The HSC remains a gold standard but the year 12 experience needs a reboot

The Higher School Certificate began this week, an ordeal many who have completed high school in NSW since 1967 remember as the dark tunnel they had to crawl through as they made their way to adulthood and freedom.

Premier Chris Minns this week said he still has nightmares about it. He is surely not alone.

On Tuesday more than 74,000 students sat the first exam, English paper one, and the test will continue over the next four weeks. It will include 123 written exams, totalling 350 hours. About 20 students will sit the exams overseas.

In many ways the HSC has stayed the same since 1967; it is still, mostly, pen and paper, a method that was recently criticised as behind the times, amid a push for more online exams, and now seems fortunate, given the creep of artificial intelligence into assessment.

It is still considered a gold standard exam as – unlike other leaving credentials around the country – it compares students with a benchmark, rather than with each other. It is still rigorous and well executed, and offers students a plethora of options to suit their strengths.

The Herald supports the Higher School Certificate as a strong credential that can sit shoulder to shoulder with its international fellows, such as the International Baccalaureate.

That’s not to say, however, that the year 12 experience – particularly the interaction between the HSC, the ATAR and university entry – cannot be improved.

Early admissions, or the practice of a university offering students a place at their institution before they sit their exams, is an increasingly common trend in which three in 10 school leavers use a non-ATAR pathway to go to university.

School leaders have long been correctly concerned that the early admissions process undermines the HSC.

Many early-offer programs rely on year 11 results rather than the final HSC exam. The HSC was designed to ensure that year 11 did not contribute to the final results and was more of a practice year. However, now year 11 is high-stakes and can be more important than year 12.

When a student receives an early offer, they often respond by putting less effort into their final exams. When a significant proportion of a cohort is in this position, it can not only be a distraction for the students who want to achieve a strong HSC result, it can also influence their final university admission rank, as the performance of the whole class is taken into account in the scaling process.

Students’ stress is also an issue. While the HSC is important, the pressure can be overwhelming. One study found 42 per cent of students registered anxiety symptoms high enough to be of clinical concern. No process should be so stressful that it causes nightmares later in life.

This year there is an added stress: funding changes from the federal government mean there will be fewer places at metropolitan universities, meaning entry will require higher ATAR ranks than in previous years.

As our higher education reporter Sally Rawsthorne reported this week, Universities Admissions Centre managing director Kim Paino has urged school leavers to take the university offer they’re given in the first round, to ensure they have a place.

The HSC is undoubtedly important, an opportunity for which it’s worth putting in effort. But students should remember that it’s not their only shot. There are many paths to a tertiary education, and many fulfilling jobs that don’t require one at all.

Life is long, opportunities abound, and dreams change.

Good luck to the class of 2026.

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