Forbes High School welcomed back 17 of its 49 year 12 students on Tuesday, who started their HSC with a three-hour Business Studies exam.

The Forbes Advocate caught up with Josh Vanderstok, Thomas McIntyre and Deanna Gamble following the completion of their exam.

All three students agreed the exam was easier than they expected and while it contained a variety of questions there was a lot of marketing related questions.

“[It was] better than I thought.

“I was expecting it to be extremely difficult but it wasn’t,” Deanna said, adding now that she had completed her first exam, she wasn’t as concerned about the rest of the HSC.

“I’m not as worried as before now that’s been done,” she said.

“[It was] a lot easier than I was expecting,” Josh Vanderstok said, adding he felt the rest of the HSC would be “smooth sailing.”

For Thomas McIntyre, the Business Studies exam proved to be quite “successful.”

Thomas’s study timetable has seen him study for four hours of a night and one hour every morning.

“[It’s] been going good. [I’m] getting lots done,” Thomas said.

While Thomas has another six exams to sit, Deanna and Josh only have another three and four consecutively.

Minister for Education and Training Verity Firth said students were increasingly turning to online resources to help with their study.

“[Students] have this month downloaded more than two million copies of past test papers and HSC syllabuses.

“In just the last month, students have also completed more than 360,000 practice multiple choice tests and answered over nine million questions – on Sunday night alone more than 20,000 multiple choice tests were completed,” Ms Firth said

Forbes High School Principal Craig Petersen said he thought the students would perform well in the exams, with one student already receiving early entry to the University of Wollongong.

The HSC advice line – 13 11 12 – provides advice on 20 major courses after hours and on weekends and will remain open until Thursday, November 5.

HSC results will be available via the internet, SMS message and automated telephone services from 6am on Wednesday, December 16.