This is a reproduction of the Newcastle Herald report from Wednesday November 1, 1967, when the paper covered the brand new Higher School Certificate exams. The story includes several sub-headings recreated below.
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Take a look at the original newspaper page above, the full text below and stroll through our collection of HSC photographs from recent years.
No shocks found in H.S.C. papers
Newcastle pupils and teachers are pleased but not enthusiastic about the papers given so far for the first Higher School certificate examination.
The English papers given on Monday, and yesterday, were described as “fair” and “reasonable”. Teachers said they presented few problems for the student who applied himself during the year.
Students were not allowed the customary 10 minutes’ reading time before the start of the examination proper, but this apparently did not worry them.
About 1400 sixth-formers in the Newcastle area are sitting for the examinations, which started on Monday and will finish on November 17.
About 2500 students will sit for the School Certificate examinations, which will start next Wednesday and last till November 22.
The Higher School Certificate is the culmination of the six-year Wyndham scheme, and the progress of the scheme’s first products is being watched with keen interest.
They have been assured that at least 80 per cent of them will pass the H.S.C.
Yesterday, second papers were given for English Levels I and II, covering drama and the novel.
Level I is the highest under the Wyndham scheme, roughly comparable with the old Leaving Certificate honours.
It could not be ascertained how many students took this paper yesterday, but it is understood numbers were smaller than originally expected. This is partly due to the extra work and reading involved, and partly from students concentrating on the second level subjects to ensure a university matriculation pass.
Mr J Robson, of Newcastle Boys’ High, was pleased with the paper, and said the lay-outs and form were good.
Questions were fair and the only criticism he had was of the poetry, because there was no provision for students to comment on literature they had studied outside that prescribed for sixth form.
Students with ability who had worked throughout the course would have been pleased with the papers, because throughout the past two years they had enjoyed the new English course. This rarely happened with the old course.
Set works were more to students’ liking.
Mrs P Toms, of Hunter Girls’ High, said she was pleased yesterday’s papers were not stereotyped and were different from the old Leaving papers.
Pupils with reasonable ability who had applied themselves throughout the year would have no trouble in passing.
Mr R. Tyler, master at Newcastle Girls’ High, said there was nothing to shock in the papers. There was scope for the good student to show his ability with English.
Brother Keenan, of Marist Bros. High, said boys and teachers were satisfied with the papers so far.
The Level I question on King Lear was penetrating but generally the papers were fair and reasonable and students who had applieds themselves throughout the year had little to fear.
This morning students will sit for the science papers, some sections of which will be marked by computer.
Fifty-three pupils of Newcastle Technical High School caused a stir last month when they protested to the “Newcastle Morning Herald” that the computer marking could cause an injustice.
They said some science and economics papers would be answered by the student filling in appropriate spaces with an HB lead pencil. If the gap filled in was too long, too short, too wide, too light or not coloured with an HB pencil then the machine would mark the answer as wrong, even if the space chosen was correct.
The students were referring to the objective answer paper which will be marked by an optical scanning machine. This device has become available in Australia only recently though it has been used with reported success in the United States and Canada.
The optical scanner reads the paper by means of differences in reflected light, decides if the pencil marks are in the correct spaces and feeds the information via punched cards to a computer which types out the students’ marks.
The machine can handle the papers at a fast rate at a considerable saving of time and money.
However, the Education Department could not give a complete assurance yesterday that if an answer were filled in, as claimed by the 53 students, the machine would not mark it as wrong.
They said regular checks would be made on papers going through the machine: all papers that were rejected by the machine would be hand-marked; and marks would be scrutinised so that if any questions had not been answered the paper would be re-marked by hand.
This should avoid all but a very few mistakes.
In addition, students had been carefully briefed on how the papers were to be filled in, and had been given practice with trial papers. The examination supervisors would check during the examinations to ensure students were correctly filling in the spaces.
Examination results will be posted individually, and should reach H.S.C. candidates on January 8, and School Certificate candidates on January 15.
No firm decision has yet been reached on the recommendation of the N.S.W Board of Senior School Studies that successful candidates be designated in published lists, by numbers only, and that schools not be identified at all.