2015 Notes from the Marking Centre – Classical Hebrew Continuers
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Classical Hebrew Continuers course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2015 Higher School Certificate examination, indicating the quality of the responses and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.
This document should be read along with:
- the Classical Hebrew Continuers Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2015 Higher School Certificate Classical Hebrew Continuers examination
- the marking guidelines
- Advice for students attempting HSC languages examinations, and HSC Languages oral examinations – advice to students
- Advice for HSC students about examinations
- other support documents developed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW to assist in the teaching and learning of Classical Hebrew in Stage 6.
Section I – Prescribed Text – Tanakh
Characteristics of better responses:
- a good knowledge of grammar and parsing was evident
- an excellent knowledge of the prescribed commentaries was demonstrated
- candidates demonstrated a clear understanding of text, commentary and language.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- limited knowledge of grammatical rules was evident
- responses were lengthy and not always relevant
- candidates focused on the ‘religious significance’ at the expense of the ‘historical background’ (Q7)
- the different types of leadership in ancient Israel were not defined and many candidates focused on the qualities of the leader rather than the nature of leadership (Q9).
Section II – Prescribed Text – Mishna
Characteristics of better responses:
- a succinct and thorough understanding of the text was demonstrated
- there was a clear understanding of the underlying principles discussed in the commentary.
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- writing was generally about the content of the Mishna instead of focusing on the question being asked
- a basic lack of understanding of the text/commentary was displayed (Q12b).
Section III – Unseen Text – Tanakh
Characteristics of better responses:
- an impressive understanding of an unseen narrative text was demonstrated (Q13 and Q14).
Characteristics of weaker responses:
- a limited understanding of an unseen text was demonstrated (Q13 and Q14)
- a limited ability to analyse or comment on grammatical features in an unseen text was evident (Q13a, Q13d, Q14a and Q14d).
NSW Government