The number of students who have completed all of their 2010 HSC exams passed 10,000 today, with the 10,840th student putting his or her pen down for the last time at 4.00pm when the Construction exam ended.

More than 14,000 students must wait until the final day of exams, 10 November, to hand in the very last answers of the year.

English Extension 1 was the first exam this morning, and teachers have shared positive opinions with the Board today.  

There was a strong view that questions across all modules were "equitable and clear".

"All questions drew strongly on the knowledge of the elective."

The critical response question was "analytical and challenging".

The imaginative writing question drew most comments, with teachers stating that giving students a specific context for their writing was unexpected but gave a clear guide to the approach and required them to show strong knowledge of their elective.

Another feature of the imaginative writing questions was the requirement to use three specific terms such as  a promise, a stone, silence or a wish, a message, solitude as well as a setting from one of their prescribed texts.

All teachers giving feedback today noted this was suitably challenging and encouraged an immediately imaginative response rather than a pre-prepared answer.