DANIELLA BIANCHI
NOVEMBER 11th, 2021
Aren’t you glad you memorized 3 essays for English HSC and you can quote Shakespeare? Wasn’t it useful to rote learn the periodic table even if it is just a google search away? Isn’t it great that in only a 3 hour test you must prove that you have understood and learnt a whole year’s worth of content?
I hope my sarcasm made you stop and think that saying HSCya and changing these final exams is not such a bad idea…
The fundamental skills of writing, solving mathematical problems, and critical analysis taught at school contribute a lot to our growth and development. Not to mention, the school environment does have a strong influence on how we interact with others, affecting us so intensely in what we think and how we act, even to this day. Don’t get me wrong, I believe getting an education is important, but here’s
There is plenty to learn from our world and school gives us one way to do this, although just a taste. Traditional schooling follows one curriculum which helps to standardize the results. We are testing such a narrow group of skills that means, inevitably, some students are going to feel like failures. I could argue that it also turns us into robots. The chase for a band 6 is constantly on the forefront of our minds, so much so that we start to care less about what we learn and more about how to get the marks. Trust me, I played the game too and I fell into the system. We didn’t know any better. From year 7, the high achieving academic students are awarded for their efforts and ranked - fueling the rat race. The competitive learning environment breeds perfectionism, extreme dedication and creates a divide among the learners. Those who get it shun those who don’t. Those who are labelled as not getting it see their efforts in trying to, as useless and the gap in turn, grows larger. Even among those at the top, the need to protect their knowledge to an almost secret level is surprisingly too common.
From my experience, studying was a very strange task. In the holidays before trials, we were told to spend 6 hours a day studying. It made my stay in Queensland quite enjoyable. Thank God I had my Firefighters calendar… for planning purposes only, obviously. I felt the pressure of producing perfect work.
But, how does one achieve in the HSC? It seems that all 13 years spent in school have been preparing you for the final competition. It seems to me a narrow and simple judgement and sometimes a circumstantial test. You are expected to study so much yet are tested on so little in that 3 hour time period. The HSC means to set you up for the future, but as I see it, it is a disguise. Students become obsessed with that last number and place too much unnecessary pressure on themselves. It is such a confronting thing for 17 or 18 year olds, to be expected to know what they want to do with their lives. Usually, life after the HSC is glossed over by schools. Yes, we are taught algebra and poetic techniques, but are we taught to think about what we are passionate about? Are we asked to research possible careers? Are we even told that there is more to life than studying? I have watched my friends and cousins study crazily for the HSC without a clear plan of what is in store after. Even as I was in year 12, I had not a single clue what I wanted to be doing afterwards. But I stress, is that not defeating the point of what the HSC should mean? Shouldn’t these final exams be steps taken when we know what we want to do with our lives?
There is too much disconnect between the outdated schooling system and the world outside of the school bubble. School focuses on repetition and memorization of facts where in life the internet exists! Students individually battle for a top position, yet outside, the world capitalizes on the power of combined thinking. Teens take exams having learnt the way one is supposed to answer questions, yet outside the school walls, questions rarely have such straight forward solutions. The HSC is posed as a ticket to the next stage of life, but most of the time is only a stress inducing pursuit that distracts children from finding out what they want their future to look like.
In the real-world, nobody is correcting your every move, nor do they even care how hard you study.
It is shocking to discover that people want to help win with you instead of beating you.
All in all, it is time to revamp the system, to encourage independent thinking and to get out of the “HSC is everything” mindset. Do you think we should we be saying HSCya?
I hope my sarcasm made you stop and think that saying HSCya and changing these final exams is not such a bad idea…
The fundamental skills of writing, solving mathematical problems, and critical analysis taught at school contribute a lot to our growth and development. Not to mention, the school environment does have a strong influence on how we interact with others, affecting us so intensely in what we think and how we act, even to this day. Don’t get me wrong, I believe getting an education is important, but here’s
the go
on the current system.There is plenty to learn from our world and school gives us one way to do this, although just a taste. Traditional schooling follows one curriculum which helps to standardize the results. We are testing such a narrow group of skills that means, inevitably, some students are going to feel like failures. I could argue that it also turns us into robots. The chase for a band 6 is constantly on the forefront of our minds, so much so that we start to care less about what we learn and more about how to get the marks. Trust me, I played the game too and I fell into the system. We didn’t know any better. From year 7, the high achieving academic students are awarded for their efforts and ranked - fueling the rat race. The competitive learning environment breeds perfectionism, extreme dedication and creates a divide among the learners. Those who get it shun those who don’t. Those who are labelled as not getting it see their efforts in trying to, as useless and the gap in turn, grows larger. Even among those at the top, the need to protect their knowledge to an almost secret level is surprisingly too common.
From my experience, studying was a very strange task. In the holidays before trials, we were told to spend 6 hours a day studying. It made my stay in Queensland quite enjoyable. Thank God I had my Firefighters calendar… for planning purposes only, obviously. I felt the pressure of producing perfect work.
But, how does one achieve in the HSC? It seems that all 13 years spent in school have been preparing you for the final competition. It seems to me a narrow and simple judgement and sometimes a circumstantial test. You are expected to study so much yet are tested on so little in that 3 hour time period. The HSC means to set you up for the future, but as I see it, it is a disguise. Students become obsessed with that last number and place too much unnecessary pressure on themselves. It is such a confronting thing for 17 or 18 year olds, to be expected to know what they want to do with their lives. Usually, life after the HSC is glossed over by schools. Yes, we are taught algebra and poetic techniques, but are we taught to think about what we are passionate about? Are we asked to research possible careers? Are we even told that there is more to life than studying? I have watched my friends and cousins study crazily for the HSC without a clear plan of what is in store after. Even as I was in year 12, I had not a single clue what I wanted to be doing afterwards. But I stress, is that not defeating the point of what the HSC should mean? Shouldn’t these final exams be steps taken when we know what we want to do with our lives?
There is too much disconnect between the outdated schooling system and the world outside of the school bubble. School focuses on repetition and memorization of facts where in life the internet exists! Students individually battle for a top position, yet outside, the world capitalizes on the power of combined thinking. Teens take exams having learnt the way one is supposed to answer questions, yet outside the school walls, questions rarely have such straight forward solutions. The HSC is posed as a ticket to the next stage of life, but most of the time is only a stress inducing pursuit that distracts children from finding out what they want their future to look like.
In the real-world, nobody is correcting your every move, nor do they even care how hard you study.
It is shocking to discover that people want to help win with you instead of beating you.
All in all, it is time to revamp the system, to encourage independent thinking and to get out of the “HSC is everything” mindset. Do you think we should we be saying HSCya?