Tertiary Entrance Exams underway

Around 14,000 students begin sitting Tertiary Entrance Exams around Western Australia today. (Jonathan Beal)

Thousands of high school students are starting their Tertiary Entrance Exams today with Geography the first exam on the timetable.

Almost 14,000 students are sitting the exams this year - ten per cent more than last year.

The T-E-E exams conclude on November 21 with Geology.

Bill Louden from the Curriculum Council says students are sitting the exams at 178 schools both in Western Australia and countries including Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

"Some of them are Australian students travelling and in some cases particular overseas colleges with a focus on international aspirations of their students choose to sit for our exams," he said.

MR Bill says three new courses are being examined this year.

"English, media production and analysis and engineering studies, so there's one course which has been examined last year, which was Aviation and three new ones and there'll be some more new courses next year, so the implementation comes in over a number of years."