Close to 270 Canberra and Queanbeyan students sat their first HSC exam on Thursday, October 13, as one of the final cohorts to sit the test before the NSW Government makes sweeping reforms.
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At Canberra Grammar School 120 boys sat the English exam, while at Queanbeyan's Karabar High School 120 students also explored the concept of "discovery" was conveyed through the representations of people, places and events.
At Queanbeyan High School, which runs the 3+3 program under a college system, where students can elect to study three HSC subjects in Year 11 and three in Year 12, 30 students sat the English exam, the only mandatory subject in the HSC.
More than 77,000 students in NSW are sitting HSC exams that will finish on November 4.
In July, NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli announced major changes to the 49-year-old exams, including mandatory literacy and numeracy testing, a crackdown on cheats and syllabus changes that would see new science subjects and maths marks being awarded for their level of difficulty.
In a move which has drawn criticism from parents and students alike, Year 9 students sitting the NAPLAN exams in 2017 will be required to pass the third-highest level in literacy and numeracy in order to be eligible for their HSC in 2020.
Students who fail to reach the minimum standard by year 9 – estimated to be up to 50 per cent of the cohort – will have repeated opportunities to pass until they finish their HSC, or for up to five years after they finish school.
But for the students studying for this year's exams the focus is firmly on the next few weeks.
At Queanbeyan High School, there is access to breakfast and lunch for all HSC students as well as help with exam pressures.
At Canberra Grammar boys finishing the exam were busy discussing the concept of discovery and how it applied to their chosen text William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
The HSC results at Canberra Grammar in 2015 were among the school's best over the past decade with three students gaining places in the top 10 of the state and nine students gaining places on the All Round Achievers List for attaining more than 90 per cent in 10 or more of their units.
At Canberra Grammar 22 boys in the Year 12 cohort are sitting the International Baccalaureate.
The HSC continues on Friday with the second English paper.
