Mandy Moore

Warilla student Mandy Moore took the stress out of the HSC through the University of Wollongong's Early Entry program.

Mandy concentrated on Maths for a stress-free HSC

The Extension 2 Mathematics exam would be enough to stress out the most confident Higher School Certificate student, but Warilla’s Mandy Moore took it in her stride during last year’s exams.

The former Warilla High student may have been the school’s first Extension 2 student in years, but in the lead-up to last year’s HSC she was more concerned about the challenge of writing essays for her English exam.

And then she discovered the University of Wollongong’s Early Entry program, designed to take the stress out of the HSC. Applicants learn if they have been successful about three weeks before the HSC – considerably reducing stress levels.

Mandy applied for a place in UOW’s Bachelor of Mathematics (Advanced) course, and was granted Early Entry into the Bachelor of Mathematics degree and a conditional offer into the Bachelor of Maths (Advanced) degree if she scored a University Admissions Index (UAI) of 85.

Mandy scored a UAI of 84.9, and was granted her place in Mathematics (Advanced), combining her Mathematics study with a second major in Japanese. In the first session this year she certainly repaid UOW’s faith in her, recording three Distinctions and a Credit in her four subjects.

She agreed to talk about the Early Entry program to help inform this year’s HSC students of the opportunities it presents.

“Early Entry was great for me,” Mandy said. “I wanted to study Mathematics (Advanced) at university, and while I was confident about the Maths exam, I knew some of my other subjects (like English) would bring my overall marks down.

“Having a guaranteed place at Uni took a lot of the stress out of the HSC, but I still tried hard because I wanted a UAI that would allow me to do the Advanced degree.”

Mandy plans to combine her Maths and Japanese for career options when she finishes university, and hopes it will lead to the opportunity to live and work in Japan at some stage.

Early Entry is open to all Year 12 HSC students and is not only geared towards gifted students. The program assesses students’ suitability for university based on your trial HSC results, portfolio and an interview. You will be offered either a guaranteed place or a place that is conditional upon your achieving a certain result in the final HSC exams. As identified by statistical analysis of Informatics students, Early Entry students generally obtain a greater UAI than students with no Early Entry Offer. Also once at UOW, these students achieve a greater average mark overall AND generally achieve better results in their subjects.

Early Entry is available at UOW through the Faculty of Informatics which delivers degrees in Maths, IT, Computer Science, Electrical, Computer & Telecommunication Engineering. Early Entry is also offered in the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Science and some degrees in the Faculty of Health & Behavioural Sciences.

To find out more about the UOW Early Entry program and its requirements visit the website www.uow.edu.au/prospective/early_entry.html or phone 1300 367869.