By 5.00pm on Friday November 11, an estimated *156 000 students will have sat written and practical exams for the 2011 New South Wales Higher School Certificate and School Certificate.

HSC and SC practical and written exams were held in more than 820 venues – schools, colleges, universities, even hospital wards and embassies – across New South Wales and around the world in international schools in Asia and in locations as far afield as Pakistan, Qatar and The Netherlands.

Final HSC exams began at 9.00am on Tuesday August 2 with oral language exams in Vietnamese and will end at 2.15pm on Friday November 11 with the written Design and Technology exam.

More than 33 000 HSC students undertook practical exams between August 2 and September 17. These exams included oral language skills, performances in dance, drama, and music, and the submission of major projects for courses such as Industrial Technology, Visual Arts, Society and Culture, and English Extension.

More than 70 000 HSC students will have sat for 117 different written exam papers over 18 days between October 17 and November 11. Since its introduction in 1967, English has remained the only compulsory HSC course while Mathematics remains the most popular elective.