Bendigo students were among the thousands around the state to wake up to the results of years’ hard work on Friday.
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Here are some of Bendigo’s stories.
Bendigo Senior Secondary College
Matt Coughlin worked 12 hours a week while studying, and still managed to achieve an ATAR of 99.55.
The Bendigo Senior Secondary College student been expecting to get in the high 90s, but nothing like what he scored.
Matt attributed his success to balancing study with his personal life, and not letting himself burn out. He kept working as a gymnastics coach because he saw it as important to maintaining this.
Matt plans to study physiotherapy at La Trobe University, but is also considering studying commerce in Melbourne.
Matt’s best subject was physics, his study score for which was a perfect 50.
Xiaoyan Wang was among the Bendigo Senior Secondary College students to get her results today.
The difference? She logged in to view them from her home in Shangai.
Xiaoyan came to Bendigo half way through year 10 to study, after visiting BSSC with her school.
Initially she found it a bit tough to fit in.
The weather, the food and the wild animals – especially spiders – all contributed to a bit of culture shock.
Coming half way through year 10 most of the year level had already found their friends.
But with the help of her host family, she settled in and made friends.
Xiaoyan knows she changed a lot during her two and a half years in Australia. She’s learnt how Australians make friends, and her confidence has grown enormously.
“I became more outgoing, I can build relationships with strangers much quicker, and I can fit into any kind of environment very quickly,” Xiaoyan said.
“Australian culture is very warm-hearted.
“In Bendigo you can actually smile at a stranger you meet on the road.”
Xiaoyan liked her time in Australia so much, she plans to study science or pharmacy in Melbourne next year.
BSSC student Whitney Eadon had a rougher road than many to completing her schooling.
It began in year 9 when both her parents lost their jobs. When she was in year 10, her father died unexpectedly.
Year 12 saw several close family friends pass away, and her sister get sick.
Despite the hurdles she faced Whitney achieved an ATAR she was happy with, and sat as president on the school’s student council.
This, and support from her church and family got Whitney through the rough year.
“It was such a stress relief for me to be part of the student council,” Whitney said.
“Support from the church, my faith, has gotten me through a lot.”
Whitney plans to study physiotherapy at La Trobe in Bendigo, where life is beginning to come back together.
It’s the first step towards her end career goal of working overseas in humanitarian aid. She may take an alternative route for a while though. Whitney is considering an offer to teach dance in America in 2019.
Victory Christian College
Lewis Stone was blown away by his results.
The Victory Christian College student received an ATAR of 98.7
“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet I guess, it’s a really big number,” Lewis said.
“To do this well is just amazing.”
The highlight of Lewis’s year wasn’t academic through. It was a trip to India with the college after exams had finished, working with kids in the slums of Kolkata.
“Seeing the conditions people live in there really put into perspective, this is a number, it’s not going to change your life,” Lewis said.
The maths-loving student plans to head to Melbourne next year to study a double degree in Science and Commerce.
His degree will give him a chance to explore his love of maths more. For his VCE Lewis studied Specialist Mathematics, Mathematical Methods, Further Mathematics, Physics, Visual Communication Design and Literature.
Girton Grammar
Sankalpa Gamage from Girton Grammar was “pretty stoked” to get a score of 99.55.
The secret to Sankalpa’s success was a regular study timetable, and regular rest.
Now Sankalpa’s facing the future, he’s realised how nice it was to be at school.
“It was just good to be in school. Now I’m out of school you realise school was pretty fun,” he said.
Sankalpa hopes to study medicine, but is still open to several options.
Catherine McAuley College
Matt McDonald was pleased to prove the naysayers wrong.
When he decided to study Drama for VCE people told him it would be too hard to compete.
He was expecting the subject to be his lowest score. His result was a perfect study score of 50.
It was one of the excellent scores that contributed to an ATAR of 99.3, which made Matt the dux of Catherine McAuley College.
He pipped Luke Harris and Joshua Hamilton at the post, who respectively received scores of 98.8 and 98.2.
Matt plans to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University, with a Diploma of Languages.
Sacred Heart College, Kyneton
Sacred Heart College, Kyneton dux Jason Vardon hopes to study a double degree – Commerce-Engineering with The University of Melbourne as his first preference.
Mr Vardon achieved a score of 98.05 while dux proximus was Ruth Hughes with a score of 97.95.
“On behalf of all staff at Sacred Heart College, Kyneton I congratulate the Class of 2018 on their outstanding VCE results. We applaud them on the way they have engaged in the many facets of College life throughout their secondary journey. We know they will continue to be guided by the Mercy values as they commence the next stage of their lives, and wish them well as they confidently select their tertiary destinations and career paths.”
The school’s class of 2018 results included:
- 15% of students are in the State’s top 10% achieving an ATAR* of 90 or above
- 7.4% of students achieved an ATAR of 95 or above
- 34% of students achieved an ATAR of 80 or above
- The average ATAR achieved was 69.41
- 100% of our VCAL students attained the certificate level in which they were enrolled
The college’s principal Craig Holmes was pleased with the results.
“We applaud them on the way they have engaged in the many facets of College life throughout their secondary journey. We know they will continue to be guided by the Mercy values as they commence the next stage of their lives, and wish them well as they confidently select their tertiary destinations and career paths,” he said.
East Loddon P-12
Ethan Lewis received an ATAR of 94.95, one of the college’s highest ATAR scores in their recent history.
Mr Lewis is moving to Queensland to study Computer Science at the University of Queensland.
Principal Steve Leed said: “It is so pleasing to see such dedicated students receiving these tremendous results.”
“That such results are also reflective of our caring and dedicated staff. Our Year 12 students at East Loddon P-12 College put on a morning tea yesterday to say thank you to the college staff for all their efforts and help throughout the year.”
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