IF Year 12 students at one of WA’s top academic high schools say they found today’s first ATAR exam paper much harder than expected, it’s likely that more than 3300 students who also studied physics will be feeling their pain.

Rossmoyne Senior High School student Caneesyah Arvi, 18, said she felt sick after finishing the three-hour physics exam today.

“That was honestly the most horrible exam ever,” she said. “This is the first one, so now I’m scared for the rest. It was much harder than the mock exams, 100 per cent.”

Charlie Li, 18, said he found the paper “challenging”.

“Doing a lot of revision over past papers probably wouldn’t have helped that much,” he said. “I thought it was all very new stuff. But there wasn’t anything ridiculously hard, it was just quite challenging overall.”

Victoria Lam, 17, also said the exam was harder than she thought it would be.

Science Teachers Association of WA president Stacey Fairhead said a number of physics teachers had indicated the paper was more difficult than in previous years.

“It is our hope that the students weren’t too put off by this,” she said. “Students should be reassured that the standardisation procedures in place mean that all candidates will not be disadvantaged.”

More than 15,600 WA students will sit through four or more ATAR course exams over the next three weeks.

Subjects with the highest enrolments include English (11,282), mathematics applications (9166), chemistry (5061) and human biology (4923).

Education Minister Sue Ellery said students starting their final exams should stay positive and feel proud of what they have achieved so far.

“This is an important time, but students should remember not to be too tough on themselves and to trust in the hard work they’ve put in throughout their school life,” she said.