There are many countries that have all the kids and parents going nuts during the last year of high school. Each one of these countries has different standards of education, varying difficulties in their exams and what/how much they have to learn. Yet the amount of stress that the students go through remain similar. Dont know about you, but that tells me one thing-i.e that the implications of having/not having a tertiary education is, like so many other facets of life, a mass mispreconception. Globalisation has aided, sure. Fail to gain a tertiary education in China/India/Japan/Korea, maybe even to a lesser extent USA, and you'd be odds on to end up in a job that pays you virtually nothing; either that or you become a busker/beggar. In these countries, the subconscious requirements of survival come into play, the desperation to avoid the pitfall into life on the streets, and perhaps with good reason. However, we're in Australia. Not too many years ago (around 5), only 10% of Australians went through tertiary education, yet somewhere near 94% had a job. In fact, quite a few of the richest men in Australia(in BRW mag) are dropouts. Lets not kid ourselves. Theres only one reason why everyone stresses during this one year. And as so often, its a misconception founded through assumptions that may have been valid, but only in other countries. I think someone's already touched on this, but it doesnt really matter how hard the HSC is, whether it reaches the levels of it's presumably-harder Asian counterparts, or whether it's lowered to, say, a year 7 level. The ill-based assumptions will still exist, the amount of pressure will not change-at least not until the next few generations, IF AT ALL. Dont blame the HSC, blame the people who value it.