects of this issue is that general responses often feel strong to the student writing them. They are fluent. They sound academic. They cover familiar ground.
Under exam pressure, this feels reassuring.
The problem is that examiners are not asking whether the response sounds like an English essay. They are asking whether it demonstrates task-specific thinking.
This is why students are often surprised by results. The gap is not obvious from within the response.
What specificity looks like in practice
Specific responses do not necessarily introduce new ideas. They refine existing ones.
They use the language of the topic repeatedly and deliberately. They anchor claims to precise moments in the text or argument. They explain significance rather than asserting importance.
Specificity also shows up in restraint. High-scoring students often say less, but say it more carefully. They avoid sweeping claims unless they can substantiate them.
This precision is visible to examiners almost immediately.
How students can move beyond the middle range
The shift from general to specific begins before writing. It begins with reading the task slowly and asking what it demands that other possible questions would not.
Students should practise rewriting topics in their own words, identifying the conceptual focus and the implied judgement. They should plan responses that directly address that focus, rather than adapting a familiar structure.
Reviewing Examiner’s Reports with attention to phrases like “general”, “broad” and “surface-level” helps students recognise exactly what examiners are seeing.
An ATAR STAR perspective
At ATAR STAR, we work closely with students who are stuck in this exact band. Often, they do not need more content or better expression. They need to learn how to narrow, refine and commit.
We teach students how to turn relevant ideas into specific arguments, and how to show examiners that their thinking has been shaped by the task itself.
VCE English does not reward general competence. It rewards precise engagement. Once students understand that distinction, improvement becomes far more intentional and far more achievable.