THE Australian History Competition is a nationally recognised, rigorous test of students’ skill and knowledge that aims to encourage the study of history.

With over 32,000 registrations Australia-wide in 2021, the 2022 competition results from the students at The Hamilton and Alexandra College were worthy of note. 

The annual competition was available to students in years 7-10 and is comprised of a timed, multichoice test, broadly based on the Australian History Curriculum.

Students sat one of the two papers according to their year level at school, with Year 7 and 8 sitting the same paper, and Year 9 and 10 also the sitting the one paper.

Students had 45 minutes to answer 50 questions that were specifically designed to test skills of interpretation and analysis which provided opportunity for all competitors to excel regardless of their prior knowledge.

Competitors test results were sorted by academic year groups and synthesised on a distributive bell-curve that summarised the overall performance of each year level.

Students were then awarded individual achievements that recognised their performance relative to other competitors in their year level.

The Hamilton and Alexandra College’s dedication to developing the critical and creative thinking skills required to excel in this competition was reflected in the results achieved by their students.

“We congratulate all the students for their efforts, and they should be very proud of themselves,” acting Head of History, Ms Margaret Simkin said.

Special congratulations to Marianna Novikov (Year 7); Phoebe Baker and Harry Croft (Year 8); Annabel O’Toole (Year 9) and Hannah Croft (Year 10) who all performed exceptionally well, achieving High Distinctions in their respective year groups.

Those who achieved Distinctions in their respective year groups were; Joshua Nagorcka (Year 8); Emma Donovan, Sophie Merrin, Olivia Rees and Ava Schroeder (Year 9); and Fingal Jackson and Neve McClure (Year 10) who also proved their ability to effectively apply critical analytical skills.

“All the participants did a marvellous job,” Ms Simkin said.

“The skills of history are vital in many other subjects and the History Faculty plays an integral role in working with students to develop their analytical and academic abilities at a whole-school level.”

These outstanding individual results, along with an overall school average above that of state and national averages, were an impressive reflection of the expertly galvanised skills of interpretation and extrapolation of data refined by the academic staff and executed by the students at the College. A deserving congratulations to all those who participated.