NEWCASTLE High prefects Jordan Cook and Sylvia Knott have praised their Mathematics Advanced Higher School Certificate paper as reasonable and without too many surprises.
"It was pretty good, I was expecting more stuff that I'd never seen," Jordan said.
"Obviously there's a little bit you can't get your head around, like always, but I thought it was alright compared to the other past papers.
"You could tell there were lots of marks to lose on stuff they were trying to trick you on."
Sylvia said she usually felt happy after exams.
"Until you get picked up on little things, but HSC markers aren't looking to take marks away, they're looking to give you marks," she said.
"You've just got to know the concepts. You can't go in memorising things because it's never going to be the same."
They said the school's lockdown siren sounded for 10 minutes part way through the exam.
"I thought 'As if they're going to do a practice lockdown when there's over 150 kids sitting their HSC exam' so I thought 'There's probably something going on'," Sylvia said.
"They weren't allowed out at lunch, [there was a message] over the loudspeaker, 'We're still in lockdown'.
"We all kind of just stopped for a second, we didn't know what to do... we couldn't do much about it."
Jordan said he was glad the exam was not stopped.
"[We were] disturbed but happy it didn't ruin it... we just had to concentrate."
NSW Police said officers patrolled the area responding to a report they believe was incorrect.
The first section of the paper was multiple choice.
"Compared to the last two years it was a lot easier, I liked it," Sylvia said.
Jordan said he was used to getting about five out of 10 correct, "but I feel that was easier so I feel like I did a lot better".
The second section comprised short answer questions.
"A lot were basic concepts but the advanced side of them that you aren't used to," Jordan said.
He had answers for all but two questions: about the minimum area of a triangle and an exponential graph.
Sylvia said she enjoyed the calculus questions.
"It's 50/50, you can write down a formula and get a mark for that and it be the right formula but you apply it in the wrong way or use the wrong number.
"But overall I don't think it was too bad especially in comparison to last year's."
The government confirmed this week the HSC class of 2026 will be the first since 2001 to sit compulsory mathematics exams.
Sylvia said she supported the idea.
"I see a lot of things in advanced and think 'I'm never going to use that' whereas in standard you learn about finances a lot more, that's good to know," she said.
Jordan said he didn't like English, or that it was compulsory.
"I wouldn't want people who feel the same with Maths to have to do it."
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