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2026 HSC Design and Technology exam: What to learn from last year's mistakes
Hi all, in preparation for the upcoming exam, here's what to learn from last year's mistakes.
Exam: Thursday 29 October 2026, 1:55 pm to 3:30 pm. All times are NSW local time.
The 2025 written exam was 40 marks. Q11–14 shared 15 marks, and Q15 alone was worth another 15.
Q11: 2 marks, prototyping.
Q12: 3 marks, ethics and personal data.
Q13: 4 marks, batteries and the environment.
Q14: 6 marks, innovation and user experience.
Q15: 15 marks, AI's impacts on designers.
NESA does not give question averages. The feedback is clear about what students left unexplained.
1. Q11: Explain the role of a prototype
Where students went wrong
Students defined prototyping without explaining how it contributes to developing a design.
What they should have done
A prototype lets the designer test a feature, identify a problem and refine the proposal before committing to production. For example, testing a handle with users may reveal that its shape makes gripping difficult, prompting a change to its dimensions. The role is the information gained and the improvement it enables, not simply making an early model.
2. Q12: Develop one ethical issue
Where students went wrong
Answers listed several ethical concerns but did not explain one in relation to managing personal data.
What they should have done
For privacy, explain how collecting, storing or sharing personal information can affect the person whose data is held. A design service collecting measurements should consider whether information is necessary, who can access it and how it is used. Link the issue to a management practice. Just writing privacy or security leaves the explanation unfinished.
3. Q13: Explain environmental consequences of batteries
Where students went wrong
Students described how batteries work instead of examining their environmental impact.
What they should have done
Consider a lifecycle stage and its consequence. Extracting battery materials can disturb habitats and require substantial processing; disposal without suitable recovery can waste finite materials and create pollution risks. Make the link from the design’s material demand or disposal pathway to the environmental effect. Rechargeability alone does not settle the whole environmental assessment.
4. Q14: Show what changes for the user
Where students went wrong
Responses named innovations or described their operation without explaining the change to user experience.
What they should have done
Choose a specific feature and trace its effect. Adjustable controls can allow people with different reach or mobility to operate a product more comfortably. Explain the previous difficulty, the changed interaction and why that matters in the user’s context. An innovation is not automatically successful simply because the technology is newer.
5. Q15: Analyse AI’s impacts on designers, not just its features
Where students went wrong
Students gave broad claims about AI, ignored the stimulus or listed benefits without developing short- and long-term implications.
What they should have done
Take at least two major impacts and follow the consequences. Faster generation of alternatives can reduce time spent producing initial concepts, but it also increases the need to evaluate originality, suitability and ownership. Explain how that changes the designer’s role.
For employment, distinguish tasks that may be automated from the judgement and responsibility still required. Use the stimulus and concrete examples to weigh consequences across time. If discussing global inequality, explain who gains access to the tools and who may lose work or control. The conclusion should follow from that analysis, not repeat that AI has positives and negatives.
Source: NESA 2025 Design and Technology exam, marking guidelines and feedback.
Use the Design and Technology hub and past papers and marking guides alongside this.
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