The demeanour of St Clare's Year 12 students exiting the examination room after their first HSC exam - English paper one - seemed calm and unworried, at least outwardly.
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Elise Rourke, Emily de Berg, and Cate Gillogly all agreed that that "it wasn't as hard as the trial exam", and not as bad as they had anticipated.
"I expected the question to be much more specific than it was, and that I would need to be able to think really fast about what evidence to use to be able to get enough content for a big essay. But the question was broader than I expected so I felt pretty confident that I could get enough content in time," Elise said.
"I think I went pretty well, but I can't really be sure. I think whatever I get I will be happy with because I know that I've studied hard - lots of practice papers, I memorised 125 quotes!" she laughed.
Emily de Berg said she found the exam easy.
"I thought it was a fair paper. I was quite prepared so it was sort of what I saw coming," she said.
"The teachers have done a really good job in preparing us," Cate Gillogly said. "I think that's probably been a really big help."
The students agreed it was a huge relief to have the first exam over and done with.
"It's a big relief to have one under the belt, because I know what it's going to be like tomorrow," Lyell Last said.
After the exam concluded, the students gathered in the Learning Centre to be given hearty encouragement by school principal, Peter Nicholls, who asked them to give themselves a round of applause for their hard work, in what has been an extraordinary and difficult year for the students.
"Our year 12s and staff have coped really, really well with the challenges that COVID-19 and the pandemic have brought on," Mr Nicholls said.
"They've been knocked down a few times but they've got straight up again and they've worked diligently and had great support from staff and from the parents as well.
"People have really put their shoulders to the wheel and made sure the young people have had the best learning environment possible under the conditions."
The second English paper is sat on Tuesday morning, October 21. The written examination period concludes on November 19 with Drama, and HSC results and ATARS are released on December 18, 2020.
