Students sat the first of two separate papers for English on Monday, with the second to be sat on Tuesday morning.

At Xavier High in North Albury, year 12 students said it was a relief to have finally started the exam period after months of preparation.

“I thought it was a lot easier than our trials, I found the short answer questions were a bit different in a way, but I thought creative writing was really good,” Lincoln Morrison said.

“The question was pretty straightforward and the stimulus was nice.

“It was pretty much what we were expecting, and reasonably easy

“The last few days I’ve had to hurry up and wait a bit, but now that I’m into it I think study will be a lot easier.” 

Corey McAlpin said it had been tricky to prepare for the English exam because the subject dealt with more abstract concepts.

“It was a little bit tricky because there’s not a set idea for anything, there’s a lot of ways you can go about it,” he said.

Xavier High deputy principal Lorraine Willis said, as an English teacher, she had been encouraged by the response from students after the exam.

“Pleasingly it sounds like they’ve come out of it with confidence in themselves, which is ultimately the most important thing no matter what comes of it,” she said.

“I think the exam offered them a lot to show their understanding with.

“It’s a paper that has a whole range of access points, which is really great.

“The trickiest part will have been picking some of the terms that don’t necessarily exist in the rubrick, linking those back and recognising the connection to that area of study.

“The essay question they were asked about should have been something they were comfortable with.

“Being offered three quite substantial stimulus pieces to integrate within their work meant they had a range of opportunities as well.

“It sometimes works better when they have those substantial pieces they can weave into their work.

“I do think there were some challenges in the short answer questions – they were given some quite meaty texts to get their head around, and I think some students hoped for some visual texts.

“A couple made a comment about the poem used as one of the unseen texts, it wasn’t necessarily the easiest to access, so they may have been a little bit shaken by that.

“But overall, it wasn’t a bad paper to start the exam period.” 

The HSC English exams continue on Tuesday morning, while the exam period concludes on November 7.