Seven students topped more than one subject,including Akina Li from Pymble Ladies College who finished first in Latin extension 1 and English extension 1,and Chae-Weon Lee from the Conservatorium High,who topped German beginners and music extension.
Julina Lim,an aspiring engineer from Cabramatta High School,was “speechless for a while” after being told she had beaten about 5000 students to top economics. Emails from her proud teachers poured into her inbox on Thursday afternoon.
“It was nice to be able to shine some light on my high school as well,and have their name in the world,” she said. “The school’s done so much for me and to hear they were proud of me as well meant so much.”
Alexandra Gibb from Hunter Valley Grammar topped English advanced,while Alexander Van Phan from James Ruse was first in maths extension 2,and Jason Lin from Knox Grammar topped maths extension 1 after finishing equal first in mathematics (2 unit) last year.
“It was a little bit more special this year – last year was an eight-way tie,” Jason said. “It’s sort of a natural progression.”
Tumbarumba High student Lachlan Fisher finished first in metal and engineering,despite a horror year that involved watching the house he helped his father build burn down in the summer bushfires,his parents splitting up and his fifth knee operation.
“I was just ecstatic,” he said. “I couldn’t contain myself for a solid 20 minutes. Telling my family and some of my friends,hearing their words of praise and how proud they were,it made it all seem worth it. This year’s been a bit rough.”
Jaida Conway,a Kamilaroi woman and captain of Alexandria Park Community School,finished first in Aboriginal studies. “I was surrounded by a community that wanted to see me do well,” she said. “That belief and support motivated me even further.”
Domna Alloush,who finished first in Arabic continuers,fled Syria with her family three years ago,and arrived in Australia speaking no English. She now speaks the language fluently,and hopes to study dentistry at Sydney University.
Alexander,who topped maths extension 2,helped other James Ruse students in science and maths as part of a school program,while also holding the rank of sergeant in the school’s cadet unit and playing a lead role in the school play.
PLC’s Akina hopes to be a neurosurgeon. “Neurosurgery is apparently one of the hardest streams to get into,so from a practical standpoint it might not be what I end up doing,but you can dream,” she said.
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She’s hoping to study medicine at Sydney University,which requires a 99.95 ATAR,but says she’s happy with her achievements so far.
“Especially as the year went on,a lot of challenges got thrown our way,” she said. “There were some instances where I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked to at school. But everything turned out so well in the end.”
More than 69,000 students completed their HSC this year. Another 7500 students studied one or more HSC courses throughout the school year.
All students will receive their HSC results at 6am on Friday before the honour roll is released at noon. They will also receive their ATARs,at 9am. Join our live blog from 6am at smh.com.au. The full honour roll - which includes every student who receives a band 6/E4 in any subject - will be published in Monday’s print edition of the Herald. Students who choose to share their results with us on Friday can do so via this panel: