“I know one person who picked the second question,” Gjerek said.
The school’s head of pathways and performance, Melissa Robertson, said the standout difference from last year’s external English exams had been an extra day’s buffer.
Questions posed to year 12 English students on Macbeth, which was the most common text selected by schools.Credit: QCAA
“English, since the dawn of the new system, has been session one on the first morning, which has its problems as you’re just trying to get in the swing [of things],” Robertson said.
“Having it this year on day two was really fortunate in the sense that with the power outages in Brisbane … we had a bit more time to troubleshoot any of those issues that were going to occur.”
While The Gap State High maintained power, half a dozen schools were closed in Brisbane’s west on Monday, affecting students who studied design, music, and accounting.
Texts features in the year 12 external exams
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Othello by William Shakespeare
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Dry by Jane Harper
The Yield by Tara June Winch
The Education Department said 149 students from Centenary, Kenmore and Indooroopilly State High Schools were shuttled to Corinda State High School to sit their exams on Monday.
Centenary State High praised its 36 travelling students in a statement posted online that afternoon.
“They’re our cohort who started high school in the midst of COVID-19, and now they’re our cohort who finish their schooling with some slight disruption to their external exams,” the statement read.
“What this cohort has continued to show us, year after year, is how incredibly resilient they are.”
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Four private schools – Brigidine College, St Peter’s Lutheran College, Stuartholme School and Ambrose Treacy College – were also left without power, and forced to cancel the exams outright.
A spokeswoman for Brigidine College said the school first lodged a misadventure application for its students on Monday before it was advised the exam would not be rescheduled.
Brigidine opted to have students sit their English exams on Tuesday, despite power remaining out until early Wednesday.
“We extended our gratitude to families for their patience and support, especially our year 12 cohort, who adapted quickly to changes in exam arrangements,” Brigidine’s spokeswoman said.
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