I suppose not, but we get questions which seem to be totally unrelated to techniques, for example, our trial paper had:
Imagine that you have been asked to participate in an open forum where the following topic will be debated.
"The effect of institutions on individuals depends on the individual's choice to comply or protest."
Write the text of aspeech you would give at the forum that clearly agrees OR disagrees with this statement.
In your response refer to your prescribed text, and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing.
Now when I looked at that, I could easily write a good speech (which I did), but where in hell would techniques come into it?
I didn't discuss any techniques and the school didn't penalise me because so many people didn't, and in fact IIRC they weren't sure if we are meant to use techniques or not, advising us to do so on the HSC just in case.