General Achievement Test

After the successful pilot program, the GAT was fully implemented as a compulsory test for all Year 12 students studying for the Victorian Certificate of Education in 1992.

[4] This test was introduced into Western Australia as a trial to provide schools with feedback on the standard of assessment used for the new WACE courses.

Also, the renewed primacy of marks in scaling scores for WACE meant the original purpose for the GAT no longer existed.

In the lead-up, Victorian Education Minister James Merlino encouraged students in hotspot areas to receive COVID tests before sitting the GAT, uncovering 33 cases.

It also started explicitly reporting a student's literacy and numeracy skills against the new standards in addition to its original role in quality-assuring VCE assessments, bringing it in line with similar tests in other states and territories.

[18] The standards are derived from Level 3 of the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF), which are required to engage with everyday life, work and further study beyond schooling.

[19] All students who completed part A of the General Achievement Test will receive a statement in three areas: Reading, writing and numeracy in their results if they have met the standards.

[21] This statement is also given in the bottom section with the following table: In 2009, a student-organised movement headed by Lucas Shipsides and fuelled by Facebook brought the GAT to the attention of the national press, by suggesting that students make as many references to actor George Clooney as possible in their answers.

[22][23][24] After this level of participation was observed, it became customary, as a form of parody/protest, to incorporate GAT catch phrases, or GATchphrases in the test in following years.

In late April 2016 a poll was held on the VCE Discussion Space Facebook group to choose the "Gatchphrase" for that year.

[25][better source needed] A public Facebook event page was created for the theme, and by the date of the GAT it had an attendance of over 3,600 students.