HUNTER students were pleasantly surprised when they opened their Economics Higher School Certificate paper to see two questions that looked familiar.
All Saints College St Mary's Campus, Maitland, students Maggie Prebble, Cooper Studdert and Imogen Jones were among 5072 to sit the four-part exam on Friday.
The third section asked students to write an extended response on one of two questions, including how government economic policy and international agreements help Australia manage environmental sustainability.
Related: Hunter students relegate Ancient History exam to the past
Related: Hunter students pleased after first written Higher School Certificate exam
Related: Hunter students prepare to sit first Higher School Certificate exam of 2020: English Paper 1
Related: Hunter students prepare for a HSC unlike any other, with screening before exams
Related: Hunter sporting star students count down to Higher School Certificate
"It was an instant decision - that's the one I'm going to do," Maggie said.
"It was good - we had to talk about environmental sustainability in trials."
Cooper agreed. "As soon as I saw 'environmental sustainability' I ticked it," he said. "Our teacher [Joel Turnbull] was good at teaching us a lot about case studies like the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, so that was prominent in our study notes."
Imogen said she felt more confident with the alternate question, about fluctuations in exchange rates.
Students were also asked for an extended response in the last section.
All chose to answer how macroeconomic policies are used to achieve full employment and growth.
"This was very close to trials too," Cooper said. "This one said macroeconomic - which is monetary and fiscal - policies, and in trials we were asked how fiscal policy achieved full employment and distribution of income."
The students said the extended responses were the best part of the paper, which also included "difficult" multiple choice and "specific" short answer questions.
They said the paper seemed to focus on microeconomic policy, while their trial exam focused on macroeconomic policy, globalisation and the balance of payments.
Cooper said the same kinds of questions seemed to crop up every few papers, but this one seemed to stand alone.
"They usually test the same main points, but I feel this year they did not test as many of them."
Studying economics during COVID-19, they said, had been memorable.
"Every lesson we spent 10 to 15 minutes looking into how the economy changed today," Cooper said. "We made bets on how the ASX was going to look."
Imogen said it "changed my view of the world". Maggie said it helped her "understand a lot more".
IN THE NEWS:
