As the Higher School Certificate exams draw to a close, a record 88,017 Year 10 students have been gearing up for the NSW School Certificate tests which start today (Monday 10 November 2008).

General Manager of the Office of the Board of Studies, Dr John Bennett, said Year 10 students would this week sit for statewide tests in English-literacy, Science, Mathematics, Australian History, Australian Geography, and Computing Skills.

"As the 2008 HSC students finish their exams, it is now the turn of more than 88,000 Year 10 students to face their first external tests and show what they have learned in these key areas," Dr Bennett said.

Dr Bennett said Year 10 students could test themselves on School Certificate style questions with a multiple choice quiz and access past tests and all the syllabuses on this website.

Last night (on the eve of the first School Certificate tests), a record 109,535 multiple choice practice tests, involving around 2.2 million questions, were completed on the Board's website - 200,000 questions more than on the same day last year.

"NSW has a strong mandatory curriculum from Kindergarten to Year 10," Dr Bennett said.

"On completing the School Certificate students have strong educational foundations for HSC study, TAFE and other vocational training courses and for participating in society generally.

"Ours is the only state where Australian History and Australian Geography are mandatory core subjects in Years 9-10, first introduced in 2000 and tested as part of the School Certificate in 2002.

"I would like to wish this record number of Year 10 students all the best in the School Certificate tests."

The tests start today with English-literacy and Science and continue on Tuesday with Mathematics and Australian History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship. From Wednesday to Friday, students will also sit for the mandatory Computing Skills test online or in pen and paper format (on Friday only).

The 2008 School Certificate class is made up of 44,919 male students and 43,098 female students. Students in the metropolitan regions make up nearly 54% of the candidates (47,156).

The largest region of candidates, with 13,398 students, is the metropolitan south west which includes Bankstown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and Picton. The largest region outside Sydney is the Hunter with 10,999 Year 10 students.

Almost 250 students from international schools in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Papua New Guinea will also sit the tests this week.