Good lesson in life you don't get to study everything you do in the real world for an employer, sometimes you don't have the answers, so you have to think on your feet and adapt I don't see the issue here at all really..
That ones my fave. Comments are golden, participants' knowledge of the VCE system gave me a good laugh.
@Everyone else debating this - I appreciate your suggestions, but the Literature course isn't designed to encourage 'on the spot' readings and the application of analytical skills to a variety of texts, regardless of whether it should or not. To write a successful essay requires an extensive amount of time and consideration of the author's contentions. Imagine opening the English paper to write your text response in Section A, and having to choose a question on a book you had never read. Even though these students probably read more than one book in class, to write spontaneously on one that you have not prepared for would be extremely difficult, especially considering the time constraints involved. Literature encourages an in depth understanding of the context and themes embedded in a text and not the ability to pull apart silly and obvious passages that say things like 'Tattoos r gr8' in the middle of an English exam. Often, the true meaning behind the passages given could only be harnessed after a number of readings and required complex understanding and thought about what lies beneath the text, not what is self contained and right before your eyes. In my opinion, language analysis type picking apart is based mostly on surface meaning. The beauty of a good literature essay is the way that it manages to pull together a whole text using just three passages given at random. It requires a level of planning and understanding that could never be achieved if you had never intended to write on a text until midway through your reading time.
There is a huge difference between the extent to which you are required to understand a text in English compared to Literature. It is difficult to describe to those who have not taken both subjects, but English really does hone in on the basics of theme based analysis and a study of 'message' rather than 'meaning' itself. Much of English is focused on taking texts and ideas and relating them more broadly to social themes. I feel that I could have confidently written an English essay on another text that I had studied in class had AMFAS not appeared on the exam when I took English, but I do not feel the same way about Literature.
So basically, what I am trying to say is - while you can try to consider what this might have been like for these students by basing it on your own experiences with VCE English, such comparisons are quite unwarranted. The courses are inherently different, although it is difficult to explain how and why.
The problem with literature is that most of the teachers are left to their own devices. There is no real 'way' to teach the subject, just as there is no real 'way' to write an essay. While some people can offer their advice regarding what to write on and how to structure it, there is no predetermined formula as their is for a text response. Most schools have only one class, or one member of staff dedicated to teaching the course because that's all that is required. There are so many texts to choose from that it's likely the mistake would go unnoticed by colleagues and peers at other schools alike. But I still cannot understand how one can be so stupid as to select the wrong text for their students.