ONE DOWN: Tamworth High School HSC students Jessica Jones, left, and Emily Owen were relieved to have survived their first HSC exam – the compulsory English paper _ yesterday afternoon. Photo: Geoff O'Neill 15112GOE03
IT’S a case of one down and a few more to go for the region’s Year 12 HSC students.
More than 1400 students in the New England sat for the first exam yesterday – the compulsory English paper.
And students who sat the exam at Tamworth High School yesterday told The Leader it had been better than they expected.
Emily Owen said after a hard HSC trial paper the actual HSC exam was much better.
“The trials were hard so they prepared us well for the actual exam,” she said.
“It was a relief to come out and feel like it was easier.”
Jessica Jones agreed: “The paper was a lot easier to understand than the one we sat for during trials and there was a better concept of belonging.”
The two will next sit the advanced English paper tomorrow.
State minister for education Adrian Piccoli used the exam kick off yesterday to warn students against cheating in the exams.
He said there were reports some Year 12 students across the state were using the internet to swap cheating tips and that teachers suspected some students of hiding notes in their underwear.
Last year, 10 students across the state were found to have breached the rules, which include things like taking unauthorised notes into exams.
Mr Piccoli said the NSW Board of Studies were well aware of any suspicious activity.
“I’ve got no doubt about the ingenuity of cheats – that’s always been the case,” he said.
“I know the board of studies takes it very seriously; they look at all the incidents that they hear about and are made aware of.
“They do everything that they can to stop cheating.”
NSW Board of Studies president Tom Alegounarias said the system would pick up any unusual
behaviour.
“[We have] absolute confidence there’s nothing that happens in an exam room that is unusual that is not noted and used later if there’s any issue,” he said.
Mr Piccoli said yesterday for the first time, the first exam – English, was held after lunch.
He said that decision was made so all students could start at the same time.
Mr Piccoli suggested it was important all students kept the exams in perspective.
“And just to know that the HSC is not the be all and end all, there are many avenues to success in life,” he said.
Almost 70,000 students across the state will sit about 500,000 exam papers over the next three weeks.
