It is time to take ACTION! The NSW HSC English courses, and I assume it is the same for other Australian states, are beyond a joke. The English syllabus has become increasingly cryptic, and because the English course is compulsory, people who are not so good at deciphering complicated questions are forced to do a course they are not very good at. The argument is that everyone needs the english language, but that is learnt in the later years of primary school and the lower years of high school. What is left for the HSC course is cryptic analysis of random texts. The close study of shakespeare, poetry and film techniques is not a needed skill for most jobs. Most of us will never use what we are forced to learn in this course. Furthermore, except fot the reading task and the creative writing, the exams are simply a test of how many quotes you can remember. They\'re a test to see if you can remember that elusive BOS essay you downloaded the night before or the essay that your teacher wrote for you. It is also a contest of who can best balance speed writing with legibility to have 3 essays completed in the space of 2 hours. The Board of Studies should simply make it non-compulsory. As with every other subject there is a small minority group that actually like it, and then the rest despise it. Shouldn\'t they be given the opportunity to take it as an elective as with Maths, Sciences and all other subjects Sign this petition and tell all your friends to sign it as well ... help me take a stand against the BOS and make them relise just how much most of the new generation dislike it. If we can get the signature of thousands of NSW high school students ... then we can send the message through loud and clear! If we get enough signatures I will be formally submitting this the BOS. Send it around and lets see what the younger generation can achieve!! Please sign ... this is imporant! For the good of our sanity ... and those to come!