Local teachers in Victoria who teach drama in the senior years (VCE Drama) will be familiar with a major performance task known as the solo performance examination, prescribed each year by the curriculum authority (VCAA) for Year 12 Drama students.
Worth 35% of a student’s grade in their final year of Drama at high school, the externally assessed solo performance exam is a 7-minute self-written character performance adhering to a prescribed structure. Normally, there are 10 structures (characters) forming the exam document, from which students perform one of these. Character on the exam change each year and can be drawn from history, novels, films, graphic novels etc and the task involves a mixture of factual and imaginative content.
Over the past decade, the solo performance has caused much angst with teachers and students of VCE Drama. I have no intention of being merely negative here, as I intend to provide a balanced viewpoint. The task can also be a wonderfully positive experience for both teacher and student.
In my 23 years of teaching Drama I have never come across a mandated task that has created so much conversation on both sides of the fence. So, here’s a summary:
The Good
- academic
- rigourous
- stimulating
- forces students to adhere to strict time lines
- exam paper published six months in advance
- fosters artistic discipline
- glossary of terms offered in exam document
- forces students to appreciate the value of editing and refining
- non-naturalistic performance style allows for creativity
The Bad
- minimum difficulty level set too high
- very demanding task
- too much research involved
- does not adequately cater for academically challenged students
- non-naturalistic performance style and conventions are often very complex
- glossary of some key terms is confusing
- too much content to include in a 7-minute performance
- 3rd “external” content dot point is too challenging for some students
The Ugly
- 11 assessment criteria
- inexperienced teachers struggle to assist their students
- awarded grades often do not match teacher expectations
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Hi Justin,
These articles are amazingly helpful, as I’m a first year out teacher with a small class of Year 12’s. They’re super keen and I just want to help them produce the best work possible. Thank you so much for all your detailed explanations, handy links & great ideas!
Ash 🙂
Hello ! I just have to say how amazingly helpful this site has been to me!! But now it’s time for me to do my Solo and I have decided to do Mr Moon. Only problem is that I’m having hard time creating exaggerated movement (which is required) Can you help me, do you have any links that might provide some information 🙂
Thank you and keep up the good work!!
Hi Justin,
Just reading through some of the old posts about the Solo Exam as I am preparing my twelves at the moment. Wanting to start a discussion about how strictly to follow the ‘recreates’ (the terminology also says ‘reenacts’) a scene… if the stimulus is a film text. Specifically looking at Fawlty Towers and The Sapphires here. What creative license do they have here or are they looking for a very strict reenactment?
As I teach in the US the only contact I’ve had with the VCE Drama is through this site. I found the concept intriguing as there is no comparison to this type of drama assessment in the US. One thing I like about this assessment is that it give a sense of importance to Drama that the US seems to ignore. The new Common Core standards and assessment only includes English and Math, with other subjects and organizations left to adapt a and create standards from these mandated ones. Do you think a task like this would work well adapted to just the classroom?