Hastings Secondary College students Cooper Herden, Phoenix Nincsics and Adam Wall were among the 2020 cohort taking the final practical drama exam on Wednesday, November 11.

The trio now have a month-long wait until they receive their ATAR at 9am on Friday, December 18, on the same day as their HSC results.

Adam said the end of exams was a relief.

"The thought of having finished exams didn't really hit me as I walked out of that last one. It's a delayed feeling knowing that's the last bit of school work I'll have to do," he said.

"It's a good feeling, but very anti-climatic."

Phoenix said his impression was much the same after the final exam on Wednesday.

"It's kind of weird because I've always come home and thought 'better work on school work'," he said.

"Now that time is empty and I guess I can fill it with something else."

Cooper, who displayed his talents in costume design during the final drama exam, said he was proud of the group overcoming the challenges presented to year 12 students this year.

"It feels good to say we've been through this year, through COVID and all that," he said.

"Being able to say I finished year 12 during one of the worst years we've had, that's really good."

The trio agreed that this year the English exam was considered most difficult by far, due to a particularly challenging picture created by Seattle-based artist Julie Paschkis.

Hastings Secondary College drama teacher Hellene Underwood said students were presented with unique challenges.

"This year was disruptive because they didn't get to do a group performance, but that did mean they were able to focus more on their individual performance and theory," Mrs Underwood said.

"That did mean that the exams were worth more than previous years, which was unusual.

"The lack of a group performance meant that the individual performance was very polished and of a high standard."

It's also been a record year for early offers to university as more than 15,400 offers have been released this year, compared to 11,500 made to the 2019 cohort, according to statistics collected by the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC).

This year there are more than 12,000 Schools Recommendation Scheme offers, compared to 10,500 last year. Early offers are based on criteria other than a student's ATAR, such as their year 11 results and school ratings.

UAC marketing and engagement general manager Kim Paino said the news would be welcome relief for many students, especially this year.

"More offer rounds are still to come, students should now be thinking about their final preferences as we head towards ATAR release," she said.

Course preferences can be changed depending on those results by midnight on Saturday, December 19 before round two offers on Wednesday, December 23.

Applications for semester 1, 2021 are open until Friday, February 5, with more than 2,300 courses offered by 26 participating institutions.

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