The Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) today released the 2015 written exam timetable for the internationally regarded HSC.

BOSTES President Tom Alegounarias said the HSC written exams start on Monday 12 October at 10:20am with English, which is compulsory, and finish on Wednesday 4 November with Visual Arts.

“Scheduling HSC exams is always a complicated exercise. In 2015, 118 written exams totalling around 300 hours have been timetabled over a four week period.

“BOSTES carefully analysed the HSC course patterns of over 75,000 students to produce the timetable.

“Minimising stress for students by keeping the overall exam period as short as possible is our priority,” Mr Alegounarias said.

“Invariably some students will have individual preferences for when they sit particular exams, however BOSTES aims to provide an exam schedule which, on balance, is fair and equitable."

When scheduling the HSC written exams BOSTES uses comprehensive and rigorous procedures to:

• minimise the number of students with two exams scheduled at the same time
• provide sufficient time between exams for popular courses
• provide sufficient time between exams for courses that are frequently studied together
• ensure sufficient time for all exams to be marked and processed for students to access their results from 6.00am on Wednesday 16 December.

BOSTES has identified and made alternative arrangements for a very small number of students who have two exams scheduled at the same time.

View the HSC written exam timetable: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/key_dates/

2015 HSC Fact Sheet

• Over 75,000 students are enrolled in one or more HSC courses
• 51 HSC oral language exams are scheduled from 30 July to 5 September
• HSC Music, Dance and Drama practical exams are scheduled for August and September
• 118 HSC written examinations are scheduled for 12 October to 4 November
• HSC exams will be held across NSW in over 750 exam centres staffed by over 7,500 supervisors and presiding officers
• Plans are in place for 318 students to sit their HSC exams at Australian schools overseas
• 85 exam committees and 300 committee members are involved in developing the written examinations
• Each exam will be reviewed at least six times before more than 700,000 exam papers are printed
• More than 5500 markers working in 10 marking centres and from home across NSW will mark HSC exams
• Around 45% of HSC markers will mark online with 64 courses (an increase of 13%) to be fully or partially marked online
• Each student will have their English exams marked by at least 11 markers, and their Mathematics exam by at least six markers
• Students can access their HSC results from 6.00am on Wednesday 16 December
• HSC exams were first held in 1967
• To be awarded the internationally recognised HSC students must complete at least 12 units of preliminary courses and 10 units of HSC courses. English is compulsory. Most students complete preliminary courses in Year 11, HSC courses in Year 12 and are awarded an HSC at the end of Year 12.