For almost three hours the teenagers attempted to eloquently express what they'd been learning for the last 13 years.

Olivia Maksynczuk, Sarah Kirkness and Tom Radnedge rated their pre-exam stress as a 'five' a 'seven' and a 'three' out of 10 respectively.

"I tried to keep it at a solid five," Olivia said. "Not too calm but not too stressed out."

Tom said he walked into school a 'three' but it went up when he joined the rest of year 12 in the exam room.

"The shock value made it a lot harder. Being in that situation, it's the shock of the HSC," he said.

Students across the state took part in the 'Texts and Human Experiences' element of their English exam on Thursday, with the second part on Friday morning.

Sarah wants to study physiotherapy "wherever I can get in".

She said section one of the exam, where students were asked to answer five questions including, 'How does the poet invite the reader to share in the experiences represented in the poem?' was a bit harder than expected.

"The essay question was pretty spot on though - it lined up with my assessment," she said.

Olivia will apply to study international studies in journalism at the University of Wollongong.

She plans to take a gap year in 2020.

Tom said he hopes to study a Bachelor of politics, philosophy and economics at Wollongong or the University of NSW.

All three students planned to relax for a few hours on Thursday afternoon ahead of the second part of the English exam on Friday.

"If I don't know it yet, I'm not going to know it," said Olivia.