When I did my HSC in the dark ages we started on Melbourne Cup day. English in the morning and some kids had another exam that afternoon, which was most unlucky as everyone had the second English paper the next day and in those days it was two three hour English exams and the Thursday was the first Maths paper with the second Maths paper (if you had to do two) on the Friday so by the end of the first week we had all finished English and Maths.