I loved the English exam. I think it's the only one I have a chance of getting a Band 6 for.
For the newspaper article, I didn't go into too much because they REALLY didn't give you enough room. I hated that they included that border; it severely limited your writing space. But I reported on a time capsule from the 70s being discovered in the school grounds. Nothing original or groundbreaking, but oh well.
The stimilus was kind of strange, but easy to work with. I wrote about how our society was in desperate need of trust, basically, and how we needed to start moving in the right direction towards peace and unity. Branching off from this I briefly talked about reconciliation and muliticulturalism, but I didn't get to go into these as much as I wanted to because, again, the limited space.... I know my idea was not the best or the most original, but I'm confident I supported and justified my arguments well.