HUNTER students have praised the first Higher School Certificate exam based on Biology's new syllabus, saying they liked applying their knowledge rather than just recalling content.
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St Mary's Catholic College Gateshead students Sydney Fowler, Joel Holland and Elizabeth Foster were among 18,967 students who sat the paper on Monday. Their grade of 40 is the school's first in more than 50 years to sit the HSC.
"It wasn't too bad," Joel,18, said.
"They gave you a lot of information and you had to analyse things rather than just regurgitating what you could remember."
Sydney, 17, said it was "not as hard as I was expecting", while Elizabeth, 18, said without studying she would have found it "a lot worse".
Their cohort had studied four modules - genetic change, heredity, infectious disease and non-infectious disease - and completed a self-directed depth study, which at St Mary's was on population genetics and mutation.
They said they had gone through a sample paper in class and changed wording and contexts of questions from past papers to prepare for the exam.
"It wasn't a complete reboot, it was more a chop and change," Joel said.
"Some things [from before] were still relevant, despite it being a new syllabus."
Elizabeth said she liked the first section, which comprised multiple choice questions.
"It was a good mix of the whole syllabus and quite broad - there were questions from across the four modules and it wasn't too specific."
Sydney said she liked that the questions incorporated tables and diagrams.
"That stopped it being so repetitive so you didn't zone out," she said.
"It would have also been good for people who learn different ways."
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Joel said it wasn't based on "rote learning".
"It did not require us to memorise everything, we had to apply it in some way."
The second section comprised several short-answer questions, which the students said were made up of more parts and worth more marks than they expected.
"I don't really like short answer questions, getting my ideas across is an area I struggle with the most - I have a physics and maths mindset and answer concisely," Joel said.
"But this time I was able to fill the spaces, I was going over with too many ideas."
Elizabeth said "some of the longer ones were more of a challenge, depending what the topics were, but what's done is done - I can't do anything about it now".
Sydney said she thought the first few questions were "fine".
"Then when I got through to the last few questions I thought 'I've got to sit for a bit and think about that'."
The trio was planning to take Monday afternoon off before resuming preparation for their exams.
Joel is a second-grade black belt in karate and balances study with teaching, reading and time with family and friends.
Sydney is involved with Charlestown Scouts Group and works at McDonald's while Elizabeth rides horses and plays drums.
Helen Gregory
Helen Gregory joined the Newcastle Herald in 2010. She is the masthead’s education reporter and has written for the H2 and Weekender sections, as well as across a range of issues. Helen is a Walkley Award winning journalist and was also part of the Newcastle Herald team that won the United Nations World Environment Day Media Award for Environmental Reporting.
Helen Gregory joined the Newcastle Herald in 2010. She is the masthead’s education reporter and has written for the H2 and Weekender sections, as well as across a range of issues. Helen is a Walkley Award winning journalist and was also part of the Newcastle Herald team that won the United Nations World Environment Day Media Award for Environmental Reporting.
