‘A little bit nerve-racking’: How students think they fared in QCE’s largest exam

In the week of a Caesar switch-up that devastated ancient history students and wild weather that knocked out half a dozen campuses for a day, students across Queensland also faced the state’s biggest exam.

Almost 28,000 year 12 students sat their external English exams on Tuesday, with a passing grade in the subject mandatory for their Queensland Certificate of Education.

In Brisbane’s west, students at The Gap State High School said they felt well-prepared for the test, even finding the questions “not too hard”.

The Gap State High School Students Ella Gjerek (left) and Amelia Lynch (right).Credit: Catherine Strohfeldt

“We’d studied Macbeth for the past term, [and] they’ve been using Macbeth for a long time, so it’s a little bit nerve-racking to see what questions they’ve come up with, but I knew it would work out,” school captain Amelia Lynch said.

Schools had been given the choice of eight texts, studied across the final semester before the external testing – and making up 25 per cent of student’s overall mark.

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The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) said most schools had selected Shakespearean texts – either Macbeth or Othello – with the third most-popular text being Australian author Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites.

The test required students to write a 1000-word essay over three hours responding to one of two questions about their selected text.

The Gap State High School year 12 student Ella Gjerek said among her friends, most students opted to analyse morality in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

“I know one person who picked the second question,” Gjerek said.

The school’s head of pathways and performance, Melissa Robertson, said the standout difference from last year’s external English exams had been an extra day’s buffer.

Questions posed to year 12 English students on Macbeth, which was the most common text selected by schools.Credit: QCAA

“English, since the dawn of the new system, has been session one on the first morning, which has its problems as you’re just trying to get in the swing [of things],” Robertson said.

“Having it this year on day two was really fortunate in the sense that with the power outages in Brisbane ... we had a bit more time to troubleshoot any of those issues that were going to occur.”

While The Gap State High maintained power, half a dozen schools were closed in Brisbane’s west on Monday, affecting students who studied design, music, and accounting.

The Education Department said 149 students from Centenary, Kenmore and Indooroopilly State High Schools were shuttled to Corinda State High School to sit their exams on Monday.

Centenary State High praised its 36 travelling students in a statement posted online that afternoon.

“They’re our cohort who started high school in the midst of COVID-19, and now they’re our cohort who finish their schooling with some slight disruption to their external exams,” the statement read.

“What this cohort has continued to show us, year after year, is how incredibly resilient they are.”

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Four private schools – Brigidine College, St Peter’s Lutheran College, Stuartholme School and Ambrose Treacy College – were also left without power, and forced to cancel the exams outright.

A spokeswoman for Brigidine College said the school first lodged a misadventure application for its students on Monday before it was advised the exam would not be rescheduled.

Brigidine opted to have students sit their English exams on Tuesday, despite power remaining out until early Wednesday.

“We extended our gratitude to families for their patience and support, especially our year 12 cohort, who adapted quickly to changes in exam arrangements,” Brigidine’s spokeswoman said.

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