They are weird and I feel, not really standardised like they are in the HSC (where a huge board comes together to write FAIR and *DOABLE* questions).
You can get these questions which you feel like is way out of your scope - questions that you'd have no idea how to answer coz they ask things that aren't even covered in the semester.......... pretty demotivating to study so hard only to realise that a solid portion of the exam is impossible to answer
Depends on what course I guess. For medicine there's not really any essays but the exams are definitely harder. In high school 90+% is the norm and expected. In uni, let's lower that to around 60%... (not because people have become lazier, just that it's impossible lol).