Sydney school students score 45
Updated ,first published
When Abigail Percy’s International Baccalaureate (IB) score was perfect, she wasn’t obsessively checking her phone.
The Ravenswood School for Girls pupil, who scored 45 out of 45 while studying subjects including psychology, global politics and Latin, was busy mastering a new skill: learning to drive.
“I was at a driving lesson. I heard the buzzer and asked my instructor if I could answer it,” he said Wednesday morning, speaking at his parents’ home in Gordon.
“Obviously I was very excited. I knew I would do pretty well, but I wouldn’t put any money on the 45.”
45 points translates into an ATAR between 99.75 and 99.95. IB students’ grades will be converted to ATAR equivalent on Thursday, when HSC students across the state will also receive their grades.
With his grades, Percy hopes to study psychology at the University of Sydney.
About 742 students took the IB across 21 NSW schools this year; This number was a slight decrease from last year’s number of 827.
St Andrew’s Cathedral School student Indigo Parry-Husbands attributed her 45 points to a broken foot.
“I was quite surprised. I never thought of myself as such an academic person until 11th grade. I broke my foot in 11th grade, so I had all this time to study,” he said.
Parry-Husbands was on the bus to run a life-saving bronze medallion program when her results came back.
“I sat on the floor of the bus and thought: what?”
Newington College in Stanmore had four students with a perfect score of 45.
Patrick Jones learned he had scored a perfect 45 as he walked into his first day of cricket in Adelaide.
“My father hugged me,” he said.
The third-generation Newington student attributed his success to the balance between work and play.
“I felt very relaxed and full of energy throughout the whole process. I had the weekends completely free, did a lot of sports, and hung out with my friends.”
Four more Newington students scored 44 points.
The internationally recognized IB program is a two-year HSC alternative. Students’ work is evaluated externally through a variety of examinations (usually 75 percent of final grades) and school-based assessments.
Students must also complete a 4000-word research paper, a 100-hour subject on theory of knowledge, and also participate in creative, sporting and service activities.
Unlike the HSC, the IB has a re-marking process that allows schools to appeal students’ grades.
Shane Griffin, vice president of the University of Sydney’s Sydney Future Students, said the benefit of the IB was that it provided “a different way of learning”.
“It focuses on long-term projects, more group work and more research-style learning. There is a suggestion that the scope of study should be wider,” he said, adding: “The HSC is also a really strong qualification.”
Westbourne College’s Andrey Butko scored 44 and the school believes this is a good chance of moving on to 45.
“I feel confused; the main goal was to get a good scholarship, 99.9 [the ATAR equivalent of 45] Receives Chancellor’s Award [a scholarship at the University of Sydney] so we will have to see with re-marking,” he said.
Butko hopes to study science or finance in college and said his experience at the IB will benefit him in college.
“We approached the evaluations in a really methodical way,” he said.
Another Westbourne student, 16-year-old Siwa Haberlah, scored 44, which the school believed could have been 45.
During their holiday in South America – partly to use the Spanish she was studying for the IB – Haberlah sat in a garden with her parents, each predicting her results.
“They exaggerate my abilities,” he laughed and said that his prediction was correct.
