StudyDuo
How many hours should a VCE student study? There's no state figure, so each school sets its own. Six of the eight Victorian school documents we read land between 10 and 20 hours a week outside class, with Year 12 at or near the top. The lowest figures count less, such as only the homework teachers set.
Why there's no official number
Victoria leaves the number to schools. The Department of Education's homework policy requires every government school to have its own homework policy, developed in consultation with its school council. It doesn't set amounts for any year level, so your school's policy is the closest thing to an official answer.
The structure of the VCE gives a second clue. Yea High School's 2026 VCE handbook describes each semester-length unit as about 100 hours of work, including 50 to 60 hours of scheduled class time. That leaves 40 to 50 hours per unit for you to find outside class: 200 to 250 hours a semester across five subjects, by our arithmetic.
If you're outside the VCE, or want the general answer by course load and goal, it's in how many hours to study a day.
How many hours should a VCE student study, school by school
These are the schools' own documents, read in November 2026, with the dates they give:
| School and document | Year 11 | Year 12 | What it counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boronia K-12 College, policy for 2025 to 2028 | 2 to 3 hours per subject a week, about 10 to 15 in all | 3 to 4 hours for each subject weekly, 15 to 20 in total | Homework and home study; varies by pathway (VCE, VCE-VM, VPC) |
| Hampton Park Secondary College, reviewed July 2025 | 120 to 150 minutes each weekday, up to 6 hours at the weekend | The same | Revision is expected even when nothing is set |
| Keilor Downs College, reviewed July 2023 | 3 hours each weeknight, plus 15 minutes of reading every night | The same | All home study; each subject gets about 3 hours a week at most |
| Nossal High School, guide for parents | 2.5 hours a night, 12.5 a week | 3 hours a night, 15 a week | Homework only; study and revision come on top |
| Leongatha Secondary College, workload page | 10 to 20 hours a week | The same | Set homework, unfinished class work, reading, research and revision |
| Yea High School, 2026 handbook | 1 to 2 hours a night | 2 to 4 hours a night | Homework, study and revision; more in the exam period |
| Belmont High School, issued March 2026 | 60 to 90 minutes, five times a week | 90 to 120 minutes, five times a week | Part of Year 12's time falls in timetabled study periods |
| Western Port Secondary College, reviewed November 2025 | At least 5 hours a week | At least 5 to 10 hours a week | A minimum of directed homework, 1 to 2 hours per subject |
Put on a weekly scale, by our arithmetic, Hampton Park's guideline reaches 18.5 hours: up to 12.5 on weekdays and 6 at the weekend. Keilor Downs's comes to 15 hours on weeknights plus almost 2 of reading. Belmont's is 5 to 7.5 hours in Year 11 and 7.5 to 10 in Year 12, before the study periods at school.
Per subject, per night or per week?
Schools phrase the same idea three ways, and per subject travels best between them. Boronia's figure rises by an hour per subject from Year 11 to Year 12, and Keilor Downs caps each subject at about 3. With five subjects, 3 hours each is 15 hours a week and 4 each is 20. Per-night figures usually mean school nights: Nossal's weekly numbers are exactly five of its nights.
Most of that time isn't set by teachers. Keilor Downs asks its teachers to set no more than 15 minutes of homework per class period a week. A subject with five periods therefore gets about 75 minutes of set work, and the rest of its 3 hours is yours to plan. That's the catch in how many hours should a VCE student study: at most schools, most of the hours are ones nobody assigns.
What counts also differs. Nossal treats homework as work between one class and the next, and study as revision and consolidation on top of it. Western Port doesn't count finishing class work as homework, while Leongatha includes it. Keilor Downs counts reading and preparing for tests. Before you compare yourself with a friend at another school, check which of these your own numbers include.
How the hours change in Year 12
Every school document that separates the two years asks more of Year 12, and the course explains why. As Yea High School's handbook puts it, Units 3 and 4 must be studied as a sequence and end in external assessments and exams. Units 1 and 2 are assessed within the school. Nossal's guideline, for example, rises by 2.5 hours a week at each step:
| Year level | Hours a week |
|---|---|
| Year 10 | |
| Year 11 | |
| Year 12 |
Weekends come into it too. Hampton Park's guideline adds weekend hours to weekday evenings. Keilor Downs says some students, particularly senior ones, will need to study on at least one weekend day as well as weeknights.
If you take a Unit 3 and 4 subject in Year 11, as Yea High School encourages its students to do, budget that subject at your school's Year 12 rate. Holidays count as well: Belmont expects holiday homework at VCE level, with each subject setting 1 to 2 hours of work a week. Nossal suggests 15 hours over a holiday for Year 12, 3 per subject.
The biggest change comes at the end. Nossal tells Unit 4 students to begin revising for the end-of-year exams in the holidays between Terms 3 and 4, which it calls less a holiday than a non-contact period. Yea High School's handbook says to expect extra time for revision during the exam period. If several exams fall close together, our guide to studying for several exams at once shows how to split the hours between them.
Count the hours where you can see them
A weekly number only helps if you can check it. Write your school's per-subject figure next to each subject in your planner, and log what you actually did each evening. At the end of the week, compare: the subjects that fell short are next week's first blocks.
StudyDuo can do the counting for you, if you're 16 or older; a Year 11 student who's still 15 will have to wait. In the app, minutes in the rooms add up, and 30 minutes counts a day toward your streak. Two freezes a month on the free plan cover the days you miss. Study Hour gives everyone one shared hour of focus a day, shown in your own time zone. Why a daily streak helps explains what to count and what to forgive.
However your school answers how many hours should a VCE student study, treat its number as a weekly budget, not a nightly test. Years 11 and 12 bring SACs, sport, work and family, and a week that reaches the total is a week that worked, whichever nights the hours came from. How the rooms and streaks fit together is on our study together app page.
FAQ
Can a teacher set a SAC as homework?
Not at the schools we read. Keilor Downs College's policy says SACs must be completed during class time, and Hampton Park Secondary College's says coursework assessment happens in class, with homework limited to research and preparation.
Can I have a part-time job in Year 12?
Schools allow for it. Yea High School's handbook says students should be able to have a part-time job alongside sport and hobbies. Keilor Downs College asks only that the hours aren't so long that study or health suffers.
Where do I find my school's homework policy?
Usually on its website or in its newsletter. The Department of Education requires government schools to communicate their homework policy periodically to staff, parents, carers and students, for example by putting it on the school's website.
