Hi All,

It has been 5 weeks since the conference and we hope that you are making use of the resources provided by our wonderful presenters. As promised, albeit slightly later than anticipated, we will be answering the questions that were asked during the Exam Panel Analysis. We will endeavour to answer all questions, and post as individual blogs. First question, which was asked by a few people, was around the use of subheadings in the extended response. Some people were interested in whether subheadings or dot points could be used, and others asked if we specifically taught students to write with subheadings. So here we go:

Students can definitely subheadings in their responses. It is a matter of preference as to whether you actively teach students to use subheadings, however, many find it useful and can use them as a guide/ scaffold to their answer. Usually the subheadings would be closely linked to the question, so for 2026, ‘Method of loci’, ‘Songlines’, ‘Comparison of method of loci and songlines’ could have been appropriate subheadings to use in the evaluation of the ability of someone with Aphantasia to use method of loci and songlines. However, when using subheadings and/or dot-points in any extended response students must be mindful that they may not be able to access the top band of marks, as the assessment criteria ‘construction of evidence based arguments, and/or drawing of conclusions, and/or discussion of implications and findings does consider written expression.

We will post again soon with our next installment of a response to one of your questions,

Kate and Steph