How can I move a specific element of a tabular down or up?

Question

I want my table to look like the below table, where the top item(s)/texts are aligned with "General" and "Total marks" respectively.

(HSC Table)

And it currently looks like this:

Currently I have the following MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{calc}
\begin{document}
\setlist[itemize]{leftmargin=*,itemsep=-4mm,topsep=3mm}

\begin{tabular}[t]{@{}m{19mm}l@{}}%m is the width of the left column (general instructions, total marks)
\cmidrule{1-1}%makes the overline 
\textbf{General Instructions} & \begin{minipage}[t]{\textwidth-16mm} %TODO: Left align general instructions
     \begin{itemize}
        \item Reading time \textendash\ 5 minutes \\
        \item Working time \textendash\ 3 hours \\
        \item Write using black pen \\
        \item Calculators approved by NESA may be used \\
        \item A reference sheet is provided at the back of this paper\\ 
        \item For questions in Section II, show relevant mathematical reasoning and/or calculations\\
        \item  Write your Centre Number and Student Number at the top of this page\\ 
     \end{itemize}
  \end{minipage}\\
\addlinespace[5mm] %Vertical space between the general instructions section and total makrs section 
\cmidrule{1-1}
 \textbf{Total marks: 100} & \begin{minipage}[t]{\textwidth-26mm}
    \textbf{Section I \textendash\ 10 marks} (pages 1-9)
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Attempt Questions 1-10 \\
            \item Allow about 123-456 for this section \\
        \end{itemize}
    \vspace{-4mm} %
    \textbf{Section II \textendash\ 90 marks} (pages 123-456)
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Attempt Questions 11-32 \\
            \item Allow about abc for this section
        \end{itemize}
    \end{minipage} \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

(added in placeholder values in place of the variables)

I presume that I would need to move the text "Reading time" and "Section 1" upwards, or to move "General Instructions" and "Total Marks" downwards. I'm quite inexperienced with table packages in general (have just mashed together snippets of code) so other packages are fine as well.

EDIT: Fixed MWE

Answer 1

I wouldn't use tabular.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\newlist{qitemize}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[qitemize]{topsep=0pt,leftmargin=*,parsep=0pt,itemsep=2pt,label=\textbullet}

\newenvironment{instructions}[1]{%
  \par
  \rule{22.5mm}{0.4pt}\par\nopagebreak
  \makebox[25mm][l]{%
    \bfseries
    \begin{tabular}[t]{@{}l@{}} #1 \end{tabular}%
  }\begin{minipage}[t]{\dimeval{\textwidth-25mm}}
}{\end{minipage}\par\addvspace{5mm}}

\newcommand{\qhead}[2]{\par\addvspace{\medskipamount}\textbf{#1} (#2)\par}

\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{instructions}{General \\ Instructions}
  \begin{qitemize}
    \item Reading time -- 5 minutes
    \item Working time -- 3 hours
    \item Write using black pen
    \item Calculators approved by NESA may be used
    \item A reference sheet is provided at the back of this paper
    \item For questions in Section II, show relevant mathematical reasoning and/or calculations
    \item  Write your Centre Number and Student Number at the top of this page
  \end{qitemize}
\end{instructions}

\begin{instructions}{Total \\ Marks: \\ 100}
  \qhead{Section I -- 10 marks}{pages 1--9}
  \begin{qitemize}
    \item Attempt Questions 1-10
    \item Allow about 123-456 for this section
  \end{qitemize}

  \qhead{Section II -- 90 marks}{pages 123-456}
  \begin{qitemize}[topsep=0pt,leftmargin=*]
    \item Attempt Questions 11-32
    \item Allow about abc for this section
  \end{qitemize}
\end{instructions}

\end{document}

If you don't use itemize for any other purpose, you may use it with

\setlist[itemize,1]{topsep=0pt,leftmargin=*,parsep=0pt,itemsep=2pt,label=\textbullet}

However, my advice is to use a specific environment.

Note that -- is the same as \textendash and that \\ isn't needed to end an \item.

Answer 2

Using p{width} instead of m{width}:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{calc}
\begin{document}
\setlist[itemize]{leftmargin=*,itemsep=-4mm,topsep=0mm}

\begin{tabular}[t]{@{}p{19mm}l@{}}%m is the width of the left column (general instructions, total marks)
\cmidrule{1-1}%makes the overline 
\textbf{General Instructions} & \begin{minipage}[t]{\textwidth-16mm} %TODO: Left align general instructions
    \setlist{nosep}
     \begin{itemize}
        \item Reading time \textendash\ 5 minutes \\
        \item Working time \textendash\ 3 hours \\
        \item Write using black pen \\
        \item Calculators approved by NESA may be used \\
        \item A reference sheet is provided at the back of this paper\\ 
        \item For questions in Section II, show relevant mathematical reasoning and/or calculations\\
        \item  Write your Centre Number and Student Number at the top of this page\\ 
     \end{itemize}
  \end{minipage}\\
\addlinespace[5mm] %Vertical space between the general instructions section and total makrs section 
\cmidrule{1-1}
 \textbf{Total marks: 100} & \begin{minipage}[t]{\textwidth-26mm}
    \textbf{Section I \textendash\ 10 marks} (pages 1--9)
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Attempt Questions 1--10 \\
            \item Allow about 123--456 for this section \\
        \end{itemize}
    \vspace{-4mm} %
    \textbf{Section II \textendash\ 90 marks} (pages 123--456)
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Attempt Questions 11--32 \\
            \item Allow about abc for this section
        \end{itemize}
    \end{minipage} \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

BTW: One should use en-dash (--) to concatenate two numbers in a range representation.

Answer 3

Like this?

With use of the tabularray package this is simple to achieve:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularray}
\UseTblrLibrary{booktabs,
                varwidth}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}
    \begin{center}
\setlist[itemize,1]{nosep, leftmargin=*, itemsep=2pt}
\begin{tblr}{colspec = {@{} Q[l, font=\bfseries, wd=26mm] X[l] @{}},
             stretch = -1,
             rowsep  = 5pt,
             measure = vbox
             }
    \cmidrule{1-1}%makes the overline 
General Instructions    
    &   \begin{itemize}
    \item Reading time -- 5 minutes 
    \item Working time -- 3 hours
    \item Write using black pen
    \item Calculators approved by NESA may be used
    \item A reference sheet is provided at the back of this paper 
    \item For questions in Section II, show relevant mathematical reasoning and/or calculations
    \item  Write your Centre Number and Student Number at the top of this page\\ 
        \end{itemize}           \\
%    \addlinespace[5mm] 
    \cmidrule{1-1}
Total marks: 100 
    &   \textbf{Section I -- 10 marks} (pages 1-9)
       \begin{itemize}
            \item Attempt Questions 1-10
            \item Allow about 123-456 for this section
        \end{itemize}           \\
    &   \textbf{Section II -- 90 marks} (pages 123-456)
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Attempt Questions 11-32 
            \item Allow about abc for this section
        \end{itemize}
\end{tblr}
    \end{center}
\end{document}