The HSC exam is only a few months away and the government has already published a curtailed syllabus for this year's pandemic-affected students. Being a candidate myself, I can't help but point out some serious issues regarding short syllabus.

Although the intention of publishing the new syllabus was to reduce the workload for students, it didn't end up being as convenient as it was supposed to be.

The first problem I observed while going through the short syllabus was selection of the topics. Being a Science student, I noticed that I had to put the same effort in finishing the short syllabus of every subject as I would have to in finishing the whole book. The reason being, there are some chapters that are left out but are deeply related to the topics that are included in the syllabus. For example, Newtonian dynamics isn't included in the shortened syllabus for Physics, but Newtonian mechanics is. With the whole concept of Newtonian mechanics based on the laws of dynamics, it did not quite make sense to exclude one chapter and include another.

Looking at it from a different angle, there are some essential topics of every subject that a student has to have some knowledge about. For instance, safe use of laboratory equipment is an inevitable topic for a student willing to study Chemistry. This chapter also includes different types of reagents and their uses. But this is not included in the short syllabus, meaning that the students will move forward with vague ideas about the risk factors and the necessary precautions at a Chemistry lab.

In the case of Biology, the chapter on reproduction is excluded, which was the only chapter that had information about sex education. Many teachers are already uncomfortable enlightening students about this topic; excluding this from the syllabus has taken the concept of having problematic ideas towards sex education one step further.

Flaws like these in this year's syllabus are creating hindrances for students trying to prepare efficiently for their exams. There is confusion over what and what not to study because it's still unclear if university admission tests will be held based on the shortened syllabus or not. Most importantly, their knowledge about every subject remains ambiguous. On top of that, the exclusion of ICT subject from the short syllabus seems hysterical in this technological era.

I asked some of my friends who are from the Business Studies and Arts group about their syllabus and they have similar problems and dilemmas regarding this. One of them also referred to the fact that teachers tend to repeat questions from previous years' exams. With a shortened syllabus, it's difficult to surmise if those patterns will hold this year. All of these issues are causing more stress in taking preparation and the short syllabus doesn't end up being helpful at all.

Nadeemah always wraps her head around the thought of what she's going to eat next and thinks that the glass at her bedside table is half- full. Say hi at: nadeemahafrose13@gmail.com