IF YOU smell smoke wafting over Tamworth in the coming days, it could be Year 12 students burning their school notes.
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The Higher School Certificate (HSC) officially wrapped up for 2020 on Wednesday, and students across the region have been marking the momentous occasion in different ways.
The Leader spoke with Oxley High School students Olivia Collison and Abbey Prout, and New England Girls' School pupil Maggie Halliday in the lead-up to exams kicking off almost a month ago.
All three have said it's a huge weight off their shoulders to be done and dusted with the HSC.
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"It was hard and definitely challenging, but the process wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and it feels really weird - but nice - being done," Olivia said.
"I remember really clearly thinking about it in the last two minutes of my last exam and it was so weird, like I'm never going to do this again."
Olivia finished her exams about a week ago, and said she spent a couple of days relaxing and napping, then cleaning, and now she's on the hunt for a gap-year job.
"I've just been trying to get rid of all my books and paperwork and making my room, my room again and not my study," she said.
Olivia said her toughest test was the second English paper, which sparked a state-wide reaction when one of the sections was different than expected.
Abbey said she was satisfied with the effort she put in.
"Chemistry was so ridiculously hard, but the others I was happy with. It was probably more challenging than I was expecting but, hey, it's over and there's no more stress," she said.
The girls got together with their friends in the aftermath of their exam period for a cathartic "ritual" to clean their lives of excess notes, past papers and questions left unfinished.
"We burnt it all," Olivia said, laughing.
"We got together with some friends and we lined it up in tubs and we just watched it burn."
Abbey and Olivia said the end was bittersweet in some ways, knowing all their schoolmates would be spreading out and going on "their own paths".
Maggie Halliday said she took comfort in knowing she did all the study she could, and tried her best in the HSC.
"There was nothing more that I could have done so I'll get the mark I deserve," she said. "The plan is to distract myself now, because I can't change anything."
Maggie said she was looking forward to setting herself a new schedule, revolving more around work, family and friends.
Now, the wait begins for results day.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
