HSC 2021: NSW students can still apply for Covid special provisions
Thousands of Year 12 students will sit the HSC English exam on Monday but the NESA chief said it is not too late for students to submit a Covid hardship application for special provisions.
Education
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Tens of thousands of HSC students are set to put pen to paper in their first English exam this morning as the beginning of the end of 13 years of schooling draws to a close for the Year 12 Covid class of 2021.
The cohort has spent three months this year and two months last year in lockdown, meaning they had some of the most disrupted final years of schooling of any year group.
NSW Standards Authority chief Paul Martin said it was not too late to submit an application for hardship because of lockdowns.
“Up until the end of this week is the deadline for the Covid consideration applications,” he said.
“Last year we didn’t have special provisions for written exams, we had it for school-based assessment, the marking of major works, we gave them additional time in the school based assessment,” he said.
“It is one application, it is not a bonus set of marks, it’s a process where they’ll get a combination of either their moderated school based assessment or their exam mark, whichever is higher.”
A total of 68,710 students will sit HSC exams this year and are on track to be awarded their HSC.
English paper one — where students answer short questions on unseen texts and write an essay on a text they have studied in class is the first exam at 9.50am this morning. Students have 10 minutes reading time and 90 minutes to complete the exam.
There is another English exam tomorrow where students will write more essays about other poems, novels and plays they have studied over the past year.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell yesterday doubled down on a decision to force HSC students to wear masks in their exams, insisting it will help them remain Covid-free.
“I understand that some students have raised some frustration about that, but the reality is we need to make sure we get these kids through their exams and if you are wearing a mask, you are much less likely to be classed as a close contact if anyone in your exam rooms ends up with Covid,” Ms Mitchell said.
Matraville Sports High student Yasmin Garrido, 17, said she didn’t like the mask mandate, but was just looking forward to getting her HSC over and done with. “It’s not ideal, I didn’t want to have to go through my HSC having to wear a mask,” she said.
Olympic diver Melissa Wu on Monday gave Yasmin and her classmates some advice on how to deal with last-minute jitters exacerbated by lockdowns as they prepare for the first English exam on Tuesday.
“When I got really nervous in Tokyo I found it really helpful to take a few just really deep breaths just to compose myself and gather my thoughts and really focus on the moment,” she said.
School captain Koda Killorn, who plans on becoming a pro surfer, had his own secret trick to battle HSC exam stress: “I do meditation … it is five minutes of practice involving journaling and it is about clearing the whole mind. It puts me in a zone where I can be free.”
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