HSC exams get underway
KESSER Torah College (KTC) students lived through a nightmare when Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams started this week.
KESSER Torah College (KTC) students lived through a nightmare when Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams started this week.
During Monday’s three-hour Modern Hebrew Continuers exam at Randwick Girls High School, where the KTC students were sitting the exam, the school was put into lockdown.
According to a spokesperson for the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW (BOSTES), the lockdown was related to an incident at the University of NSW, which is located near the school.
The AJN understands the university was in contact with counter-terrorism police after a threat to the safety of staff and students on the Kensington campus was made.
KTC head of Hebrew Lea Behar said the students stopped their exam for a while and then they continued.
“They were told to stay inside, be very quiet, lock the doors, for no-one to go out,” Behar told The AJN.
“We practise drills often, it’s required; our students are used to this.”
Behar said some parents may complain about the incident. The spokesperson told The AJN that BOSTES “manages and reviews any exam interruption to ensure no student is disadvantaged”.
The modern Hebrew exam, which consists of three sections – listening, reading and responding, and a creative writing response – was scheduled on the first day of the gruelling exam period, which runs for 18 days.
Moriah College student Nicole Schwartz, who sat the exam, said it was exhausting.
“I found the exam fine but it is a long exam, and after having already done English Paper 1 in the morning, it was very tiring,” she told The AJN.
Asked about her preparation for the exam, Schwartz said it was hard to prepare for Hebrew “as language is a skill subject and not so much a content-based subject”.
“I learnt the vocabulary about the topics we had learnt in class, and did practice exams from past years,” she said.
Masada College student Josh Kessel said it was a challenging but fair exam.
“Some sections were more challenging than others but we were well prepared. Overall I felt I got the gist of all the passages and there wasn’t anything I was left having no idea about,” he said.
Emanuel School student Ely Perron said, “I particularly enjoyed the listening and responding. We did many practice papers and came in during the school holidays to go over past questions.
“I also found reading children’s books at home to be very useful in developing my skills of recognising words and how the inflection changes their meanings.”
The Classical Hebrew Extension exam will be held today (Thursday), while the Classical Hebrew Continuers exam is on Monday, October 19.
EVAN ZLATKIS
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