Three siblings sharing a birthday are now sharing one of the most nerve-racking weeks of their young lives. Triplets Savio, Saviya and Simon Eeso, all 18 and all in year 12 at Elevation Secondary College in Craigieburn, began their VCE exam period on Tuesday with the compulsory English exam, joining more than 47,000 fellow Victorian students sitting the same test from 9am across 584 locations statewide.

The trio are the youngest of ten members in the Eeso family, which migrated to Australia from Iraq via Jordan when the triplets were nine years old. All five of their older siblings have already completed higher education at RMIT University, and the triplets are determined to keep that record intact.

A family legacy built one exam at a time

"Everyone's finished and gone to uni," Simon said. "We have to keep it up."

Saviya, who admits English is not her strongest subject, said nerves were present but excitement about what comes next was stronger. "I'm pretty excited," she said. She hopes to study pharmacy at RMIT, a path two of her older siblings have already taken. "I want a vacation first though," she added.

Simon is weighing up property and finance or pharmacy at RMIT, while Savio, who will be the last of the three to finish exams when he sits physics on 12 November, is aiming for electrical or civil engineering. Despite the pressure of year 12, Simon said the year had been one of the best of his schooling life. "We've been having fun and studying as a group," he said. "Everyone is supportive of one another."

Their mother, Lamyaa, has carried much of the household load this year. The triplets' father, Duraid, spent most of 2026 running his businesses from Iraq, leaving Lamyaa to manage the stress of three children simultaneously navigating year 12. She said she was happy and proud that all her children would soon have finished high school.

What the VCE English exam involves

Elevation Secondary College opened in 2020 and had 144 year 12 students enrolled in 2026. Students sitting the English and English as an additional language exams this year studied the 1950 film classic Sunset Boulevard and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a 1962 psychological horror novel by Shirley Jackson.

Across Victoria, students undertaking oral and performance exams started their test period at the beginning of the month, but for the majority the compulsory English exam marks the official start of the season. More than 3,100 students will sit the English as an additional language exam alongside the main cohort.

The scale of the operation is considerable. Exam sittings are held at 584 locations, ranging from the largest group of 968 eligible students gathering at Bendigo Senior Secondary College, to just three students sitting at Goroke P-12 College in the Wimmera region. More than 880 international and Victorian students will sit VCE exams overseas, with the qualification recognised and administered across 17 countries.

How the Victorian system works

Students in Victoria can complete the VCE, the VCE Vocational Major, or the Victorian Pathways Certificate, and can incorporate Vocational Education and Training programs within those qualifications. Students who take higher-level maths and a language are eligible for the additional recognition of the VCE Baccalaureate. A smaller proportion choose the globally recognised International Baccalaureate. In 2026, students selecting the standard VCE pathway could choose from 97 subjects.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, which oversees exam delivery and assessment, employs more than 700 people to write, check and analyse exam papers each year.

For the Eeso triplets, all of that machinery leads to one destination: RMIT, following the path their older siblings mapped out before them. The exams run through to mid-November, with Savio's physics paper on the 12th bringing the family's year 12 chapter to a close.