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 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.

Entries for the 2008 Minister’s Young Designer Awards (MYDA) are now open for students of Technology (Mandatory) in Years 7 and 8 in NSW.

Under modified arrangements, schools will be required to download entry forms and information packs. The new deadline for submitting design folios including photographic evidence demonstrating the nature and quality of the ‘design solution’ is 17 October 2008.

Read more about the criteria for judging entries, the new nomination process and other details about the awards.

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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Seventeen year old Ashlee Walker of Beverly Hills Girls High School in Sydney's south was named the 1000^th student to log on to the Board of Studies new Students Online website.

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NSW Minister for Education and Training, John Della Bosca, will today (June 4) launch a one-stop online study shop for Higher School Certificate students - the first of its kind in Australia.

"As part of the Iemma Government's overall commitment to technology in education, the Students Online web site has been completely overhauled to offer a personalised experience for every Year 12 student," the Minister said.

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