Talk:General Achievement Test

GATchphrase 2018
the GATchphrase for 2018 was decided to be “If the teacher doesn’t arrive in 15 minutes we are legally allowed to leave.”

(From the Facebook page VCE Discussion Space). Catstoebeans (talk) 12:07, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

jj Anon46739 (talk) 13:52, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 June 2019
Please make the 2019 Gatchphrase available for use by 9AM 12/06/2019 as it remins unclear as to what the phrase is and the GAT is tomorrow at 10 Dr John Proctor (talk) 15:51, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. NiciVampireHeart 16:19, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

2020 phrase and GATchphrase section in general
This was unsourced and subject to continuous changes, so I simply removed it.. Don't restore it without a source. I sourced a couple of earlier years and added cn's to the other unsourced years. Meters (talk) 05:12, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
 * And the IPs are back at it again, adding unsourced and conflicting claims. Meters (talk) 05:27, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
 * And I'm happy to just keep deleting. I don't know what these entries say about the reading abilities of those adding this stuff. There's an extremely clear Edit note there saying not to. HiLo48 (talk) 05:39, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
 * mate go read any post on VCE DiscussionSpace on FB, 99.9% of people agree with the phrase being "GAT on the beers" except for the few that dont even understand the reference — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.221.227.45 (talk) 23:12, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
 * A Facebook discussion is not regarded as a reliable source for Wikipedia. HiLo48 (talk) 00:05, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Well i dont know where else youre going to find a reliable source for the gatchphrase, unless youre expecting to see it in the newspaper or something lmao. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.221.227.45 (talk) 00:23, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * That's why most of the entries in the list have a tag saying "citation needed" beside them. In fact, your comments have just led me to remove the two existing uses of Facebook as a source. Because of the nature of Facebook, the pages no longer existed, thereby proving it's not a good idea to use Facebook. And yes, it's making the article look very unsourced. My personal view is that it probably shouldn't exist at all because it's unsourcable trivia. HiLo48 (talk) 00:49, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * The article itself is OK, it's just the section on the GATchPhrase. This is supposed to be an article about the test, not somewhere for a facebook group to publicize their game. Fully half of the article is a virtually unsourced list of social media inanity. As we've seen this year, even the people involved cannot seem to agree on what the phrase should be, and I doubt we'll ever find reliable sources for many of the previous supposed phrases. I suggest removing the entire table, and mentioning in prose the few that we have reliable sources for. Meters (talk) 01:21, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * You're right. The core article should exist. But I would remove all mention of the GATchphrase. HiLo48 (talk) 02:38, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I fully agree and I've been bold and removed the entire section. Valenciano (talk) 11:46, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * It's been restored. I agree with the removal so I'll take it out again and point the user here. Meters (talk) 01:39, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
 * And now we have edit warring to restore it all, complete with someone who has never posted to the talk page telling us that we need to discuss it on the talk page. Well. here we are, again. Where are you, Anonymous427?
 * I didn't suggest removing all of the material. I didn't object to removing the entire section, but I can see some justification for mentioning the phrases that were notable enough to get independent mentions if consensus is to include that, but there is no way that we should have a list of supposed phrases for every year when most of them are unsourced, particularly when even the people involved in this cannot seem to make up their minds what the particular phrase should be. Restoring the entire table complete with its many citation needed tags is simply not appropriate. I have given the editor who has restored it four times now a level 4 unsourced material warning. If it comes back again he'll be reported. Meters (talk) 23:45, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

2019 GATchphrase
The 2019 GATchphrase was never agreed upon therefore the info listen under “GATchphrase” is incorrect and misleading. Would an editor be able to change the info listed next to 2019 to reflect the fact a GATchphrase was never chosen. Thank you :) Oversize sweater (talk) 06:01, 19 September 2020 (UTC)
 * The current content is sourced. Can you provide reliable sources please? Thanks,  Pais  a re pa  06:07, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 October 2020
2020 Gatchprase: "These are unprecedented times" Tomb38 (talk) 00:09, 6 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Yet another unsourced phrase that contradicts all the other supposed phrases. This why this page is protected. Meters (talk) 00:16, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

GATchphrase supported by many students
Information to be added: Let the GATchphrase be 'These are unprecedented times' Explanation of issue: The GATchphrase has not been decided yet. This long tradition needs to continue References supporting change: There was a poll on the VCE Discussion Space where many hundreds of students voted for the above GATchphrase. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vam2999 (talk • contribs) 01:12, October 6, 2020 (UTC)


 * Can you provide a link to that page please. As a discussion page, it still may not be a reliable source. HiLo48 (talk) 01:19, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 October 2020
I would like to update the 2020 GATchphrase, as it is currently labelled as TBD. Elliottcarter02 (talk) 12:29, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Needs reliable sources – Thjarkur (talk) 13:34, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 September 2022
Make 2022 Gatchphrase "What colour is ur buGATi" Giddo1307 (talk) 11:50, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 11:56, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 11:56, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

2022 GATchphrase - citation required
The article history suggests that several people think the 2022 GATchphrase was "What colour is your buGATti?" Possibly they are correct (at least one edit comment suggests good faith edit, not vandalism) - the article says "GAT De Jong", but has no reference.

Does anybody have a reference for either of the phrases? Mitch Ames (talk) 03:12, 19 May 2023 (UTC)


 * There's contridicting sources for that. One is a reddit post suggesting "What colour is your buGATti?" as well as these posts  but another source in the facebook post suggests  "GAT to BeReal". However according to WP:VERIFY social media does not count as reliable sources so I cannot include them in the article. It is a private group however, sources can only be seen after joining  here. Purin128AL (talk) 10:16, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
 * The articles says "Each year, an event is started on Facebook ... ", and goes on to describe how it's all organised on Facebook. If FB is not a reliable source, that rather suggests that we should delete everything after the first paragraph as unverifiable. Has any other reliable source mentioned the GATchphrase since 2009? Mitch Ames (talk) 13:20, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I have looked in the past, and haven't found any. Looks like trivia to me. HiLo48 (talk) 01:41, 21 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I had a look at the policy, and facebook can actually be used if it is not self-published, a better source cannot be found and it can be researched and obtain the same result by all editors. So I think in this article's situation, social media posts can be accepted as a source although it is not ideal.
 * I have done this test in 2021 and 2022, and a GATchphrase is arguably the most important part in the article. I just expanded the article a month ago so that it seems like a tiny part, before that it was half of the article. Therefore I would suggest remaining a status quo, and replaces sources immediately if it can be found elsewhere. Purin128AL (talk) 17:56, 20 May 2023 (UTC)
 * "GATchphrase is arguably the most important part in the article" is obvious recentism in your case. To this mostly retired teacher who now supervises the GAT, it is also trivia at it's worst. HiLo48 (talk) 01:39, 21 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry to see that the entire list has been restored, yet again. More than half of it is completely unsourced, and much of the remainder is sourced to nothing but editors' interpretations of facebook pages or the like. I suggest that we cut the coverage down to only those catchphrases that are mentioned in independent reliable sources. Meters (talk) 02:14, 21 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Cut back to only sourced entries by user:HiLo48. I'll tag what appear to be less than acceptable sources. Meters (talk) 02:51, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

How to source GATchphrases?
Hi, I'm new to editing WP and had my edit removed for being unsourced (it was indeed unsourced, no issue there). I was wondering how to source information that was spread mostly via word of mouth and social media threads, particularly as VCAA doesn't release submitted essays, and is obviously not keeping track of how many people include a silly phrase in their written answers. The GATchphrase isn't something that can be verified, and is certainly not something which all VCE students are going to agree upon and/or use. Is there any way to include past phrases without verifiable sources? Or is it a wp policy that such information is not suited for wikipedia? Triq28 (talk) 08:54, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Please read the previous talk page threads about the inclusion of these jokey phrases.. We are only including phrases which have reliable, independent sources. That excludes most of the supposed annual choices. Meters (talk) 08:58, 22 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I have just read through your reply on a previous topic:
 * The article itself is OK, it's just the section on the GATchPhrase. This is supposed to be an article about the test, not somewhere for a facebook group to publicize their game. Fully half of the article is a virtually unsourced list of social media inanity. As we've seen this year, even the people involved cannot seem to agree on what the phrase should be, and I doubt we'll ever find reliable sources for many of the previous supposed phrases. I suggest removing the entire table, and mentioning in prose the few that we have reliable sources for.
 * And it seems like a fair assessment. Taking the discussions into account, I too think it is necessary to add a few sentences in that section about the unreliability of sources for these phrases and get rid of the table. Triq28 (talk) 09:05, 22 June 2024 (UTC)