Andrew Creelman began teaching in 1971. It was the era of the Junior (Year 10) and Leaving Certificates (Year 12) in Western Australia. The Junior Certificate was a 3-hour exam that covered the first 3 years of secondary education. About 50% of students left school at the end of Year 10 with their Junior Certificate to seek work or an apprenticeship, or to enroll at Technical College (TAFE). The other 50% returned for the final two years of secondary education which were examined in November of Year 12.

In those days, there was no continuous assessment; entry into tertiary institutions depended on your performance in the one exam. Consequently, good teachers would collect files of old Leaving exams and give them out to students about 6 to 8 weeks prior to the November exam for a period of intense revision.

In the early 90's the assessment mentality changed radically. The new Tertiary Entrance Exam (formerly the Leaving and then the TAE) only examined Year 12 work. Also, teachers were now required to provide a school-based assessment which contributed 50% towards a complex scaled, moderated mark used to calculate University entrance scores. School-based assessment became continuous in nature. That is, students would do assessments in February, March and April which contributed towards the school mark submitted to the Curriculum Council (formerly the SEA or TISC). It became clear to thinking teachers that a paradigm shift was necessary in preparing students for continuous assessment. Students needed to have access to old TEE Papers in February and March rather than in August and September. This was because school assessments in March were being pitched at TEE level and students who had no exposure to old TEE questions were at a disadvantage.

The Curriculum Council tried to address this situation by selling the last four years of TEE Papers. The subject associations (e.g. Science Teachers’ Association of WA) produced model answers to each paper.  Andrew Creelman did what many other teachers also did and dissected old exam papers into topics and then gave students the old exam questions in topical format just before the relevant topic test.

This was first made available in book form in 2000. Since then the number of titles and the resulting sales have steadily increased. In 2008, 45% of the relevant market purchased Creelman’s Exam Questions. As the idea was so well received in WA, we thought it was only right to give the opportunity to students in other Australian states where there was an annual external exam and the population sufficient to sustain the enterprise.

Titles for New South Wales and Victoria are available on our website.

Andrew Creelman