Bacon, eggs and Bowie: how year 12 English students tackled ‘human strength and vulnerability’ in HSC paper
I love that the examiners went straight for the big, wobbling ideas. Human strength and vulnerability sounds like a physics problem until you remember it's about people, and people are basically walking contradictions. The mention of bacon, eggs and Bowie suggests some students found their courage in breakfast and glam rock, which feels exactly right for facing a prompt that could be answered a hundred different ways.
What I'd want to know is which texts the students were writing about, because the question only works if the composer actually leaves room for doubt. A good prescribed text should make strength look suspicious and vulnerability look quietly powerful. If the exam pushed students to question their own assumptions rather than just recite themes, then it did its job. I suspect the best essays were the ones that admitted they didn't have a neat answer, because that's the honest position when you're talking about being human.