New HSC English Advanced syllabus from 2027: what's changed

HSC English Advanced has a new syllabus, the English Advanced 11-12 Syllabus (2024), and a new list of prescribed texts for 2027 to 2030. The 2027 HSC is the first exam on both. If you start Year 12 in Term 4 2026, everything on this page applies to you.

The short version: the course and the exam keep the same shape you would recognise from 2019 to 2026, but the texts are new, the text rules changed, The craft of writing lost its prescribed texts, and school assessment is now limited to one take-home task. Everything below is taken from NESA's syllabus, assessment and sample exam documents.

Timeline

The course: same shape, new names

Year 11 (120 indicative hours). Reading to write: Transition to English Advanced (40 hours, taught first), Narratives that shape our world (40 hours) and Critical study of literature (40 hours). There are no prescribed texts in Year 11.

Year 12 (120 indicative hours).

The descriptions of each focus area have been rewritten as lists of "Understanding" and "Responding" content, but the core demands are familiar: how texts represent individual and collective human experiences; the comparative study of two texts and their contexts; a critical study of one substantial text in its entirety; and crafting your own imaginative, discursive, persuasive and reflective writing.

New text requirements

Two practical consequences: poetry is now compulsory (it used to be "poetry or drama"), and Shakespeare can come from Textual conversations or Critical study of literature rather than a fixed Shakespearean slot. Across Stage 6 your school must still give you experience of quality literature, Australian texts, texts by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors, and a range of text types.

The 2027-2030 prescribed texts

NESA's prescriptions for Year 12 (always check the NESA list for editions and the exact poems or stories set):

Texts and human experiences (the same list for English Standard and English Advanced): Jessica Au, Cold Enough for Snow; David Malouf, An Imaginary Life; Henry Lawson, short stories; Rosemary Dobson, selected poems; Gwen Harwood, selected poems; Samuel Wagan Watson, Love Poems and Death Threats; Richard Flanagan, Question 7 (nonfiction); Michael Gow, Away (drama); Rachel Perkins, One Night the Moon (film).

Textual conversations (study one pair): Barbara Baynton, Bush Studies, with Ali Cobby Eckermann, Inside My Mother; William Blake's poetry with Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead; John Keats's poetry with Jane Campion, Bright Star; Shakespeare, Hamlet, with Emily Dickinson's poetry; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, with Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince; Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, with Stephen Daldry, The Hours.

Critical study of literature (study one): Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Michael Ondaatje, Warlight; Louise Glück, selected poems; W. B. Yeats, selected poems; Shakespeare, Othello; Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1.

Some texts carry over from 2019-2026 (for example King Henry IV, Part 1, the Keats and Bright Star pair and the Mrs Dalloway and The Hours pair), so our guide to King Henry IV, Part 1 still applies. Most of the list is new.

School-based assessment

• Components: knowledge and understanding of course content (50%) and skills in responding to texts and communication of ideas appropriate to audience, purpose and context across modes (50%).
• Year 11 is reported as a grade. NESA's sample program is 3 tasks, including a formal written examination, weighted 20% to 40% each. The 2017 sample also listed a multimodal presentation; the new one does not.
• Year 12: NESA's sample program is 4 tasks, including a task assessing The craft of writing weighted 20% to 30% and a formal written examination, with each task weighted 10% to 40%. The 2017 sample fixed Module C at 25%, capped the formal exam at 30%, and listed a multimodal presentation and Common Module related material; those are not in the new sample. The craft of writing can still be assessed on more than one short piece and does not need a portfolio.
• One take-home task at most. From Term 4 2026 NESA's ACE Rules allow no more than one take-home assessment task per HSC course, worth at most 15%. English Advanced is not exempt (English Extension 2 is). Expect essays and creative pieces to be written under supervised conditions, and remember marks must reflect your own work, not generative AI.

The HSC exam

NESA's sample papers say the structure of both papers "is the same as the structure from the 2019" papers.

• Paper 1: Texts and human experiences (40 marks, 1 hour 30 minutes plus 10 minutes reading). Section I: 5 or 6 short-answer questions on stimulus and/or unseen texts, at least 3 items common to English Standard (20 marks). Section II: one extended response on your prescribed text, common to English Standard (20 marks). Under the 2017 specification this question was also common to English Studies; the new specification lists English Standard only.
• Paper 2 (60 marks, 2 hours plus 5 minutes reading). Section I Textual conversations, Section II Critical study of literature, Section III The craft of writing, 20 marks each.
• The craft of writing question may be in two parts and asks for an imaginative, discursive, persuasive and/or reflective response. The 2017 specification also listed "informative" and said the question "may require students to reflect on one or more of their prescribed texts"; the new one drops both, and NESA's sample paper notes that Section III "does not require students to respond using prescribed text(s)".

What this means if you are starting Year 12 now

1. Check which 2027-2030 texts your school has chosen as soon as possible. Guides, notes and past answers built on 2019-2026 texts are only useful for skills, not content, unless your text carries over.
2. Past papers stay useful. Paper 1 Section I (unseen texts) and Paper 2 Section III (writing) questions from 2019 to 2025 are still excellent practice. Essay questions from those years show the style of question, but apply them to your new texts.
3. Practise The craft of writing as writing. With no prescribed texts in the focus area and no exam requirement to use them, the question rewards control of your own writing and your reflection on it.
4. Expect supervised assessment. With only one take-home task allowed, practise planning and writing complete responses in 40 minutes.

Our English guides, such as Texts and human experiences and Module A: Textual Conversations, were written for the 2017 syllabus and the 2019-2026 texts; the skills carry over, the named texts mostly do not. English Standard students should read what's changed in English Standard.