Most students who complete the VCE are 17 or 18 years old. Helen Balgue is 70.
Nine years ago, Ms Balgue watched her sister decline rapidly and eventually die from frontal lobe dementia. All three of her older sisters had the disease and Ms Balgue was worried that she would start feeling her mind slipping too.
But rather than opt for the prescribed jigsaws and word puzzles to keep her brain sharp she took a more drastic approach.
"I enrolled in a course for social work, and then screenwriting and then a course advisor suggested I take an English language subject".
Ms Balgue enrolled in the Centre for Adult Education and loved it. She has now become the oldest person in the state to complete her VCE.
"I feel so lucky to be able to do it, the next year I did philosophy and loved that, so the next year I did classical studies and I just kept coming back and back."
Ms Balgue has dabbled in many areas across her eight-year VCE, taking business management, Australian history, English literature and two different arts.
She completed the unscored VCE, which means she didn't receive an ATAR.
Ms Balgue was never that keen on school as a teenager.
"I went up to Year 10, but I was taught by nuns and I hated it," She said.
"They weren't very enthusiastic about teaching and the never encouraged the arts."
But 50 years later she has found the spark of inspiration that she was missing.
"I keep thinking I've been given a second chance to enjoy learning. I just think it's a miracle pill."
Ms Balgue says that doing her VCE, as well as volunteering for several women's charities, has been a big reason she hasn't developed dementia.
"I feel like I have escape the curse. My sisters all had very obvious signs in their early 60's and I'm 70 and doing very well.
"I've got over panicking about it too, if it's there it's there but at the moment I'm really enjoying life, I'm putting in and I'm giving back."
Fifty-four years Ms Balgue's junior, Lisa Chen takes out the title of youngest to complete VCE at only 16.
Although Lisa was born in Perth she spent her childhood in China. She moved to Melbourne at 13 but her old school was six months ahead of Australia.
After two weeks of year 7 at Kambrya College in Berwick she was bumped up to year 8.
"My year level was really welcoming, so being young really wasn't an issue. Most people didn't even realise," she said.
Ms Chen completed Chinese as a Second Language when she was only 14, and yesterday took out Dux of the school with an ATAR of 98.1.
"I thought I was only going to get maybe 85, but my parents had a lot of faith in me. I realised this year that I'm definitely my own biggest critic."
Lisa is keen to start university next year but she hasn't finalised any of her preferences. "I'm thinking about maybe commerce or design," she said.
Ms Balgue's next move is also wide open. After finishing VCE she is excited by what lies ahead.
"I'm really open to anything," she said.
"I was thinking I might take some university classes, or take a different course."
"The kids at school, I love that they will say to me, "Oh what will you do now?", almost like people used to ask, 'What will you do when you grow up?'. And it makes me think to myself, 'Oh, there is really is a future and even they see it' it's delightful."
"I don't know where the path will take me next year but I'm really open, whatever will come will come."
