‘A fair, challenging exam’
Jewish students are among 75,000 across NSW who have begun their written Higher School Certificate (HSC) examinations.
WITH the Higher School Certificate (HSC) exam period underway, Classical Hebrew Continuers students sat for their exam last Thursday, with the Classical Hebrew Extension paper scheduled for today (Thursday).
Feedback from students has been largely positive regarding last week’s paper, which comprised two sections focusing on prescribed texts and a third focusing on an unseen text.
“The paper was challenging but the questions were straightforward and allowed the students to demonstrate their knowledge of the text and commentaries,” Moriah College acting head of Jewish life and learning Ronnen Grauman said.
“There was an interesting twist with the essay question, which forced the students to think before responding. There were no ambiguous questions and both the Mishnah and unseen sections were reasonable and very appropriate for an HSC exam.”
Moriah College year 12 student Sabrina Zulman said she was pleasantly surprised.
“As the first year with a brand new Tanach syllabus, it was difficult to predict the types of questions they would ask, especially considering the amount of content that could be tested on. There is always a bit of apprehension surrounding the grammar section, as you can never predict what might be asked,” she said.
“There were hardly any grammar questions, there were little to none ‘trick questions’ and the unseens, whilst hard to grasp, were manageable. Overall, the exam was successful and I couldn’t have asked for a better exam.”
Fellow student Sarah Miller thanked Grauman “who has prepared us well for this paper, which was very interesting”.
“It followed the structure of past years, but included some surprising and certainly challenging questions,” she said.
“It required longer thematic and analytical answers, with less overall emphasis on grammar and skills-based knowledge. The essay was unexpectedly different to that of previous years, being given only one short extract to respond to, as opposed to upward of five extracts in past years.
“It was extremely rewarding to complete the paper, having seen how much we have learnt over the past two years.”
Kesser Torah College teacher Rabbi Dr Ari Lobel said he hadn’t seen the paper but had spoken to students who said they were happy and that it was a fair exam.
Modern Hebrew Continuers students will sit their exam next Thursday, November 7.
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