Students settle after initial 'crucible' of HSC English

Emmaus Catholic College Kemps Creek

HSC students have breathed a sigh of relief after completing their first written exam – one largely been received as fair and free of "tricks".

There was plenty of nervous energy in school halls across NSW yesterday morning when 67,000 students sat English Paper 1. But most students and teachers agreed that the exam was more accessible than some previous years’ papers.

Tijana Jovic and Sachin Stevens, English advanced students at Fort Street High School, said they were relieved to have their first exam of the year out of the way and for it to be free of major curveballs.

"I feel like with every exam, there’s always an element of surprise but after I read through it a bit more I thought it was manageable and thought I did pretty well," Tijana said.

Sachin said English exams were always challenging as it was impossible to predict what questions would be asked.

"The question [about The Crucible] specifically was about features of drama, so it’s really hard to prepare for," he said.

Head of humanities and English teacher at Northholm Grammar Rebecca Birch said she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the exam papers.

"I think students needed a year that was just really fair and straightforward," she said.

They’ve had a couple of years of disrupted learning.

"But there was still room to tease out the top students ... it’s still going to give the range of marks that they need."

English teacher and director of learning and academic growth at Emmaus Catholic College, Mark O’Connor, said this year’s stimulus pictures and texts were engaging without being overly confusing.

"All teachers ask for is a paper where [students] can make an attempt and I feel like the paper allowed everyone to be able to do that today," he said.

"Every kid would be able to make a good attempt at that." The HSC written exams will end on November 4 with students set to receive their results and ATARs on December 15.

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