’No real curveballs’ but multiple choice stumps some in 2023 HSC biology exam
HSC students are halfway through their final exam period and so far there have been few hurdles for well-prepared pupils. See how students reacted to their biology paper.
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The class of 2023 have continued their run of “fair” final tests at the midpoint of their HSC exam period with the second science paper presenting few thorny problems for well-prepared pupils.
Biology students were relieved on Monday to open up their HSC exam and see they would not be required to answer a question worth more than 7 marks, and unlike in many past papers they would not have to draw a graph.
However, on social media some Year 12s described the multiple choice section, consisting of 20 questions worth one mark each and usually considered the easiest part of the exam, as “horrid”.
At inner-city all-girls’ school SCEGGS, some students also remarked on how tricky the multiple choice questions were, noting more than half required the interpretation of graphs or diagrams.
One such question required students to look at an illustrated life cycle for a parasitic disease, and figure out how transmission to humans could be prevented, stumping a number of Year 12s.
“We think it was a pretty fair exam, no real curveballs or long responses,” 18-year-old Milla Brown said.
“There weren’t any majorly hard questions, but (for) some of the multiple choices … there were two really similar answers.”
Classmate Vivienne Henry agreed, adding that one of the short response questions also came with a confusing diagram.
“Towards the end of the paper there was (a) question that tried to compare fungi reproduction with human reproduction, and it had a weird diagram that you had to interpret. It was only four marks though,” she said.
Fellow biology students Lydia Bodsworth, Billy Pritchard and Sienna Apted said the exam consisted of a “fair” range of easier and harder questions, with a four-part question on Huntington’s disease noted as being particularly challenging by the SCEGGS girls and their peers at other schools.
“It could’ve been one big, long response but they had split it up,” Sienna said.
“It was quite difficult, and there was lots of information that you had to digest.”
The biology paper, along with drama on Monday afternoon, marked the ninth day of HSC exams.
This morning (Tuesday) Business Studies students will sit their final exams, as will English Extension and VET automotive technology students, with the HSC period wrapping up on Friday November 3.
Get more HSC tips and tricks
The Daily Telegraph’s ultimate guide to success in HSC exams features the wisdom of teachers who consistently help their classes rake in band 6 results; tutors who’ve scoured over dozens of exam papers and even those who mark the exams.
There’s also advice and tips from some of the best in class from 2022 available here.
They are the successful students who have been there, done that. The Daily Telegraph’s ultimate guide to success in the 2023 Trial HSC and HSC exams featured extensive advice from the students who topped each subject last year. Their advice still holds true as the HSC final exams approach.
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