North Shore Tutors · HSC English 2026

My 2026 HSC English Predictions

Here's what I think could appear in Standard and Advanced. These are just predictions that can serve as additional practice prompts.

Paper 1

Standard + Advanced

Reading task

A comparative question, potentially involving a visual text.

Both are due a return. Revise syllabus concepts (emotions, individual/collective experiences) and broader themes (memory, identity, meaning).

Common Module essay

How do composers use storytelling to challenge the audience's understanding of the inconsistencies in human behaviour?

Inconsistencies, paradoxes and anomalies haven't been directly tested in the essay. But be ready for unexpected wording, like 2025.

Paper 2: Standard

Module A

How does your prescribed text use language to affirm and challenge your understanding of identity?

I expect a generic question. Prepare language + identity and language + culture.

Module B

Analyse how the distinctive qualities of your prescribed text, along with the provided extract, contribute to its ideas.

An extract could return. Practise linking an extract to the whole text.

Module C — practice question

“We often learn the most when things don't go according to plan.”

15 marks: Write a discursive or persuasive piece exploring the power of unexpected challenges.

5 marks: Reflect on how your study of The Craft of Writing influenced your creative decisions.

Paper 2: Advanced

Module A

“Textual conversations can resonate across contexts, but their dissonances carry the true power.” To what extent does this statement align with your understanding of your prescribed texts?

Prepare for an extract. Resonances: universal human experiences. Dissonances: changes in context, audience, form and purpose.

Module B

How do the distinctive features of a text shape its enduring value?

An extract is possible, though I'd expect one in Module A first.

Module C — practice question

“Perhaps the greatest obstacle to change is our attachment to what we already know.”

15 marks: Compose a discursive or persuasive piece exploring the tension between change and the familiar.

5 marks: Reflect on how your study of The Craft of Writing influenced your creative decisions.

My take on Module C: It's almost impossible to predict. Use these for practice; I doubt they'll specifically require imaginative writing.