HSC exams: As parents step up to help students — do you think you could sit HSC tests?
THE HSC period isn’t just a few weeks of intense pressure for students — it’s a testing time for parents as well. Take the test and see how you’d compare to a HSC student.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE HSC period isn’t just a few weeks of intense pressure for students — it’s a testing time for parents as well.
Some dedicated mums and dads are going the extra mile, taking annual leave to sleep on the floor next to their children to ensure they get a good night’s rest, and even squeezing them fresh orange juice in a bid to ensure their kids’ brains are in perfect working order.
The HSC began yesterday with more than 60,000 Year 12 students across NSW tackling English and a teacher told The Daily Telegraph she saw parents upping the ante every year. She said one well-meaning parent slept on the floor next to their child’s bed to make sure they could sleep before exam day in a move that probably had the opposite effect.
At Model Farms High School at Baulkham Hills students said it was common for parents to take annual leave. Mum Dyan Sim said with daughter Abbey it was all about balance and moderation.
“I think just to be there to support her if she needed anything. It’s nice to take her up to the exams and pick her up, see how it went,” Ms Sim said.
“She’s a good kid. I just wanted her to know if she needed anything I’d be there.”
HSC student to sit exams after spending weeks in hospital to treat his cystic fibrosis
Other students at the school have equally dedicated parents, with Corrine Kennedy saying her parents always made sure she never went short of brain food. “My mother got up this morning and made me eggs on toast, she made me hand-squeezed orange juice, it was a great thing to wake up to,” she said.
But Dr Justin Coulson, one of Australia’s leading parenting experts, urged parents to calm down, saying the hype around the HSC had become “ludicrous”. “It is just an exam, and when parents start taking time off and going overboard and doing they all they can to reduce pressure, they might in fact be doing the opposite,” Dr Coulson said.
“The parent’s presence only adds to the pressure. The parents think they’re helping but they are creating a psychological pressure, that narrows the child’s capacity to think. I think that it is helpful to remind parents that these kids are now adults and don’t need to be spoon fed and wrapped in cotton wool.
“Parents expect more, they believe the world is competitive, they have bought the lie that achieving great HSC results is the be all and end all.
“The HSC is never as important as it was, it is a pathway and there are multiple other pathways.”
There has been a 5 per cent increase in the number of students sitting the HSC in the past five years. And there are more students than ever enrolled in at least one science course. “This paper is the first of 117 exams that are going to be taken over the next three and a half weeks,” NSW Education Standards Authority chief executive David de Carvalho said yesterday.
Security had been stepped up, with metal boxes fitted with a sturdy padlocks kept in secure locations for the past 20 years to keep them safe from cheating students.
And yesterday a bomb hoax called in about 12.30pm at James Fallon High School at Albury forced students to abandon the building.
The NSW Education and Standards Authority said the exam resumed as soon as the all-clear was given.
“Their focus now should be on preparing for the rest of their exams,” a spokesman said.