Kayden Tran, 18, had a “really great breakfast” of rice, bacon and eggs – but was it enough to get through an essay exploring tenacity and sensitivity in the writings of Tim Winton, George Orwell or Malala Yousafza? Mary Alnimry listened to the song Heroes by the late David Bowie to prepare. The pair was among about 200 Canley Vale students to sit the test, just one cohort in the roughly 75,000 students across New South Wales working to wrap up their high school careers.
And then after the exam, obviously it’s really rewarding. I completed everything, but there’s always that curiosity lingering. Another, djungleskog41, was concerned they skipped over parts of the question: “I did Orwell too and tbh I didn’t address the question at all.
I only focused on how like human vulnerability and weakness forces us to submit into the regime and rebelling is a sign of human strength blah blah blah but i barely mentioned my assumption so im rlly upset about that lol.” Alana Miller, an English teacher at Canley Vale high school, has shepherded 17 years of year 12 students through the exams. She said the nerves don’t stop with students, and she too woke up this morning with the year 12s on her mind. Miller said she’s spent the past year trying to meet students where they are to help engage the next generation of readers.
You just have to trust yourself with how much work you put in and that you actually remember it. I trust in myself.” Effie Niarchos, the principal of Canley Vale high, said the HSC represented a rite of passage for year 12s, marking the past six years of high school and the next chapter in their lives. She said students have been experiencing a bit more anxiety in recent years, possibly from community expectations, possibly from the world shifting underneath kids’ feet.
But as she saw off the last of those who sat for the exam on Tuesday, she looked back with a smile and a sense of pride. HSC results will be released on 16 December.
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