What to Bring to an HSC Exam — and What's Banned

Turning up to an HSC exam without your calculator, or with your phone still in your pocket, is one of the most avoidable ways to start the day badly. The fix is boring and reliable: pack the night before, from a checklist, and check the official rules once rather than guessing. Here's what to bring, what to leave behind and where to check the details.

First, check the official rules

NESA sets the rules for HSC exams, and it publishes them on its website. Your school will usually brief Year 12 on them too. The exact list of what's allowed can differ between courses, so this guide is a practical checklist, not a replacement for the official one. Read NESA's current rules yourself before your first exam, and check again if you have a course with special equipment.

The essentials to pack

Lay these out the night before so nothing is a scramble in the morning:

• Black pens, and spares. NESA asks you to write in black pen, and pens with erasable ink aren't allowed. Bring more than you think you need. A pen running dry halfway through an extended response is a horrible feeling.
• Pencils (2B or softer), an eraser, a sharpener, a ruler and a highlighter. Several papers ask you to draw diagrams in pencil, and NESA requires pencils of at least 2B.
• A clear pencil case. See-through is the safe choice, so nobody has to wonder what's inside.
• Your NESA student number, in your head. It's on your desk label and you write it on every booklet, but you can't bring it in on a piece of paper. Bring a student card only if your school asks for one.
• An approved calculator for courses that list one. That's the maths courses and the sciences, but also Business Studies, Economics, Geography, Agriculture, Engineering Studies, Industrial Technology and many VET courses. Only models on NESA's approved list are permitted, so check yours qualifies.
• Water in a clear bottle with the label removed. Again, clear is the safe choice.

Course-specific gear

Some courses need a little extra thought:

• Courses with a calculator: your calculator is the big one. Put fresh batteries in it the week before, practise with the same model you'll use in the exam, and switch it off and reset it before you go in, as NESA requires. NESA won't accept a calculator failure as misadventure, so make sure it works.
• Courses with diagrams or graphs: a sharp pencil and a ruler make neat working easier, and neat working is easier to mark.
• Online exams: Enterprise Computing, Science Extension and Software Engineering are sat on a computer. You need a supported laptop or desktop with NESA's lockdown browser installed, wired headphones, a keyboard and a mouse, and a laptop must be fully charged or plugged in. NESA won't accept a flat battery as misadventure.
• Anything unusual: some courses list extra equipment, such as compasses, a protractor and set squares for Physics, or dividers and a magnifying glass for Geography. Check the exam equipment list on Students Online or NESA's website, and ask your teacher early rather than the night before.

What to leave at home (or outside the room)

• Phones, smartwatches and smart glasses. They're banned from the exam room under any circumstances, and getting caught with one can cost you all your marks for that exam. Leave them at home, with a parent, or switched off in your bag outside the room.
• Notes, or anything with writing on it that isn't a permitted material. That includes scribbled-on pencil cases and rulers.
• Labelled bottles and opaque pencil cases. NESA's rule is water in a clear bottle with no label, and a see-through pencil case saves any questions.
• Correction fluid, correction tape and erasable pens. All three are banned. Cross out mistakes with a single neat line instead.
• Your exam timetable, notes or any paper. No printed or written material is allowed in, including your timetable. Ask the supervisor if you need working paper.
• Wireless earbuds, stopwatches, calculator lids and your wallet. These are on NESA's list of things to leave outside too.
• Writing on your hands or arms. Even writing that has nothing to do with the exam isn't allowed.

The small things that make a big difference

• Know your timetable cold. Check the date, start time and room for every exam on your personal exam timetable in Students Online, and your school will tell you where each exam is held. Misreading the timetable isn't grounds for illness or misadventure, so a missed exam that way isn't covered.
• Arrive early. NESA asks you to arrive at least 30 minutes before your first English exam (and before Science Extension, Enterprise Computing and Software Engineering), and at least 10 minutes early for every other exam. Leave a buffer for late trains, traffic and finding the room, so you're settled rather than flustered.
• Dress in layers. Exam halls swing between cold and stuffy, and you can't concentrate if you're shivering.
• Eat something. A proper breakfast or lunch beforehand keeps your focus steady through a long paper.
• A watch for pacing? A normal watch is fine, but not a smartwatch or a stopwatch. You'll take it off and put it on your desk in clear view, and you can't touch it during the exam.
• Know the reading time rules. Every paper starts with 5 or 10 minutes of reading time, shown on the front of the paper. You can't write, highlight or use any equipment, including your calculator, until writing time starts.

Your night-before checklist

The evening before each exam:

1. Pack your bag from the list above.
2. Check the calculator works, if the course allows one.
3. Confirm the start time and location.
4. Plan how you're getting there and when you're leaving.
5. Set an alarm, then a backup.
6. Go to bed at a sensible time. Sleep does more for your marks than one more hour of revision.

Don't let gear be the thing you think about

The point of all this is to make exam morning a non-event, so your attention goes on the paper, not on whether you remembered a pen. If you've used your preparation time well, tools like otto included, the last thing you should be doing on exam morning is learning anything new. Pack, eat, get there early and trust the work you've already done. For the week leading in, see what to do the week before HSC exams.

The bottom line

Bring spare black pens, 2B pencils, an eraser, a ruler, a clear water bottle with the label off and an approved calculator for courses that allow one, all in a clear pencil case, and know your NESA student number. Leave phones and smartwatches out of the room. Most importantly, check NESA's official rules for the exact list instead of relying on hearsay, then pack the night before and arrive early. That turns exam morning from a scramble into a calm start.