Experts lined up for HSC Study Day

Imagine preparing for your Higher School Certificate exam and getting the benefit of a teacher’s 40 years of experience in your chosen subject.

Or learning the secrets of a teacher who consistently gets students in the top 10 percent of the state and who has been a senior marker for the HSC exams for many years.

These are the kinds of advantages students attending the 2009 Southern Cross University HSC Study Day for Students and Teachers on Thursday, June 25, can expect to receive.

This is the ninth year the University has run the popular and successful event that brings more than 1000 students onto the campus to learn everything they need to know to help them pass their HSC exams.

Students come from schools right across the region - from the Tweed area south to Lismore, Grafton and Coffs Harbour and across to Tenterfield in the west.

This year’s program has been prepared taking into consideration feedback from students and teachers who attended previous days. The specific benefit of the day is that it will enhance the knowledge, skills and confidence of students and teachers at this important stage in their preparation for the 2009 HSC, said HSC Study Day coordinator Marilyn Chaseling.

Students will receive the benefit of hearing from presenters like Southern Cross University’s Textiles and Design teacher Diana Oakes, who has had 40 years’ experience teaching in this subject area with students consistently in the top 10 percent and several topping the state in the HSC.

An experienced HSC day presenter, Diana has been a HSC marker and senior marker for many years. She was appointed as chairman of the HSC Examination Committee for Textiles and Design in 2000 and as the first chief examiner for this subject in 2004.

She was also a member of the writing team for the ‘marking criteria for Textiles and Design HSC major works’, and also lectures in the Southern Cross University Bachelor of Technology Education program and is a co-designer of its new course.

Diane is just one of many highly experienced presenters who will be guiding students in workshops during the day in subject areas like Ancient History, Modern History, Maths, Business Studies, Biology, Chemistry, English - the nuts and bolts of paper 1/ troubleshooting in extension 2/ the extended question, as well as sessions on general HSC skills.

Photo: Students enjoying a previous HSC Study Day on the Lismore campus.