So tomorrow in NSW, the HSC commences and thousands of year 12 students will be tested. During the last year, my teachers have been harping on about how important it is to get a good result. It's unfortunately resulted in me being diagnosed with Anxiety and Depression, which is the same with a lot of students because of the pressure from teachers and parents.

Each state and country will have some similar exam.

My question is: Are major final year exams necessary? Is it really worth the stress?

*EDIT*

So, it's also starting to turn into a way to help each other and discuss subjects, so go for it!

Good result? There are so many back doors into the system you can take a UAI of 60 and get a job as a surgeon.

And you should be studying.

Fuck the HSC. I have no idea how well I'll do, and it's really fucking me up. I am so stressed out that if I continue in this vein I'll probably incur moderator wrath.

Ultrajoe:
Good result? There are so many back doors into the system you can take a UAI of 60 and get a job as a surgeon.

And you should be studying.

Jeez Mum! I am studying. I can post an essay if you want proof. I know there are back doors to Uni, but I'm saying a lot of people are crazy like me and think that it's the be all and end all. *sigh*

I don't take this idea seriously. I probably should. But before then, I'll laugh at the waste of time that is the School Certificate.

Gentlemen, allow me to soothe your raging souls...

- The HSC is just another set of exams... nothing more.
- Your UAI is worth as much as is what pencil you use, being academically intelligent is not what an employer looks for. There are plenty of very intelligent, very stupid people.
- The HSC is nowhere near as important as things like family, health and friendships, do not let it hurt them.
- You can always find another route to any job, so be calm and simply do your best. The actual result counts for gyp in the long run.

Why does this seem like a bad idea, especially as a mandatory test?

Making a test mandatory does all kinds of bad things. Look at the Japanese school system. One of the highest suicide rates among school age children per capita. Of course, they have all kinds of weirdness in their culture.

- The HSC is just another set of exams... nothing more.
- Your UAI is worth as much as is what pencil you use, being academically intelligent is not what an employer looks for. There are plenty of very intelligent, very stupid people.
- The HSC is nowhere near as important as things like family, health and friendships, do not let it hurt them.
- You can always find another route to any job, so be calm and simply do your best. The actual result counts for gyp in the long run.

The Joe speaks sense. Getting nervous about exams is normal. Getting overly anxious, worried or even depressed about them is pointless. I understand why people do it, but you need to stand back and see the forest, not just the trees. It's part of a bigger picture and these exams are a very small part of it. Chopping the tree down may hurt some of the forest, but there's a hell of a lot more out there so it's not really worth worrying about it.

Are final exams necessary? Well, until a better more efficient and more useful system is put in place, I'd say yes. I thought they were fairly silly. I've got a B at A-Level for Philosophy and Ethics. Can I remember the vast majority of the work I learned less than half a year ago? Can I bollocks! Nevertheless they need to test your capacity to learn, absorb, process and understand information somehow, and final exams seem to be a fairly good way to do it.

Is it worth the stress? Well that all depends on whether you get stressed. I admit I was nervous about my exams, have I ever stressed over them? God no. Maybe it was because I was 'naturally' good at exams or I just had the right mindset or whatever, but they've never really bothered me to the extent other people seem to be fussed by them. Exams, despite what your tutors may tell you, are not the only way to get a career in life. Your life isn't over if you fail your exams. Study, do your best, if you get good grades, awesome, if not, work on something else. Getting stressed does nothing except stress you out and it just worsens your grades in the long run.

p.s. Can you be one of the few people who are diagnosed with depression who doesn't take any drugs for it? Please? :( God I'm tired of our pill-to-solve-everything mentality.

vxicepickxv:
Why does this seem like a bad idea, especially as a mandatory test?

Making a test mandatory does all kinds of bad things. Look at the Japanese school system. One of the highest suicide rates among school age children per capita. Of course, they have all kinds of weirdness in their culture.

Like I said in my OP, since I started the HSC, I've been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. I'm seeing a therapist and on medication and slowly getting better, but it causes all sorts of problems.

Although, my mates joke around saying next I'll get Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Amnestic:
p.s. Can you be one of the few people who are diagnosed with depression who doesn't take any drugs for it? Please? :( God I'm tired of our pill-to-solve-everything mentality.

*Puts his hand up*

Im to bloody stubborn to take a pill. That, and i don't have it that bad.

Radelaide:

vxicepickxv:
Why does this seem like a bad idea, especially as a mandatory test?

Making a test mandatory does all kinds of bad things. Look at the Japanese school system. One of the highest suicide rates among school age children per capita. Of course, they have all kinds of weirdness in their culture.

Like I said in my OP, since I started the HSC, I've been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety. I'm seeing a therapist and on medication and slowly getting better, but it causes all sorts of problems.

Although, my mates joke around saying next I'll get Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Therapist Mode: Active

So...tell me about your parents.

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

Ultrajoe:

Amnestic:
p.s. Can you be one of the few people who are diagnosed with depression who doesn't take any drugs for it? Please? :( God I'm tired of our pill-to-solve-everything mentality.

*Puts his hand up*

Im to bloody stubborn to take a pill. That, and i don't have it that bad.

Have a high five! *High five* Heck, I'll make it ten! *Double High!*

Thanks for your advice Joe, how do you go in your HSC and did it make much of an impact at all?

Amnestic:

Therapist Mode: Active

So...tell me about your parents.

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

A lot of it is disappointing my parents and friends. Some of it is stress from my teachers who keep telling me that if I don't do it, it'll end everything I wanna do. And some of it is not feeling prepared. I've thrown up tonight because I'm so damned nervous. I know it seems like something really silly to get upset about, but it's too much stress for a few exams which is why I don't think we should have it.

Amnestic:

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

It's the fucking atmosphere that surrounds it. My school is high achieving. Top in the state, actually. Know what that means? It means that, no joke, 99% of the school are whiny, neurotic asians who're so stressed out all the time that unless you attend via correspondence the stress oozes out and latches onto you. It's contagious.

Graustein:

Amnestic:

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

It's the fucking atmosphere that surrounds it. My school is high achieving. Top in the state, actually. Know what that means? It means that, no joke, 99% of the school are whiny, neurotic asians who're so stressed out all the time that unless you attend via correspondence the stress oozes out and latches onto you. It's contagious.

We're having a bitching-bonding moment on MSN about it. Pretty much everything that Graustein said about the atmosphere.

Radelaide:

Graustein:

Amnestic:

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

It's the fucking atmosphere that surrounds it. My school is high achieving. Top in the state, actually. Know what that means? It means that, no joke, 99% of the school are whiny, neurotic asians who're so stressed out all the time that unless you attend via correspondence the stress oozes out and latches onto you. It's contagious.

We're having a bitching-bonding moment on MSN about it. Pretty much everything that Graustein said about the atmosphere.

Except possibly the bit about the asians. Although I'm not kidding about it. She might be.

Graustein:

Amnestic:

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

It's the fucking atmosphere that surrounds it. My school is high achieving. Top in the state, actually. Know what that means? It means that, no joke, 99% of the school are whiny, neurotic asians who're so stressed out all the time that unless you attend via correspondence the stress oozes out and latches onto you. It's contagious.

James Roose/Ruse?

The primary problem with the HSC and UAI is that no one really knows how the marking works. In our state, we have a system known as Scaling, which means your subject choices influence your marks, and not just in how good you are at the subjects. The subjects generally done by people of "lower ability" tend to scale down if you don't get above the top 1%, while the harder subjects scale up. One such example:
If you get 40 (out of 50) in PDHPE, you'll get around 32.
If you got the 40 in Four Unit Maths, you'd get aroun 46.

It's quite confusing.

Caimekaze:

Graustein:

Amnestic:

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

It's the fucking atmosphere that surrounds it. My school is high achieving. Top in the state, actually. Know what that means? It means that, no joke, 99% of the school are whiny, neurotic asians who're so stressed out all the time that unless you attend via correspondence the stress oozes out and latches onto you. It's contagious.

James Roose/Ruse?

The primary problem with the HSC and UAI is that no one really knows how the marking works. In our state, we have a system known as Scaling, which means your subject choices influence your marks, and not just in how good you are at the subjects. The subjects generally done by people of "lower ability" tend to scale down if you don't get above the top 1%, while the harder subjects scale up. One such example:
If you get 40 (out of 50) in PDHPE, you'll get around 32.
If you got the 40 in Four Unit Maths, you'd get aroun 46.

It's quite confusing.

Ruse*

And yes. The scaling is such a piece of shit. Doesn't help that I'm doing 5 units of history, 2 units of science and no maths.

One of my friends wants to do med. It annoys me because she complains when she gets anything below 95%.

In Victoria we have VCA. I think the exams are ok because i perform well under exam conditions and never care to much about exams but i think an approach more like TAFE based on competency should be used because how well you can do calsulus will not define how good of a business manager you can be.

Radelaide:

Amnestic:

Therapist Mode: Active

So...tell me about your parents.

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

A lot of it is disappointing my parents and friends. Some of it is stress from my teachers who keep telling me that if I don't do it, it'll end everything I wanna do. And some of it is not feeling prepared. I've thrown up tonight because I'm so damned nervous. I know it seems like something really silly to get upset about, but it's too much stress for a few exams which is why I don't think we should have it.

Family and Friends: Well, they come and go. I didn't do "As well as I could have done" in any of my exams, no one really cared. Believe me when I say that it really doesn't matter, they may be disappointed if you don't achieve the goals they set for you (kinda harsh really, you should set your own goals in life), but if they're real friends then they'll want to support you more than look at you with disappointment. They'll encourage you and wish you well with..you know, everything.

Teachers: Do you know why they're putting pressure on you? Two possible reasons I've found. One is they actually care about how you do, in which case they should have learnt by now not to put pressure on you, though it's possible they're as nervous as you are in which case they need to (wo)man up and see that they're not helping. The second reason is the better you do in their subject the better they look as teachers. One of my philosophy teachers let us in on this. Basically the better you do the more likely a teacher is to get a promotion, pay rise or bonus for good work and making the school look good. In which case their goal is inherently a selfish one and you should tell them to go fuck themselves.

Unless you're one of those prodigy kids who is 3 years ahead of his age in school academia, it's likely that you will never feel fully prepared for an exam. Even the genii in my year, the guys who were getting 100% in most practise papers were still nervous and said they could have done more revision. Trust me, no one ever feels prepared and you just have to push that thought to the back of your mind, it just invokes more panic which in turn distracts you and buggers up your revision/exam succcess.

I probably sound like I'm lecturing, and that's because I'm slightly in the mood to argue due to not-great family matters, but I hope that came across as helpful advice rather than a lecture.

Graustein:

Amnestic:

More seriously though, why do the exams depress you?

It's the fucking atmosphere that surrounds it. My school is high achieving. Top in the state, actually. Know what that means? It means that, no joke, 99% of the school are whiny, neurotic asians who're so stressed out all the time that unless you attend via correspondence the stress oozes out and latches onto you. It's contagious.

I'm not sure how much I could say without repeating myself, perhaps "earplugs are your friend" or something to that effect. I can't really advise how to avoid the atmosphere. Perhaps ignoring everyone and finding a quiet out of the way corner to study, though that's difficult at school.

Ah yes, another whole year before I have to consider any of this.

And I'm gonna be enjoying 6 75 minute free periods a week up until then :)

Armitage Shanks:
Ah yes, another whole year before I have to consider any of this.

And I'm gonna be enjoying 6 75 minute free periods a week up until then :)

Use them wisely. I only did three subjects this year and spent most of my time on the escapist in the learning centre and doing really crappy essays...

I think that actually being able to face & overcome the exams is as important as the results themselves. It demonstrates that the student can cope with high pressure & stressful situations.

I don't know what it's like in other countries, but I found my end of year exams quite easy & relished the opportunity to demonstrate what I'd learnt & vindicate all the years of studying.

The thing is that you've probably learnt & retained more information subconsciously than you've realised & as long as you don't let the pressure get to you then it's pretty easy.

Of course I do think that there's too much emphasis put onto the exams with regards to moving straight on to university & too much pressure put onto kids in that respect.

About halfway through my A-levels I got fed up with all the talk of going onto university straight away & all the bullshit about needing to get good results to get a placement, so I decided to opt out of the bullshit competition.

I decided that I wasn't going to go to university straight away, no matter what results I got, & that I would take a few years out to work & develop a better idea of what I wanted to study at degree level & ultimately what direction my life would take.

Once I'd made that decision & effectively negated all the irrelevant pressure I found the exams much less stressful, easier & consequently got better results, so much that I got an unconditional offer from the university I eventually decided to go to, on my own terms.

Listen to you heart not the teachers, & if you're body is telling you to chill out then listen to it.
You have more time then you think to make the very important, correct decision & I believe it's better to stall the beginning of you academic life & career so that you make the right decisions for yourself, then to rush it, make the wrong decision & regret it years down the line when it too late to change direction & massively disruptive.

History doesn't scale too badly, and it depends on which science.

My plans are for 4 English, 2 Visual Arts, 2 Physics, 2 Japanese Beginners, and 2 Legal Studies.

I'm aiming for 99.55

...
I may actually have to study.

Amnestic:

I'm not sure how much I could say without repeating myself, perhaps "earplugs are your friend" or something to that effect. I can't really advise how to avoid the atmosphere. Perhaps ignoring everyone and finding a quiet out of the way corner to study, though that's difficult at school.

Heh. The only times I don't have earplugs in are when the teacher's talking. Luckily my friends and I are fairly laid back, but the air is just so thick that even then it gets to you.
Just one more month...

Radelaide:

Armitage Shanks:
Ah yes, another whole year before I have to consider any of this.

And I'm gonna be enjoying 6 75 minute free periods a week up until then :)

Use them wisely. I only did three subjects this year and spent most of my time on the escapist in the learning centre and doing really crappy essays...

Which 3? I'm taking Drama, 4 units of English, 5 units of History.

EDIT: No chance of the Escapist though, state wide filters on everything... and they keep blocking the proxies.

Caimekaze:
History doesn't scale too badly, and it depends on which science.

My plans are for 4 English, 2 Visual Arts, 2 Physics, 2 Japanese Beginners, and 2 Legal Studies.

I'm aiming for 99.55

Chem, but I'm shit at it. And while Modern doesn't scale terribly, Ancient scales pretty badly and Extension scales like a bitch.

Graustein:

Caimekaze:
History doesn't scale too badly, and it depends on which science.

My plans are for 4 English, 2 Visual Arts, 2 Physics, 2 Japanese Beginners, and 2 Legal Studies.

I'm aiming for 99.55

Chem, but I'm shit at it. And while Modern doesn't scale terribly, Ancient scales pretty badly and Extension scales like a bitch.

Ou-ouch.

Well, don't forget the best bit about your UAI.
Even if you screw up, if everyone else does you can still get a high one. xD

Graustein:

Amnestic:

I'm not sure how much I could say without repeating myself, perhaps "earplugs are your friend" or something to that effect. I can't really advise how to avoid the atmosphere. Perhaps ignoring everyone and finding a quiet out of the way corner to study, though that's difficult at school.

Heh. The only times I don't have earplugs in are when the teacher's talking. Luckily my friends and I are fairly laid back, but the air is just so thick that even then it gets to you.
Just one more month...

I was very lucky, i had a drama performance weeks before my actual HSC exams (Which, by the way, i aced so hard i flogged the shit out of our resident actor-wannabe who had been bragging the entire year about how he did acting outside of school and had been in a commercial. I love to see try-hards crushed beneath my Ultra-Talented boot!!!!!)

...

...and that let me understand that the HSC was another day at the job. I had done a HSC event going into the exams and knew it was nothing special.

Ask your parents what UAI they got. 90% of people don't remember because on a scale of life-events its nowhere neat things like your 18th birthday, your first date or winning a sports competition.

...

... Or storming the stage and singing 'Never Gonna Give You Up' to the entire school at the farewell ceremony...

Armitage Shanks:

Radelaide:

Armitage Shanks:
Ah yes, another whole year before I have to consider any of this.

And I'm gonna be enjoying 6 75 minute free periods a week up until then :)

Use them wisely. I only did three subjects this year and spent most of my time on the escapist in the learning centre and doing really crappy essays...

Which 3? I'm taking Drama, 4 units of English, 5 units of History.

EDIT: No chance of the Escapist though, state wide filters on everything... and they keep blocking the proxies.

Advanced English, Retail Operations and Modern history. I got passed it because I had a DET TAFE login and password.

You'd do Advanced Eng and Extension? Plus both histories and Extension? Fark, I need to relax :P

Radelaide:

Armitage Shanks:

Radelaide:

Armitage Shanks:
Ah yes, another whole year before I have to consider any of this.

And I'm gonna be enjoying 6 75 minute free periods a week up until then :)

Use them wisely. I only did three subjects this year and spent most of my time on the escapist in the learning centre and doing really crappy essays...

Which 3? I'm taking Drama, 4 units of English, 5 units of History.

EDIT: No chance of the Escapist though, state wide filters on everything... and they keep blocking the proxies.

Advanced English, Retail Operations and Modern history. I got passed it because I had a DET TAFE login and password.

You'd do Advanced Eng and Extension? Plus both histories and Extension? Fark, I need to relax :P

Hmm now I see the advantages of tafe.

Believe it or not I was going to take art as well, but I thought 4 major works plus my senior prefectorial duties would be a bit much. How many units is Retail Operations?

I think the HSC is useful in that its something aim for, for like people without direction outside of school.

Hah final exams..

Last year I rocked up to the QCS test (the big one in qld) and failed.

My OP (uni rank thing) was 23. 1 being the best and 25 being the worse. To get into uni I played 2 songs on bass. Even if I didnt get in then I had 3 or 4 TAFE courses lined up to get in.

Finals arnt the be all and end all but 100 people can tell you it'll be fine and it wont make a diffrence.. sooo.. Whatever

The HSC gets a lot of hate but that's pretty understandable since it is the culmination of 12 years of schooling. There's heaps of pressure and stress and all that but the important thing is that everyone goes through it.

A lot gets said in schools about chances for university and such and some of it is important, your UAI is your most obvious tool for getting into university. What is most useful I found is to try and have an idea of what you may like to do at university (everyone wants to do medicine by the way, and they don't realise how awful it will be). Almost certainly you will change your mind and that's fine, once you're in the system it's a lot easier to change degrees or even just majors.

While it is true that it reflects well on a teacher if you do well this is ancillary to the point of the whole process. It is no reason that you shouldn't do well. It reflects well on you as well if you do well (though by far is not important or everything).

By all means study your arse off, that's the point of the exams. It's only for a short time and it doesn't determine your life at all but it can't hurt if you do well. Once you get your results all the stress will be completely forgotten and by the time you start university (if you do) even the UAI will be something you have to think about to remember. That said, forget about all that stuff after your exams, not beforehand.

Finally (didn't mean for this to get so long and lecture like, I'm procrastinating doing an essay), if you go to university NEVER start a conversation with someone asking where they went to school or what UAI they got. The people who do that are (especially for Sydney universities) the kids who went to the high-priced private schools and think they own the world. Believe me because I went to one of those schools and it's cringeworthy how most of the people from them act. If you did attend those schools then NEVER join subski (or other such organisations), make friends independent of where they are from/schools they attended and realise that the real world is nothing like what you were shaped to believe.

Again, sorry for the preachyness. That essay still isn't written.

P.S. If you don't know what you want to do at university then general degrees are great to start with and figure out from there. Even if you just do a BSc then you can study anything from geology to physics to ethical science and often up to a third of your subjects can come from a different faculty. Double degrees are even better for choice.

Armitage Shanks:
Believe it or not I was going to take art as well, but I thought 4 major works plus my senior prefectorial duties would be a bit much. How many units is Retail Operations?

I think the HSC is useful in that its something aim for, for like people without direction outside of school.

Retail is two units, but the exam is optional. It's a VET course. So a few weeks before you leave a teacher comes around and asks if you want to do the exam. It's all pretty easy stuff, especially if you work in the retail industry.

raemiel:

By all means study your arse off, that's the point of the exams. It's only for a short time and it doesn't determine your life at all but it can't hurt if you do well. Once you get your results all the stress will be completely forgotten and by the time you start university (if you do) even the UAI will be something you have to think about to remember. That said, forget about all that stuff after your exams, not beforehand.

Finally (didn't mean for this to get so long and lecture like, I'm procrastinating doing an essay), if you go to university NEVER start a conversation with someone asking where they went to school or what UAI they got. The people who do that are (especially for Sydney universities) the kids who went to the high-priced private schools and think they own the world. Believe me because I went to one of those schools and it's cringeworthy how most of the people from them act. If you did attend those schools then NEVER join subski (or other such organisations), make friends independent of where they are from/schools they attended and realise that the real world is nothing like what you were shaped to believe.

I'm one of those people who studies hard and still only achieves mediocre results. 3 days before graduating I was still debating about dropping out and doing Newstep (HSC at Uni, but when I felt like I could do it) and the University of Newcastle.

I've got friends in private schools and selective schools and I've seen the essays they bring out and I'm shocked! They're sometimes worse than ones I've spat out in twenty minutes. I've always been under the assumption that they had better resources. It makes me happy that I go to a very poor achieving school and still have better essays.

zen5887:
Hah final exams..

Last year I rocked up to the QCS test (the big one in qld) and failed.

My OP (uni rank thing) was 23. 1 being the best and 25 being the worse. To get into uni I played 2 songs on bass. Even if I didnt get in then I had 3 or 4 TAFE courses lined up to get in.

Finals arnt the be all and end all but 100 people can tell you it'll be fine and it wont make a diffrence.. sooo.. Whatever

I wish I could have that mentality. I'm so nervous though. And I'm not even getting a UAI (University Admissions Index, for those of you playing at home) so I'm stressing out for a totally different reason...

Oh well. I can't wait till the 28th of this month...

Radelaide:

I've got friends in private schools and selective schools and I've seen the essays they bring out and I'm shocked! They're sometimes worse than ones I've spat out in twenty minutes. I've always been under the assumption that they had better resources. It makes me happy that I go to a very poor achieving school and still have better essays.

Yeah the private schools and their resources are what you take from it, just like all education really. An expensive school doesn't mean you'll automatically do well, plenty of teachers at my school were absolute jokes who had no right to be responsible for the education of others. Particularly the lower ranked classes, they usually got teachers who were sport coaches or teachers in other disciplines who needed additional work to justify their employment at the school.