There is no proposal to allow students to use mobile phones, iPods, or the internet during Higher School Certificate (HSC) examinations.

General Manager of the Office of the Board of Studies, Dr John Bennett, said strict rules govern the HSC exams which prevent students from taking such devices into the exam room.

‘This year’s HSC students must remember that if they take a mobile phone into an exam, they risk a zero mark in that course’, Dr Bennett said.

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2007 HSC English (Advanced) standards package

These samples of student responses from the 2007 HSC English examination supplement the existing English (Advanced) standards packages. This material has been developed to assist teachers and students to have a fuller understanding of performance in English (Advanced). The selected student responses relate to the following three prescribed texts:

• Cloudstreet (Tim Winton)
• Prescribed poems from Gwen Harwood, Selected Poems: A New Edition
• Prescribed poems from W.B.Yeats: Poems selected by Seamus Heaney

The material has been selected from responses to the 2007 HSC English (Advanced) Paper 2, Module B: Critical Study of Texts, Questions 4(c), 7(a) and 7(b). For each question, nine responses have been chosen, three each representing performance at the borderlines between Bands 5 and 6, Bands 4 and 5, and Bands 3 and 4.

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2007 HSC English (Standard) standards package

These samples of student responses from the 2007 HSC English examination supplement the existing English (Standard) standards package. This material has been developed to assist teachers and students to have a fuller understanding of performance in English (Standard). The selected student responses relate to the following two prescribed texts:

• Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry)
• Educating Rita (Willy Russell)

The material has been selected from responses to the 2007 HSC English (Standard) Paper 2, Module C: Texts and Society, Question 10(a) and (b). Nine responses have been chosen for each text, three each representing performance at the borderlines between Bands 5 and 6, Bands 4 and 5, and Bands 3 and 4.

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BOS 34/08 (Vol 17 No 3)

Writing booklets for the 2008 Information Processes and Technology, General Mathematics and Mathematics HSC examinations will have student numbers and centre numbers printed on the front page. Question numbers will also be printed on these booklets, except for Section III of the Information Processes and Technology examination, where students will be required to write the numbers of the two option questions that they answer in the spaces provided.

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BOS 38/08 (Vol 17 No 3)

The list of scientific calculators for use in the 2008 Higher School Certificate examinations have been updated. The final list can be found on the Board's website at www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/manuals/calculators_hsc.html.

The examinations in which scientific calculators are permitted are listed in the equipment checklist that can also be found on the Board's website at www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/manuals/equipment_list.html.

Effective: 2008 HSC Examinations

Contact:

Now available - Studying for the NSW Higher School Certificate - An Information Booklet for Year 10 Students, 2008

This booklet is produced each year to assist students who are currently in Year 10. It may also assist other HSC candidates, such as those studying part-time or resuming their studies.

HSC students, teachers and librarians have viewed more than 185,000 pages of information via the Board of Studies new Students Online website - less than one month after it was launched.

Two students have been awarded $50 University Co-op Bookshop vouchers as part of an incentive to attract students to studentsonline.bos.nsw.edu.au.

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BOS 35/08 (Vol 17 No 3)

The NSW Board of Studies invites expressions of interest from suitably qualified teachers and academics who wish to participate in the development of the 2009 Higher School Certificate examinations and School Certificate tests as Chief Examiner, member of an examination committee or assessor. The development of the examinations commences in Term 4 2008 and continues to about July 2009. Assessing takes one day and occurs usually in Term 1.

Successful applicants receive an honorarium and travel expenses.

Applications for Chief Examiner must be submitted no later than Friday, 4 July and for committee member and assessor no later than Friday, 22 August 2008.

Further information and application forms are available from the Board of Studies website at www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au or by contacting Beverly Gale by email at beverly.gale@bos.nsw.edu.au or by phone on (02) 9367 8371.

BOS 33/08 (Vol 17 No 3)

The Board wishes to advise teachers and students of the following amendments to the Japanese Background Speakers HSC course prescriptions for 2009-2013.

• The following chapters in the text, Otokodatera ni onnanaki, are prescribed for study:
'Wakagumi no nakademo hassou' and 'Otokonaki no bigaku'.
• The publisher of the text, Chiisaki mono e, is Shinchosha.


Effective

Commencement of 2009 HSC course

Contact:

Dr Margaret Silink
Inspector, Languages
(02) 9367 8152
margaret.silink@bos.nsw.edu.au