“How does the composer of your prescribed text offer you opportunities to examine assumptions about human strength and vulnerability?”
asserted
composer → prescribe → strength
This was the bamboozling English question tens of thousands of year 12 students sat down to answer on the first day of their final school exams.
asserted
thousands → bamboozle → exams
Kayden Tran, 18, had a “really great breakfast” of rice, bacon and eggs – but was it enough to get through an essay exploring tenacity and sensitivity in the writings of Tim Winton, George Orwell or Malala Yousafza?
asserted
it → have → Winton
“This morning, I felt extremely stressed and I kind of gave up hope,” the student of Canley Vale high school in Sydney’s west told the Guardian.
asserted
student → feel → Guardian
“But after doing the exam, I feel perfectly fine, I feel content, like I did the best I possibly could,” he said after the HSC English 1 paper on Tuesday.
uncertain
he → do → Tuesday
Mary Alnimry listened to the song Heroes by the late David Bowie to prepare.
asserted
Alnimry → listen → Bowie
“I discovered that song through an assessment for year 10 and, every time, before every English exam, I listen to that song and it just reminds me of English,” she said.
asserted
she → discover → English
The pair was among about 200 Canley Vale students to sit the test, just one cohort in the roughly 75,000 students across New South Wales working to wrap up their high school careers.
asserted
pair → sit → careers
“You just have to go in and believe that you know the content,” Alnimry, 17, said.
asserted
Alnimry → have → content
“That’s how I felt in the morning.
asserted
I → ’ → morning
And then after the exam, obviously it’s really rewarding.
asserted
it → ’ → exam
I completed everything, but there’s always that curiosity lingering.
asserted
I → complete → everything
“I think that it was pretty fair, there was nothing out of the ordinary.”
asserted
it → think → ordinary
“Honestly I think that’ll kick most people in the ass, the fact the question had so much to unpack I personally found it hard to address it all, I focused on vulnerability and strength and sprinkled a bit of assumptions,” one student with the handle bberson wrote on Tuesday afternoon.
asserted
student → think → afternoon
Another, djungleskog41, was concerned they skipped over parts of the question: “I did Orwell too and tbh I didn’t address the question at all.
asserted
I → concern → question
I only focused on how like human vulnerability and weakness forces us to submit into the regime and rebelling is a sign of human strength blah blah blah but i barely mentioned my assumption so im rlly upset about that lol.”
asserted
i → focus → that
Alana Miller, an English teacher at Canley Vale high school, has shepherded 17 years of year 12 students through the exams.
asserted
Miller → shepherd → exams
She said the nerves don’t stop with students, and she too woke up this morning with the year 12s on her mind.
“We care so much about the students, we spend so much time,” she said.
asserted
she → say → time
“We want them to do well, we want them to feel particularly that these exams are something they could achieve in.”
uncertain
they → want → ?
Fantasy books have been a growing hit at Canley Vale high alongside Japanese manga.
asserted
books → grow → manga
Miller said she’s spent the past year trying to meet students where they are to help engage the next generation of readers.
asserted
they → say → readers
“I think the best way is to … talk to them about books, shows, films that they might see,” Miller said.
uncertain
Miller → think → that
“I think choosing engaging texts in the classroom can be a huge stepping stone for resistant readers. …
asserted
choosing → think → readers
I just try and tell them they haven’t met the book yet that will get them to love reading.”
asserted
them → try → reading
“I’m feeling not too bad, because I did finish everything,” the 17-year-old said.
asserted
old → feel → everything
“I don’t know if I answered the questions fully as I should’ve.
asserted
I → know → questions
You just have to trust yourself with how much work you put in and that you actually remember it.
asserted
you → have → it
I trust in myself.”
asserted
I → trust → myself
Effie Niarchos, the principal of Canley Vale high, said the HSC represented a rite of passage for year 12s, marking the past six years of high school and the next chapter in their lives.
asserted
HSC → say → lives
“All of the teaching, all the learning is building towards this moment,” she said.
asserted
she → build → moment
“We want them to be ready for the world, and we look at it as we’ve achieved something to be able to successfully prepare them for this moment”.
She said students have been experiencing a bit more anxiety in recent years, possibly from community expectations, possibly from the world shifting underneath kids’ feet.
uncertain
students → want → feet
But as she saw off the last of those who sat for the exam on Tuesday, she looked back with a smile and a sense of pride.
asserted
she → see → pride
“They’re our future,” Niarchos said.
asserted
Niarchos → ’re → ?
HSC results will be released on 16 December.
asserted
results → release → December
The Aporia
