Students don thinking caps as school journey ends

Almost 500 Year 12 students from across the South West started their final school journey when WA Certificate of Education exams kicked off last Friday.

About 460 Year 12s from the Bunbury and Australind region are taking part in a number of the 46 different examinations on offer.

This morning students around the State will sit Economics stage two and three exams as well as Marine and Maritime studies, with Visual Arts stage two and three to follow this afternoon.

Tomorrow morning is all about Mathematics, with four exams kicking off from 9.20am.

School Curriculum and Standards Authority chief executive Allan Blagaich said there was a good number of students sitting WACE exams this year.

“More than 15,000 students across the State are now sitting their WACE written exams, almost 2100 of those in country WA and about 460 students in the Greater Bunbury area,” he said.

“Country enrolments in exams remain about the same.

“They make up about 13.4 per cent of enrolments for students sitting at least one exam and about 12.3 per cent of enrolments for students sitting four or more exams.”

WACE exams across the State started last Friday with a number of highly anxious students already completing exams in Human Biology, Modern History and English stage two and three.

According to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority, the most common exam taken is mathematics due to the high number of different courses.

Mr Blagaich said students should remember although WACE exams were important, it was not the end of the world if they did not go as planned.

“Coping with the stress of exams is always a talking point,” he said,

“Students should do the best they can in their exams, but recognise that if they don’t do as well as they had hoped, it’s not the end.

“There are many pathways students can follow to achieve their goals.”

Most exams run for three hours, with the most common starting times being 9.20am and 2pm.

The exceptions are exams in languages other than English and practical exams.

WACE exams finish on November 22 and students will be able to access their results from December 30 via www.wace.wa.edu.au, with results posted the same day.