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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Penry Buckley

Students grumble over essay prompt and how paper was stapled as English exam kicks off HSC

HSC Josh Wilson
Students in uniform sit in rows of desks for their HSC English exam
Across NSW, Thursday marked the beginning of four weeks of sit-down papers – 123 in total or about 350 hours – with paper 1 in the compulsory English subjects the first up. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

The 20-mark essay question in this year’s HSC English 1 paper asked students to “analyse how the representation of particular lives in your prescribed text enriches your understanding of the endurance of the human spirit”.

But in the final moments of Thursday’s exam, Cumberland high school pupils in Sydney were living out their own story of endurance; their desks strewn with papers, their shoulders hunched forward, leavers jerseys hanging off chairs.

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