Chinese is a slightly dodgy subject though, there's a lot of luck involved. 
If you want a good study score for Chinese you will need soooo much of it.
Your SAC mark is totally dependent on the strength of your cohort, I got A+ on all my U3 SACs but somehow I got an A for GA1. And that dragged me down from a possible 40+ to a 38. :/
So make sure you get placed in a good cohort!
Your oral mark is also dependent on the mercy of the examiners, some of my friends got grumpy ones, and some got asked about global warming and euthanasia, which was really...screwed up. But you can complain if you think the examiner's questions weren't appropriate.
agreed. vce chinese is incredibly dodgy. as Shenz0r pointed out, the harshness of the oral examiners varies significantly. to a certain degree, their disposition to dispense good marks is also dependent on the time of your oral exam. for good or bad, i got allocated the shift right before lunch, so the examiners were slightly pissed off/didn't try to be as nice as they should've been throughout my exam. also, one of them had a dodgy accent, which is ironic given they're supposed to judge as on our pronunciation, so it was, at times, difficult to understand her.
given the level of competition, a lot of the times sacs are what differentiates students. however, sac moderation is largely dependent on the strength of a cohort at a particular school. this is why students, for the most part, are disadvantaged if they apply to do vce chinese at their day school (some exceptions exists of course; scotch is renowned to have a really, really strong chinese cohort). needless to say, this is very unfair. furthermore, i've also heard stories of teachers 'tweaking' sac rankings so that they are consistent with their opinion of a student. this is again dodgy in the sense that potential high-achievers who aren't in their teacher's good books can potentially be pulled back, regardless of their performance in sacs. what is more, i've also heard cases wherein schools 'reuse' topics for the 'essay sacs', giving students the opportunity to cheat undetected.
also, in general, the way in which vce chinese has been designed is dodgy. the course is steeped with vague yet regimented criteria. regimented because a failure to conform could mean the difference between a 20/20 essay and a 13-14/20 essay (yes it's that bad!). vague because not even teachers know what the 'right' thing to teach students is. for example, scotch teachers advocate the employment of a style known as 浅谈, which allows you to convey ideas in a concise and efficient manner (this helps a lot given the limit is a mere 250 words), albeit being a little unconventional. however, the xjs teachers forbid us from writing 浅谈, for fear that it might result in a deduction of marks. in fact, teachers from different schools give significantly disparate advice for all sections of the exam. some xjs teachers say that, at times, a word would suffice as a response (in the listening/reading and responding sections), whilst many other teachers would say that your answer should always be written in full sentences. //
i shall finish this rant when i get back. :p
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