TO post your HSC results and ATAR on social media or not to post?
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That, indeed, was the question for many HSC students.
The HSC was the second-highest trend on Twitter on Wednesday as students tweeted their responses to their marks, while the ATAR ranks were a popular theme when they were released on Thursday.
Cindy Huang, a 17-year-old student, said swapping exam results was popular among her friends but she refrained from publicising them on Facebook.
"It seems like people are just trying to get attention," she said.
Fellow student Tasmin Hill, 18, said she would rather keep her results private.
"I don't think it's a healthy environment because it's still promoting that competitive environment even though school's finished," she said.
Posts about HSC marks or reactions to them following the release of exam results could encourage competition between some teenagers and affect self-esteem, said Axel Bruns associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology.
"There's always the danger of the competitive feelings of who did the best and who did worst and the repercussions in terms of people being able to brag that they got better results than others and others feeling bad because they got poorer results."
Damon Luck, 18, who wants to become a teacher, said he would consider posting an Instagram image of his results if he was happy with them.
Beatrice Marks, 18, found out some of her friends' results and reactions hours after ATARs were released on Facebook.
"I wouldn't do that though. I'll make my friends come to me."
Some teenagers will attend school-organised gatherings where teachers find out their students' marks.
Although these events give students the opportunity to share results with friends, publicising exam results and reactions over the internet will be a faster way to share the news with a larger number of people.
"It's announcing the achievement in many ways. It's a big life step, it's completion of years of school - possibly not even so much to brag about the result but to show they're moving into real life, a future life beyond school. It's marking a milestone," said Dr Bruns.
