The advice we got:
Do not write about:
Teenage Angst (Fights with parents/ girlfriend/ boyfriend/ finding out you were adopted/ unrequited love etc)
Terminal Illness (unless you can make it REAL and DIFFERENT)
Personal Tragedy (car crash, abortion, etc)
Amazing holidays
Schoolies
Your HSC Journey
Guys in cars picking up chicks
DO NOT end your story in waking up and it was all a dream
DO NOT kill off your character
DO NOT construst a convoluted or unrealistic plot.
The best stories are unusual, creative etc. While it is technically possible to get full marks no matter what topic you write about, realistically nothing is going to set you apart from the other 75% of the state that write about the same, lame topic you chose if you do these^^^
Come up with your story beforehand, get your teacher to read over it and give you feedback, and practise re-working it to suit different questions (do past papers)