MYALL Coast Higher School Certificate students breathed a collective sigh of relief after completing their first HSC exams last week.

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The exams kicked off with English Paper 1, with around 40 students from Bulahdelah Central School amongst the 60,000 across NSW sitting the exam.

Year 11 student Katie Nolan, who sat the two-hour paper alongside Year 12, said she was excited to finally start the exams after months of preparation.

“At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be as good as the Year 12s, but we were all on the same page and all worked really hard,” she said.

“Everyone was nervous in the trial exams, but for the actual HSC we knew what to expect and everyone was very supportive.”

Katie said she was well-prepared, but felt the unseen poetry text was challenging.

“The poem was confusing and had an unexpected structure, it took a long time to analyse and find the techniques that related to discovery,” she said.

The Music 1 Aural Skills exam was also held on the first day of the examination period.

The one-hour listening paper required the 4,800 NSW students sitting the exam to respond to four unknown musical excerpts.

“I had done a lot of preparation, so I wasn’t stressed about having two exams on the first day, doing your best is what matters,” Year 12 student Kaitlyn Smart said.

“They were good broad questions which related well to the music, you just had to listen carefully for the techniques used.”

Mathematics, Chinese, Biology, Business Studies and Hospitality are amongst the HSC exams scheduled this week.

The four-week examination period will end on 7 November.

By Daniel SAHYOUN