Assessment and reporting in Chinese Extension
Assessment for Chinese Extension provides information to support learning and reporting of performance. Find out about assessment requirements and the structure of the HSC exam.
School-based assessment requirements
Schools are required to develop an assessment program for each Year 11 and Year 12 course. NESA provides information about the responsibilities of schools in developing assessment programs in course-specific assessment and reporting requirements and in the Assessment Certification Examination (ACE) rules and requirements.
Year 12
NESA requires schools to submit a school-based assessment mark for each Year 12 candidate in a course. Formal school-based assessment tasks should reflect the syllabus outcomes and content. The mark submitted by the school provides a summation of each student’s achievement measured at several points throughout the course.
A school’s program of school-based assessment includes both mandatory and non-mandatory elements.
See ACE (Assessment, Certification and Examination rules and requirements) for further information.
Assessment program requirements
The course components and component weightings for Year 12 are mandatory.
| Course component | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Text analysis | 40% |
| Writing | 40% |
| Speaking | 20% |
Schools have authority to determine the number, type and weighting of assessment tasks, subject to a limit of one take-home task worth no more than 15%. See ACE 2.1 for more information.
Assessment program guidance
When developing assessment programs, schools should:
- use a variety of assessment tasks across the year to give students opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding in different ways
- give individual assessment tasks a weighting between 10% and 40%.
See Assessment in Stage 6 for more information about developing school-based assessment programs.
HSC exam specifications
The external HSC exam measures student achievement in a range of syllabus outcomes.
The external exam and its marking relate to the syllabus by:
- providing clear links to syllabus outcomes
- enabling students to demonstrate the levels of achievement outlined in the performance band descriptions
- applying marking guidelines based on criteria that relate to the quality of the response
- aligning performance in the exam each year to the standards established for the course.
Exam questions may require candidates to integrate knowledge, understanding and skills developed through studying the course.
The exam will consist of a written paper worth 40 marks and an oral exam worth 10 marks.
Written paper (40 marks)
Time allowed: 2 hours including 10 minutes reading time.
Monolingual and/or bilingual print dictionaries may be used.
The paper will consist of 2 sections.
This section will consist of 2 parts.
Part A (15 marks)
- There will be approximately 5 short-answer questions related to an extract from the prescribed text.
- Questions will be phrased in English requiring a response in English.
- There will be at least one question worth from 5 to 7 marks.
- Candidates will be required to analyse and evaluate aspects of the prescribed text and to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: language features; content; the social, political, cultural and/or literary context; how meaning is conveyed, and how the prescribed text relates to the prescribed issues.
Part B (10 marks)
- There will be one extended response question.
- The question will be phrased in English and Chinese requiring a response in Chinese.
- The expected length of response will be approximately:
- 200 words in Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Modern Greek and Spanish
- 250 characters in Chinese
- 400 ji in Japanese.
- The question will relate to an extract of up to:
- 50 words in Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Modern Greek and Spanish
- 60 characters in Chinese
- 100 ji in Japanese.
- The extract will be different from the extract provided in Part A.
- Candidates will be required to respond to an aspect of the prescribed text by taking the role of a character, imagining a hypothetical situation, or writing a description of an event from a different perspective.
- The response will be in the form of a letter, diary entry, narrative account, or the script of a conversation, speech, monologue or interview.
- There will be two extended response questions phrased in English and Chinese requiring a response in Chinese.
- Candidates will be required to answer one question.
- Questions will relate to the prescribed issues, and will specify the audience, purpose and context of the response, and will require the same text type.
- Candidates will be required to write a short essay, article, script of a talk, formal letter or report in which they present and evaluate or justify a point of view.
- The expected length of response will be approximately:
- 300 words in Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Modern Greek and Spanish
- 350 characters in Chinese
- 600 ji in Japanese.
Oral exam (10 marks)
Time allowed: approximately 3 minutes plus 7 minutes preparation time.
- There will be 2 extended response questions phrased in English and Chinese.
- Both questions will relate to the prescribed issues, and will require candidates to present and support a point of view in Chinese.
- Candidates will be required to answer one question.
- The length of the response will be approximately 3 minutes.