Health and Movement Science 11-12 Syllabus (2023), first examined in the HSC in 2026
This is a new NESA course and its first HSC examination is sat in 2026, so no past HSC paper, marking guidelines or examination report exists yet; the only official pre-exam material published for it is annotated sample examination material. Alongside the external examination, the syllabus builds in school-based inquiry work: a minimum of two depth studies totalling twenty indicative hours embedded across Year 11 and Year 12, and a Collaborative Investigation of twenty indicative hours in Year 11.
Past papers on this subject span more than one syllabus. Papers written under an older one still work as practice, but the modules they test have changed — the index labels every paper with the syllabus it was set under.
Health and Movement Science 11–12 Syllabus (2023) · 2025–presentPDHPE Stage 6 Syllabus (2012) — predecessor course, replaced by HMS · 2013–2025
The modules, one by one
Each area below lists the concepts named in the syllabus, what the NESA exam asks of them, and the mistake that most often costs marks.
Area 1 of 5
Year 12 — Health in an Australian and global context
The Year 12 health core asks how healthy Australians actually are and why the answer differs so much between groups. You work with measures of health status, morbidity, mortality and life expectancy, and with the health inequities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, people in rural and remote areas and other priority populations, including comparisons with other OECD countries and the pressures of an ageing population. The healthcare system strand looks at how care is funded and delivered, what the Commonwealth, state and non-government sectors are each responsible for, where the system is effective and where equity breaks down, complementary approaches, and the skills a health consumer needs. Technology and data are treated as a live issue: digital health systems, the uses of health data, and the privacy questions they raise. The final strand applies the Sustainable Development Goals to community health action.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 4 points
- How healthy are Australians? (morbidity, mortality, life expectancy, health inequities incl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, OECD comparisons, ageing population)
- How does Australia's healthcare system work? (system effectiveness and equity, government/non-government responsibilities, funding and expenditure, complementary health approaches, health consumer skills)
- How is technology and data impacting healthcare? (technology and health, digital health systems and services, data use, privacy)
- What actions improve Australian health? (Sustainable Development Goals and their application to community health)
What the exam asks
The syllabus outcomes for this focus area are written around analysing, evaluating and proposing, so expect scenarios and data extracts rather than recall prompts: interpreting health statistics or a comparison between population groups, evaluating how effectively a part of the healthcare system meets a group's needs, and justifying actions that would improve health outcomes for a named population.
Where marks go missing
Answering an equity question with national averages. A statement about Australian life expectancy explains nothing about why a specific group's outcomes differ; the marks come from naming the determinants acting on that group and linking them to the measure being discussed.
Area 2 of 5
Year 12 — Training for improved performance
This focus area is the applied exercise science half of the course. You learn to screen a participant before exercise, select and administer fitness and performance tests, and use those results to prescribe a program for a specific individual. The training strand covers the types and methods of training, aerobic, resistance, interval, flexibility and skill-based, the principles of training such as progressive overload, specificity, reversibility and variety, and the physiological adaptations that follow in the cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular systems. You then compare how a program differs for an individual athlete and for a team, across session design, the phases of a yearly plan and the psychological strategies used. The final strands deal with what sustains performance: dietary requirements, hydration, sleep and supplementation, efficient movement technique, recovery strategies, technology, injury prevention and management, and the effects of drug use.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 5 points
- How can exercise assessment and prescription be personalised? (pre-exercise screening, fitness/performance testing, program development)
- How does training influence movement and performance? (types/methods of training, principles of training, physiological adaptations)
- How does training differ for individual and group sports? (session design, yearly training program phases, psychological strategies)
- What impact does sleep, nutrition and supplementation have on movement and performance? (dietary requirements, hydration, sleep, supplements)
- How do individuals train for sustained movement and performance? (efficient movement technique, recovery strategies, technology, injury management and prevention, drug use impacts)
What the exam asks
Expect application rather than definition. Typical demands are to design or modify a training program for a described athlete and justify the choices against the principles of training, to explain the adaptations a stated method of training would produce, or to assess the value of a recovery, nutrition or sleep strategy for a particular sport and phase of the season.
Where marks go missing
Listing the principles of training without attaching them to the athlete in the question. A program justified in the abstract earns little; each choice needs to be tied to that athlete's test results, sport demands and stage of the training year.
Area 3 of 5
Year 11 — Health for individuals and communities
The Year 11 health core sets up the language the Year 12 course then uses. You examine how health is defined and measured in Australia, including the difference between individual and population measures and the reasons health status is monitored at all. A distinctive strand asks what health means to young people themselves, comparing personal perceptions of health with official definitions and looking at the influences, family, peers, media, culture, that shape those meanings. The key issues strand covers the health concerns that most affect young people and the protective and risk factors around them, together with the actions individuals can take to protect and promote their own health. The final strand moves outward to the opportunities for improving young people's health, including health promotion approaches, the role of government and community organisations, and the settings in which promotion actually reaches young people.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 4 points
- How do we understand and measure Australia's health?
- What are young people's meanings of health?
- What key issues affect the health of young people and how can they protect and promote good health?
- What are the opportunities for improving and promoting young people's health?
What the exam asks
Year 11 content is assessed through school-based tasks rather than the HSC examination, but the concepts, determinants of health, health promotion approaches, risk and protective factors, are assumed knowledge in Year 12 answers. Expect tasks that ask you to analyse influences on young people's health perceptions or evaluate a health promotion initiative aimed at that group.
Where marks go missing
Treating young people's own meanings of health as a soft, opinion-based strand. It is examinable content with specific influences and terminology, and answers that fall back on personal anecdote instead of naming those influences leave most of the available marks behind.
Area 4 of 5
Year 11 — The body and mind in motion
This is the anatomy, physiology and skill acquisition foundation. You study the skeletal and muscular systems together, including how bones, joints and muscles interact and the biomechanical principles that govern that movement, then the respiratory and circulatory systems as a linked oxygen delivery pathway, the digestive and endocrine systems as the fuel and regulation pathway, and the nervous system's role in producing and controlling movement. The energy systems strand covers ATP-PCr, the glycolytic or lactic acid system and the aerobic system, including their rates, duration, fuel sources and the contribution of nutrition. From there you look at aerobic and anaerobic training and the immediate physiological responses to each, the purpose and outcomes of physical fitness, how movement skills are acquired and refined in a chosen sport, and the psychology of performance and communities of exercise.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 9 points
- Skeletal and muscular systems and their interrelationship; biomechanical principles of muscles, bones and joints
- Respiratory and circulatory system interrelationship
- Digestive and endocrine systems interrelationship
- Nervous system and movement interrelationship
- ATP-PCr, glycolytic (lactic acid) and aerobic energy systems; role of nutrition
- Aerobic and anaerobic training and physiological responses
- Purpose and outcomes of physical fitness
- How movement skills are acquired; movement skills and sports of choice
- Psychology, movement and performance; communities of exercise
What the exam asks
Assessment of this material is school-based, but it is the knowledge Year 12 training questions stand on. Tasks commonly ask you to explain the interrelationship between two body systems during a described activity, to justify which energy system predominates in a given event and why, or to analyse how a skill is acquired and what practice conditions best support it.
Where marks go missing
Describing body systems one at a time when the question asks about their interrelationship. The marks sit in the connection, how a change in one system produces a change in the other during the specific activity described, not in two separate correct descriptions.
Area 5 of 5
Year 11/12 — Depth studies and Collaborative Investigation
These are the practical, inquiry-based components built into the course rather than sitting alongside it. A minimum of two depth studies, allocated twenty indicative hours in total, are embedded across Year 11 and Year 12 content: each is an extended piece of student-directed work on a chosen aspect of the syllabus, which can take the form of a practical investigation, a data analysis, a fieldwork or secondary-source study, or a program design and trial. The Collaborative Investigation, allocated twenty indicative hours, sits in Year 11 and is completed as a group, so it also develops the process skills of planning, dividing work, gathering and analysing data, and communicating findings to an audience. Together they build the research and analysis skills the course expects, including forming a question, working with evidence, and evaluating the reliability of what you gathered.
What the syllabus lists under this area · 2 points
- Minimum 2 depth studies (20 indicative hours total) embedded across Year 11 and Year 12 content
- Collaborative Investigation (20 indicative hours) embedded in Year 11
What the exam asks
These components are completed and assessed at school rather than in the external examination, but the working scientifically and inquiry skills they develop, framing a question, selecting and justifying a method, interpreting data and evaluating reliability, are the same skills the examination draws on when it presents unfamiliar data or a scenario to analyse.
Where marks go missing
Leaving the evaluation until last and writing it thinly. The reliability and validity of your method, and the limitations of your data, are where depth study marks concentrate, and they are hard to reconstruct convincingly once the investigation is finished.