FLETCHER student Oliver Carroll said when it came to the content of this year's Biology exam, COVID-19 had been a "helpful" learning experience.
"Infectious and non infectious diseases is a topic in the HSC so there were questions asking what the best approaches are for minimising the spread of disease during a pandemic," he said.
"We have a real world understanding of all the routine things like washing your hands, wearing a mask and staying away from people."
While he said COVID-19 wasn't referenced directly, questions like the one on the Spanish Flu "alluded to the current situation". For the most part Oliver said, this year's exam was "pretty cruisy".
"I think I finished with about an hour left where I just had to go back over and review my answers."
Currently siting his HSC at Bishop Tyrrell Anglican College, Oliver said he "enjoyed almost everything about biology".
"Having a good teacher definitely helped me engage in the course but it also applies to what I want to do next year."
With the ultimate goal of studying medicine and specialising in oncology, Oliver told the Newcastle Herald he has been given an early entry offer to study a Bachelor of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Newcastle.
"The plan is to use it as a pathway to get into medicine because this year I chose not to do the UCAT," he said.
UCAT stands for University Clinical Aptitude Test which is an admission exam for some medical, dental and clinical science degrees at a range of universities in Australia and New Zealand.
"That would have run a week before the trials were originally planned to be and I didn't want to add that extra element of pressure."
While COVID restrictions made Oliver's life complicated as "Events and Service Prefect" at Bishop Tyrrell, he said as a naturally independent learner most of the year was "not too bad".
"Working from home we had to show up to class when it was originally scheduled to start then log on and stay on Teams for the entirety of the lesson," he said.
"The teachers were also working from home so they did a great job balancing their own children and everything else."
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