HUNTER students say their hours studying for Studies of Religion II was time well spent, after virtually every part of the syllabus was tested in the three hour exam.
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St Philip's Christian College Waratah students Noah Roberts, Elizabeth Jenkins and Leonardo Gemmell, all 18, were among 6108 students who studied the content-heavy course, in which they learned about Islam, Judaism, Christianity, new age religion, religion and belief systems in Australia post 1945 and non religion.
"It was very syllabus based, which was good," Noah said. "Everything we studied was in there and there weren't a lot of curve balls. I was happy with it."
Leonardo said "with sufficient study students would have found it 'bang on'". "I thought it was going to be easier, but it was tough," Leonardo said. "The structure of previous papers was friendlier."
Elizabeth said the wording of some questions didn't seem logical, "so it wasn't as easy to answer as I found the trials".
Leonardo agreed, saying "it required a lot of critical thinking to unpack the questions".
The students said the paper was one of the most demanding in the Higher School Certificate.
The first section comprised two series of multiple choice questions and two five mark questions. The second section required students to answer two 15 mark questions about two different religious traditions. The third section asked them to write about a third religious tradition in a 20 mark response. The fourth section was a 20 mark question about peace that required them to refer to two traditions.
"What makes it really time consuming to study for is you really have to know about everything they could possibly ask you," Elizabeth said.
"You might be planning to write the [third section] essay on Christianity but the question may be very hard, so you'll write about Judaism.
"But you still have to tackle Christianity in the other sections.
"You have to know the traditions in depth for every single section.
"There's no end to the knowledge you have to know - there's always something more you can learn about.
"There's so many different dimensions to the way you can view the course, it's almost endless."
Leonardo said students couldn't go in with pre-prepared essays.
The exam was Elizabeth's last.
"I'm so thankful that it's over and done with," she said.
"Earlier in the year I was more focused on the HSC but the stress got to me and I burned out a little bit. I had to look at it as a way of learning - I learned so much that I'll use, not just for the test but in life - not an outcome or ATAR."
Leonardo had construction on Friday afternoon but is now finished.
"I'm ecstatic," Leonardo said.
"It's been a long time coming after 13 years of school and I'm happy to see the end of it. I'm excited for the future."
Noah has visual arts to go.
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.
