Considerable progress has been made in delivering the materials required to support the Board's changes to examinations and assessments for the 2010 HSC.

The changes for the 2010 HSC are mostly minor and relate specifically to Assessment and Examinations.

Precise changes for each course were identified in the Summary of HSC Examination Specifications and Assessment Requirements documents that were originally published on the Board's website in February 2009. These documents can now be found on the Board's website within each subject page.

Most of the documents listed below are now available on the Board's website.

• Syllabus
• Assessment and Reporting Requirements
• Sample Assessment Schedule (further details below)
• Information Regarding the 2010 HSC Examination
• Summary of HSC Examination Specifications and Assessment Requirements

Where necessary examination rubrics will be developed and available on the Board's website in January 2010.

Specimen materials that illustrate differences in the types of examination questions will be produced for a small number of courses.

Teachers are encouraged to regularly check their subject specific syllabus page(s) to obtain copies of these valuable resources as they become available.

Due to ongoing consultation or syllabus reviews, several HSC courses will not be affected by examination and/or assessment changes in 2010. Read on for details of courses not affected by examination and/or assessment changes in 2010.

Existing syllabuses republished for 2010 HSC

HSC syllabuses and course related assessment and examination advice are now being published as separate documents. As a result it has been necessary to remove assessment and examination details from existing HSC syllabuses and to republish the syllabuses.

Reference on the Board's website to syllabuses for the 2010 HSC 'coming soon' appears to have caused some confusion and lead some teachers to believe a 'new' syllabus was to be expected. To avoid any misunderstanding the Board has identified syllabuses as 'content unchanged' or as having 'amendments for the 2010 HSC'.

Sample Assessment Schedules

The addition of sample assessment schedules for each course will help teachers to better adhere to the Board's recommended number of assessment tasks. The range of schedules demonstrate how assessment programs can be constructed to meet the Board's parameters that three to five tasks are sufficient for a 2 unit course and two to three tasks are sufficient for a 1 unit course.

In most cases for 2 unit courses, the sample schedule uses five tasks, but schools may use four or three if they prefer. In some cases, more than one schedule is provided, and further assessment schedules are planned to be added in the future. Each schedule shows that a variety of tasks can be used and that, overall, the weighting requirements for each of the assessment components are met. (Note that in a small number of courses, the number of tasks varies from the general requirements.)

There are many other ways in which similar HSC assessment grids could be constructed that may involve different types of tasks, timing of tasks and weightings given to each task. Schools may use the sample assessment schedules without modification, or change them to suit their particular needs, being mindful that the weightings for each of the assessment components in HSC courses are mandatory.

The sample assessment schedules reflect any changes that have been made to course assessment components and/or weightings.

Details of courses not affected by examination and/or assessment changes in 2010 due to ongoing syllabus consultation or syllabus reviews

Agriculture

As amendments to the HSC Agriculture syllabus are currently under way and the amended syllabus is scheduled for implementation with HSC students in 2011, there will be no changes for 2010. Teachers should continue working with the current Agriculture syllabus, examination format and assessment materials for the 2010 HSC course.

English

As consultation in 2 unit HSC English courses has not been completed, there will be no examination or assessment changes to 2 unit English (Standard), English (Advanced) or English (ESL) for 2010. Please note: changes will apply to the HSC English Extension 1 and English Extension 2 courses in 2010.

Legal Studies

As the new Legal Studies syllabus is scheduled for implementation with HSC students in 2011, there will be no changes for 2010. Teachers should continue working with the current Legal Studies syllabus, examination format and assessment materials throughout 2010.

Mathematics

As advised in February, teachers should continue working with the current Mathematics syllabuses, examination specifications and assessment materials throughout 2010.

Inquiries: Chris Thompson, Head, Assessment Unit, chris.thompson@bos.nsw.edu.au, (02) 9367 8069.

BOS 37/09

Listed below are updated details regarding prescribed texts included in English Stage 6 Prescriptions: Area of Study, Electives and Texts, Higher School Certificate 2009-2012.

Updated versions of the entire Prescriptions document and the Prescriptions poster are available on the Board's website. These versions contain all previously notified changes to editions.

[More]

BOS 30/09

In 2009 and beyond, the School Certificate test in English-literacy will have a stimulus booklet attached at the back of the test paper. The booklet will contain all the texts related to Section 1 Reading/Viewing.

On the front cover of the test paper will be an instruction to students to detach the stimulus booklet and use it to answer the questions in Section 1.

A mock-up of the 2009 English-literacy test format (using the questions from the 2008 test) can be found on the Board's website.

Effective: 2009 English-literacy School Certificate test.

Contact

The latest Board of Studies NSW Assessment Resource Centre (ARC) upload sent 102 new graded work samples for English and Mathematics online.

The award-winning ARC now holds more than 1800 real student work samples across all learning areas, graded to an agreed A-E scale by practising teachers.

This means teachers and parents can readily view the quality of work that is typically produced by, for example:

a student demonstrating a B grade level in Science at the end of Stage 4 (Year 8), or

a student demonstrating a C grade level in Mathematics by mid-Stage 3 (Year 5), or

a student demonstrating an A grade level in English at the end of Stage 1 (Year 2).

While the earlier development of the ARC concentrated on demonstrating student work for the end of each two-year stage of schooling, all of the most recent ARC additions are 'mid-stage' samples for English and Mathematics. This gives teachers and parents a clearer view of expected standards in Years 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.

The ARC site includes full explanations of A-E grades, how to view a student's progress over time, and links to school-specific information about reporting achievement.

The ARC also holds the Board's standing invitation to teachers to contribute class activities and student samples to the project. In addition, teachers can comment directly to the Board on the grade allocations and make their own suggested grades. Every graded sample includes a 'grade commentary' written by the teachers who agreed on the grade for that piece of work.

Many parents have found the ARC a useful way to understand their child's progress. Some community language translations about the A-E grades are provided on the ARC.

Don't miss out! Get your Board news fast and from the source with our easy email news alerts. Simply enter your address in the box to the right of this article and remember to verify when you get our confirmation message.

BOS 21/09

Listed below are updated details regarding prescribed texts included in English Stage 6 Prescriptions: Area of Study, Electives and Texts, Higher School Certificate 2009-2012.

Updated versions of the entire Prescriptions document and the Prescriptions poster are available on the Board's website. These versions contain all previously notified changes to editions.

[More]

BOS 18/09

The following amendments have been made to the assessment and external examination in English Extension 2 with effect from the commencement of the 2010 HSC course.

Internal assessment

The components for the internal assessment will be the two course objectives, with equal weighting. The objectives are:

Objective 1: Skills in extensive independent investigation
Objective 2: Skills in sustained composition.

There will be three assessment tasks, as shown in the table below.

[More]

BOS 14/09

Examination rubrics for the HSC English examinations for English (Standard), English (Advanced) and English (ESL) have changed as a result of the release of English Stage 6 Prescriptions: Area of Study, Electives and Texts 2009-2012 (PDF, 43 pages, 3.9 MB).

[More]

First published on this site on 23 February 2009

Related entry: 2010 HSC exam and assessment changes

Quality rather than quantity is the key message for changes announced today to the 2010 NSW Higher School Certificate.

Minister for Education and Training, Ms Verity Firth said HSC students will now be provided with the approximate length expected for their exam essays.

"The aim is to encourage students to answer the question in a relevant, organised way, rather than simply write everything they know on a topic," said Ms Firth.

"The new recommended lengths will vary depending on the course and the question.

"For example, in the HSC Business Studies exam, there are two 20-mark essays. For the 2010 exam, students will be advised that the expected length of each essay is around six writing booklet pages, or approximately 800 words.

"In the past, HSC markers have reported that students were writing 20 pages or more per essay - apart from sometimes producing irrelevant answers, this can leave students short of time to complete the whole paper adequately.

"However, the suggested length will be advice only and students will not be penalised for answers longer or shorter - all essays will still be marked on their merits.

Ms Firth said guidelines are being developed to help students avoid spending unnecessary amounts of time and money on their HSC major works, often to the detriment of their other HSC courses.

"For example, there are cases of Design and Technology students providing 20,000 to 40,000 word portfolios for marking in addition to the major design project," she said.

"Of course we won't stop passionate young artists and designers from focusing on the work they enjoy the most - the aim here is to let them know they can get high marks without spending a fortune or neglecting their other studies.

Ms Firth said multiple choice questions were being introduced in four subjects - Ancient and Modern History (value between 5 to 10 marks), Industrial Technology (10 marks) and Society and Culture (value 8 marks).

The value of multiple choice questions will also be increased in eight subjects including Geography, Physics, Chemistry and Biology (up from 15 marks to 20 marks), and Food Technology (up from 10 marks to 20 marks).

"Multiple choice questions provide consistency across similar natured exams and give greater ability to test a student's knowledge," said Ms Firth.

The other change to the 2010 HSC is increase of the value of the externally marked Society and Culture Personal Interest Project from 30 per cent to 40 per cent, consistent with marks for other subjects' major works.

There are no changes to exam lengths, allotted reading times or recommended number of school assessment tasks.

Ms Firth said the changes were the result of consultation last year by the Board of Studies. More than 900 submissions were received from individuals and groups representing students, teachers and parents.

"The changes can be seen as further improvement to an extremely successful Higher School Certificate, rightly recognised as a leading international secondary school credential.

"None of the changes apply to the 2009 Year 11 or Year 12 students.

"Further consultation will be undertaken on English, the only mandatory course in the HSC.

"As a result, there will be no changes to 2-unit English until 2011 HSC at the earliest.

Sample multiple choice questions, school assessment programs and other support materials will be developed and progressively added to the Board of Studies' website this year.

The Board will work closely with professional teacher associations to generate these materials for teachers and students.

BOS 06/09

Listed below are updated details regarding prescribed texts included in English Stage 6 Prescriptions: Area of Study, Electives and Texts, Higher School Certificate 2009-2012.

[More]

The state’s Higher School Certificate students will today sit the first of two compulsory English exams.

The Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, said a total of 64,509* students were enrolled in English courses in 2008.

[More]