Bega Valley's Higher School Certificate (HSC) students are being thrown in the deep end, studying while still at home and amid uncertainty about exam delivery.
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The NSW government recently announced that HSC exams would be delayed, for a second time, until November 9.
It also means results will not be released until early in the new year, although universities have assured prospective tertiary students they won't be unduly affected by the delays.
"It's frustrating because it's very difficult to plan for anything, like planning your workload and how you're going to manage it when there is still no certainty about exactly how you're going to sit the exams," Eden Marine High School captain Ben Neville said.
Sapphire Coast Anglican College captain Tristan Flower said having the exams delayed meant he and his friends were unsure how their after-school studies and plans would be affected as well.
"At first, I thought that's cool because it gives me more time to study, but I guess by it being pushed back again and again, at this point in time, I just want to get it finished," Tristan said.
Students haven't been able to revise together like in previous years or visit their teachers to unpack the topic, instead they must email teachers their questions and wait for a response.
"Obviously there's heaps of students trying to do the same thing and the teachers would be packed with other students trying to ask them different questions, so you have to be patient and wait for a response," Tristan said.
Since HSC students had finished learning the content and are in a period of revision they have, naturally, not been having many Zoom classes, however Tristan said they would be starting video calls again in the first week of September.
Ben said another problem was that the HSC this year had become a more uneven playing field.
"HSC has always been an uneven playing field when it comes to schools in the regions being pitted against schools in Sydney and that sort of thing. But I think this year, it's even more at a disadvantage when you've got schools that have had more time in classes with their teachers than others," he said.
Ben said where some schools have had to study from home sooner than students on the Far South Coast and other rural areas, the disparity between students has become extensive.
"It's completely uneven, some schools had you know, six extra weeks with the teachers and others only had four. So it's completely uneven and unfair this year."