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All My Own Work

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Updated 22 Sep 2025

Minor phrasing changes have been made to Paragraph 7 in framing the paragraph around students’ responsibilities for All My Own Work.   

The following sentence has been deleted as it describes NESA’s reporting responsibilities which do not require enforcement via an ACE Rule:

“NESA will make all necessary reports to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) where malpractice is serious, deliberate, and amounts to corrupt conduct.”

View all changes

NESA is authorised under sections 20A(2) and 95(1)(f) of the Education Act 1990 (NSW) to grant the HSC to students who have complied with any requirements imposed by the Minister or Authority.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialHSC (curriculum)MalpracticePreliminary

About All My Own Work

  1. To be eligible for entry into a Preliminary and/or HSC course, and for the award of the HSC, all students must complete All My Own Work (AMOW) or its equivalent, and all other eligibility requirements.1
  2. AMOW is an educational program designed to instruct students about scholarship principles and ethical practices, and comprises content across 4 topics related to locating and acknowledging sources of information, plagiarism, copyright, and working with others.
  3. AMOW:
    1. must be completed by every student before they are entered into any Preliminary or HSC course, as it has a specific focus on preparing students for HSC assessment, and
    2. is designed to be flexible for different school contexts, delivery methods and modes.
  4. Students undertaking a pattern of study that comprises only Stage 6 Life Skills courses, are not required to complete AMOW. 

Responsibilities of principals and schools

  1. Principals must:
    1. rely on their professional judgement, and of their teachers, to make decisions about a student’s satisfactory completion of AMOW, and
    2. certify students’ completion of AMOW in Loading  and record their details in All My Own Work Completion, before the submission of entries for Preliminary and HSC courses, and
    3. recognise the relationship between AMOW and the integrity of HSC school-based assessment and exams, and explain this to their students, and
    4. ensure AMOW is supported by a school policy on malpractice.
  2. Principals and schools may:
    1. design their own program to suit their individual needs or contexts, and
    2. determine when students start AMOW, noting that it must be completed before the submission of entries for Preliminary and HSC courses.

Responsibilities of students

  1. Students must complete AMOW (or its equivalent) which is designed to make a student aware of their HSC assessment obligations.
  2. Students must develop and submit their HSC assessments (including school-based assessments, submitted works and performances) in accordance with the principles of:
    1. All My Own Work, and
    2. Integrity of HSC school-based assessment and exams, and
    3. Loading .
  3. If malpractice is suspected, a student must demonstrate that all work is entirely their own.
  4. Schools must follow their own school assessment policies and record all instances of malpractice on the Malpractice Register.
  5. NESA refers suspected cases of HSC exam malpractice to the Examination Rules Committee (ERC). Penalties include a reduction in exam marks, zero marks for the exam or cancellation of the course(s).

There are specific All My Own Work requirements for a range of Stage 6 study options

  1. To be eligible for entry into a Preliminary and/or HSC course, and for the award of the HSC, all students must complete AMOW and all other eligibility requirements.

Accelerated students

  1. Students accelerating into a Stage 6 course(s) must complete AMOW (or its equivalent) prior to being entered into the course(s).

Early commencement of Stage 6 VET courses

  1. Students in Years 9 and 10 undertaking early commencement of a Stage 6 VET course must complete AMOW prior to being entered into the course.

Self-tuition applicants

  1. Self-tuition applicants must complete AMOW prior to being entered into Stage 6 courses. These applicants make an explicit declaration on the self-tuition application form that they have completed AMOW, and must submit these forms to NESA by 30 June.

Online resources

Related ACE Rules

For further information

For enquiries about AMOW or malpractice, email studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. An AMOW equivalent may be appropriate for accessibility and inclusion reasons. An AMOW equivalent must contain comparable content to the AMOW topics.

All My Own Work (AMOW)

An educational program designed to support students to follow the principles and practices of good scholarship before they are entered into Preliminary and/or HSC courses.

Examination Rules Committee (ERC)

A NESA subcommittee made up of independent sector representatives with delegated authority to make decisions on cases of suspected breaches of exam/test rules and malpractice in HSC exams and the HSC minimum standard tests.

malpractice

Any dishonest behaviour and/or attempt to gain an unfair advantage over other students, and/or knowingly assisting other students to engage in malpractice.

plagiarism

When a student pretends to have written, created or developed work that has originated from another source.

self-tuition applicant

A person who is studying an HSC course(s) but is not attending a NSW government school, a school accredited by NESA, an institute of TAFE NSW or a school outside NSW recognised by NESA.