Year 12 student Maxwell Streeter went to bed at the right time on Tuesday night and rose at the wrong one.
“I woke up at 4am and to calm myself down had a nice cup of tea,” the Gymea Technology high school (GTHS) student says with a laugh.
“I don’t think anyone can start the HSC without being nervous but there’s a confidence that comes with being prepared.”
Streeter was among about 70,000 students across New South Wales who sat the state’s first end-of-year exams on Wednesday morning, kicking off with compulsory English subjects.
This year’s papers drew from an eclectic range of authors, among them Debra Dank, a multiple-award winning Australian writer and Gudanji/Wakaja woman, Australian comedian, radio and television presenter Kate Langbroek, American physician James Hamblin, former fashion model Sophie Dahl and freelance Australian writer Eleanor Robertson.
The advanced paper poem, Being Here by acclaimed New Zealand writer Vincent O’Sullivan, 86, was a hot topic in student debriefs. The standard paper featured Time Capsule by West Australian poet Mike Greenacre.
Previous writers have been the subject of online abuse, leading the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (Nesa) to debrief artists and authors at the beginning of this year’s HSC exams for the first time this year to offer support.
Individuals whose work is used in exams are never advised prior to the date to ensure papers aren’t leaked. There’s no requirement for prior permission under the copyright act.
Nesa CEO Paul Martin says it’s OK to talk about exams with friends and family but students should be careful traversing the line to social media.
“It is not OK to post comments online that are offensive to the artists and authors selected,” he says.
For the next 18 days, NSW students will sit a total of 124 written exams, each one reviewed at least six times before copies are printed.
Some 750 exam centres are being staffed across the state, catering to the 68,689 students on track to complete the 2023 HSC program.
There were certainly jitters on Wednesday outside the exam hall at GTHS, a government school nestled into Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, with some students feeling physically ill with anxiety.
But come 11.30 the teenagers filed out basking in the warm glow of relief.
Streeter found his first exam a challenge, but felt more confident going into the next papers. The second English paper is up on Thursday, a quick 24-hour turnaround.
“It makes me excited for the next exams to come, to have that last climactic finishing moment,” he says.
“Going into the exam being prepared, it was almost eerie how familiar it felt at first … then there’s the hurdle of having to apply what you know.”
His classmate Meghan Hollingsworth agrees.
“I almost felt I’d seen it before, which was weird,” she says. “Just with all the practice.”
Hollingsworth didn’t find the exam “all that tricky”, except for one curveball students weren’t anticipating.
“There was a poem in there, eugk!” she exclaims. “But I could pick out some techniques.”
GTHS English head teacher Kristy Petrevski says poetry is always the “spanner in the works”.
“It’s always quite challenging because the language can be conceptual,” she explains. “But I think most of [the students] came out feeling pretty good.”
Petrevski saw the paper on Wednesday morning and describes it as “challenging but achievable”.
“There’s always a little bit of nerves and anxiety because you want them to be able to show what they know, and you never know what they’re going to ask,” she says.
“You’ve got to have faith they’re prepared – they’ve done the hard work and they can pull it out of the bag.
“I say to them get in there, try your best, follow your gut, don’t overthink it and walk out of there feeling like there’s nothing else you could have done.”
It can be bittersweet for teachers to reach the final stretch. Petrevski has been teaching English for 14 years and says it’s always sad to say goodbye.
“We work so hard together for two years … you don’t realise how much investment you have with them until you see them walk out of that final exam,” she says. “But really, this is just the start of the rest of their lives.”
For now, students are keen to bask in the post-exam glow before hunkering down for the next one.
“I’m going to go home, sleep, and get ready for the next text paper,” Streeter says. “And once the HSC is finished, I’m going to take a well-needed rest … no Christmas essays!”
HSC results will be released on Thursday 14 December.
