The Preliminary Achievement (PA) Guarantee will apply for senior secondary students in 2022, in recognition of the challenges that have been presented by COVID-19. 

What is the PA Guarantee?

The Preliminary Achievement (PA) Guarantee is a way that TASC supports students who, based on their internal ratings, are not on track to achieve a result of Satisfactory Achievement (or higher) in TASC accredited courses. 

The PA Guarantee – Quick Look

The Preliminary Achievement Guarantee:

  • is designed to support students who are finding their courses particularly challenging
  • applies to courses with external assessments where students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and skills under pressure in a time critical environment, such as written exams, oral exams, performances and presentations
  • applies to students who sit their exams, and are ‘tracking towards’ at least a PA.

The PA Guarantee does not:

  • apply to assessments where students prepare their external assessment work throughout the year, with support from their school
  • guarantee students an award of Satisfactory Achievement or higher
  • apply to Level 1 or Level 2 courses
  • need to be applied if a student achieves a PA on their own.

Factors informing whether a student is ‘on track’ to achieve a PA:

  • The minimum number of C’s required for a PA in the particular course.
  • The student’s internal ratings [the number of C’s (or above) achieved].
  • The criterion for which the internal C’s (or above) were achieved.

Student-focused resource

Additional Information

  • The Preliminary Achievement (PA) Guarantee is designed to support students who are finding their courses challenging after a disruptive year of study due to the pandemic.
  • For those Year 11 and 12 students who are tracking towards Preliminary Achievement (partial attainment of the course objectives/criteria) they will receive at least a PA if they sit their end-of-year exam (including written, oral, performance or presentation external assessments).
  • This PA Guarantee means that these students are guaranteed to not go backwards (they won’t be awarded a lower result) if they sit their exam, and it provides encouragement to keep on working towards achieving their goals.
  • By sitting their exams students are giving themselves the opportunity to fully demonstrate their knowledge, and they may possibly do even better than a PA.
  • It is a way to support students during what has been a challenging and unprecedented year, by ensuring they are awarded at least the PA that they have already demonstrated over the year, as well as having the opportunity to improve their results.
  • The results and qualifications achieved in 2022 will be just as meaningful and representative of a young person’s achievements as any other year.
  • If a student’s internal ratings (assessed by their school throughout the year) show that they are on track to achieve at least a PA, they will be eligible for the PA Guarantee if they sit the end-of-year external assessment for their course.
  • The PA Guarantee applies to those external assessments where students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and skills under pressure in a time critical environment, such as written exams, oral exams, performances and presentations.
  • The Guarantee is not applied to assessments where students prepare their external assessment work throughout the year, with support from their school.  This includes exhibitions, folios, and written work not submitted under exam conditions.
  • Students awarded a PA receive TCE credit points for completing the course, which puts them on their way to achieving a Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE).
  • If the student was using the course to meet one or more of the TCE Everyday Adult Standards, they need to sit a safety net test to show that they meet the required Standards in Reading, Writing and Communication in English; Mathematics; and Use of Computers and the Internet.
  • A student needs to be awarded Satisfactory Achievement (or higher) to use their course work to meet the Standards.
  • TASC has waived the usual three-month waiting period between safety net tests for all three Everyday Adult Standards.  Students can re-sit a test without a waiting period after they receive their results from a safety net test they have already taken.

No. Students do not need to register for the PA Guarantee.
The PA Guarantee is applied to a student’s final result following the marking and assessment period for eligible students.

  • If a student submits a TASC External Assessment Medical Certificate or writes to TASC to apply for an emergency special arrangement, they will still receive the PA Guarantee.
  • The health and wellbeing of all Tasmanian students has always been our top priority as we face the many challenges of COVID-19 this year. Students with cold or flu like symptoms (or who are in isolation awaiting a COVID-19 test result) are not to attend exams – see Illness and emergency during exams.

Example 1: Economics
External assessment – Written Exam only

Example 2: Housing and Design
External assessment – Written Exam and Folio
Please note – the PA Guarantee only affects Written Exam ratings.