2. Before you start your HSC

2.1 Maintaining honesty and integrity

Honesty is key for all students and staff

The academic honesty of students completing assessment tasks, exams, and tests is critical to the integrity of the HSC. Dishonest behaviour carried out for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage in the assessment process undermines the standard of scholarship represented by the award of the HSC and constitutes malpractice. Students, teachers and others who guide them are responsible for knowing and complying with NESA’s rules regarding malpractice. These rules are outlined in this guide and across related NESA policies including those for All My Own Work, ACE rules for malpractice, Course completions, non completions and appeals,HSC minimum standard, and HSC practical exams.

You must be honest when completing all your school-based assessment tasks, exams and submitted works.

Always acknowledge your sources

You must acknowledge any part of your work that was written, created or developed by someone other than you. Failure to appropriately acknowledge sources can constitute plagiarism and may be penalised through malpractice procedures. This includes any material from other sources, for example:

• books
• journals
• generative artificial intelligence
• the internet and all electronic resources
• music
• art
• peers’ work.

For projects, submitted works, and performances this includes work undertaken by others.

You do not need to formally acknowledge material that you learnt from your teacher in class.

2.2 Understanding malpractice

Any form of malpractice is unacceptable

Malpractice is any dishonest behaviour and/or attempt to gain an unfair advantage over other students. This includes knowingly helping other students to engage in malpractice.

Malpractice in any form including plagiarism, collusion, misrepresentation and breach of assessment conditions is unacceptable. NESA treats allegations of malpractice very seriously and there are significant penalties for detected malpractice in HSC exams.

If you are found to have engaged in malpractice in your HSC exam, it may result in penalties such as a reduction in marks or the cancellation of the course, which could make you ineligible for the HSC.

If your school determines that you have engaged in malpractice in a school-based assessment task, it will be recorded in the Malpractice Register and your school may take further action.

Some examples of malpractice are:

• copying part or all of someone else’s work and presenting it as your own
• using material directly from books, journals, the internet, or any other offline/online resources, without acknowledging the source
• unauthorised use of generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools
• building on someone else’s ideas without acknowledging the original source
• buying, stealing or borrowing someone else’s work and presenting it as your own
• submitting work that someone else, eg a parent, tutor or subject expert, substantially contributed to
• using someone else’s words, ideas, designs or work in projects and performance tasks without mentioning the source
• paying a third party to produce or prepare material and presenting it as your own
• not acknowledging any work completed by others for your submitted work or performance
• not acknowledging the use of your own work previously submitted for another purpose or course
• referencing fabricated or non-existent sources
• breaching school exam rules
• cheating in an HSC exam
• sharing answers to an assessment with another student through digital, written or verbal means
• using an unauthorised electronic device, unapproved calculator or unauthorised material in an HSC exam
• using non-approved aids in a school-based assessment task
• giving false reasons for not handing in work by the due date
• impersonating another student sitting for the HSC
• helping another student to engage in malpractice
• providing fraudulent evidence in applications for disability provisions or illness/misadventure
• being responsible for actions done or omitted to be done that confer an unfair advantage relating to the outcome of any HSC exam – irrespective of whether such actions occur before, during or after such an exam or assessment.

You might need to prove your work is your own

If you are suspected of plagiarism, you will need to show that all work is entirely your own. You might need to:

• prove and explain your work process with diaries, journals, notes, working plans, sketches or progressive drafts that show how your ideas developed
• answer questions about the assessment task, exam or submitted work being investigated to show your knowledge, understanding and skills.