MACQUARIE College Wallsend students hope to be rewarded for their performances in the Drama Higher School Certificate written exam, which they said was fair and felt "familiar" because they were well prepared.
JJ Pillay, Hannah Rowe, Isabella Parker, Ktinka Penn and Andile Ndlovu, all 18, made up their school's first HSC Drama class.
The subject requires students to complete an individual project and a group performance, as well the exam.
"I thought it felt very familiar especially after doing past papers, I felt like the questions were quite easy," JJ said.
Hannah said the questions were "accessible".
"You could weave in what we practised in class and our own study into what the questions were asking," she said.
Isabella said she was well prepared.
"There weren't any parts of the questions that I felt I didn't have anything for," she said.
Ktinka said questions felt "open-ended".
"It was clear if you knew the rubric you kind of knew what they were going to ask, it was familiar."
Andile said the exam was "straight-forward".
"There were no surprises and for me I found it worked pretty well with what I had prepared to go in - quotes and techniques - it flowed very well, so I'm pretty happy."
The paper's first section asked them to refer to two plays they had studied - Jane Harrison's Stolen and Lally Katz's Neighbourhood Watch - to answer how Australian plays create images on the stage that provoke audiences to consider social and personal concerns.
"Reading it gave me confidence, 'Okay, I've got this, this isn't going to be too hard'," JJ said.
Hannah said her "heart wasn't pounding anymore" after seeing the question.
She wrote a 12-page answer in 50 minutes.
Isabella said she let out a "sigh of relief" at the "straight-forward" question, which "calmed the nerves".
Andile said there "weren't many constraints", while Ktinka said it was "generous because you could talk about lots of different things".
In the second section students were asked how the content of two plays and shifting theatrical paradigms challenge audiences.
JJ said he chose Drama because he is passionate about film. He made one about bravery for his individual project.
Andile said he "loved the spotlight" and starred in short films in primary school.
His project was performing a monologue he wrote, inspired by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Ktinka said Drama was a "fun subject" and her project was performing a monologue she wrote inspired by The Story of an Hour.
Hannah chose Drama due to subject clashes and "I love being a bit extra".
Her project was a director's folio based on Black Diggers.
Isabella said she was a "typical theatre kid" and had been involved in performing arts her whole life.
She performed a monologue from Songs for Nobodies.
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