English Exam was "difficult but fair" (The Age)

[magnum]

Article in The Age about the English Exam. They said the exam was "difficult but fair". But they should have mentioned the uproar 'Voxi' has caused all over the state lol


Pens up, heads down as students put to test


MIKI PERKINS
October 31, 2009


THE words "You may now commence the exam" sent a shiver down the collective year 12 spine yesterday as 47,000 VCE students picked up their pens for the first of this year's written exams, English and English as a second language.

Three hours later, students at Thornbury High School were smiling as they emerged from the library-cum-exam hall, hugging friends and commiserating on the tricky questions.

The consensus was that the exam was difficult but fair, spanning texts ranging from Edgar Allan Poe's Great Short Works to Xinran's Sky Burial and a tract on digital technology that students had to analyse.

Georgia Lawrasia, 17, was shocked to realise she had written her responses in the wrong section of the exam paper, but was reassured by a teacher that the mistake could be rectified. "It was a bit of a stuff-up — I wrote section B in section C — but it's a big relief to have that one over with," Georgia said. "For a while there I had a blank, I knew the answer but I just couldn't express it properly."

Mona Wannous, 18, also had a momentary lapse of concentration, but reminded herself it was the VCE exams. "I had to keep going — this is a BIG thing."

One of Thornbury's year 12 English teachers, Steven Barlow, thought the exam level was reasonable and students had a fair chance of answering the questions, but said the writing in context section — now in its second year — was still a new concept.

He nodded when asked if teachers also got exam-day nerves. "I'd rather do the exam myself than have them do it, but that's not how it works," he said with a smile.

The English exam was broken into three sections, with the first asking students to complete an analytical piece of writing in response to one topic on a selected text.

Students who chose Nineteen Eighty-Four, for example, were asked to respond to the statement: "Winston's relationship with Julia is ultimately responsible for his fate".

In section B, students had to do an extended written response to a question, drawing on their knowledge of a text they had studied.

Those who had studied Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire were given the prompt "We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are".

The final section of the English exam asked them to analyse the way language was used to present a point of view in a piece about embracing digital technology and the internet.

"If you don't agree, you can always put your computer on eBay and buy a stack of stationery with the money . . . but what a loser you'd be," the piece said.

Most students returned home after the exam to continue their study — and Facebooking — while an unlucky few regrouped for their second exam of the day, specialist maths.


http://www.theage.com.au/national/pens-up-heads-down-as-students-put-to-test-20091030-hpwh.html

[kdgamz]

while an unlucky few regrouped for their second exam of the day, specialist maths.

...(sigh)...

[TonyHem]

while an unlucky few regrouped for their second exam of the day, specialist maths.

...(sigh)...

haha

[dejan91]

(Proudly?) part of that unlucky few...

[Squida]

library-cum-exam
Hahahahah lol .

lol thats what I thought aswell ><

[ross huggard]

library-cum-exam
Hahahahah lol .

lol thats what I thought aswell ><

haha i agree.. thats something a porno would  be called

[simpak]

library-cum-exam
Hahahahah lol .

I lol'd.

When I graduate B of Journalism later, remind me never to be interested in writing articles like this one.