CONTINUING the girl power trend of recent years, the state’s brightest young women have outshone their male classmates in the HSC achievement list, taking home almost two-thirds of the top spots.
The Board of Studies this week presented First in Course awards to 105 students who received the highest scores in NSW for one or more subjects.
There were 67 girls and 38 boys recognised for topping the state.
Among them were Katerina Markovska, of Bexley, Spiros Kalavritinos, of Peakhurst, Salina Alvaro, of Como, and Mia Mihaljevic, of Revesby.
Blakehurst High School graduate Katerina came first in Macedonian continuers, which she studied through the Saturday School of Community Languages at Kogarah High School.
Spiros, of Georges River College Oatley, was first in legal studies.
‘‘I was not expecting this,’’ he said.
‘‘I found that I do well in subjects I enjoy and this one was more applicable in real life.’’
Salina, a St Patrick’s College Sutherland graduate, came equal first in retail services, a vocational elective.
‘‘It was one of the last exams and I didn’t come out of it thinking I’d do this well,’’ she said.
‘‘It was good to balance my academic studies with a VET course.’’
Mia, who came first in Croatian continuers, also studied at the Saturday School of Community Languages at Kogarah High.
‘‘I speak the language at home with my parents so that made it easier,’’ Katerina said. ‘‘It will come in handy for travel ... but I’d like to do engineering at uni next year.’’
Public schools made a strong impression in the awards but notably absent were selective schools in southern Sydney, which usually make a mark in the First in Course awards.
A record 76,000-plus students completed the HSC this year.
Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said there was a balance of schools represented in the First in Course awards, which reflected ‘‘healthy competition’’.
‘‘More importantly, the number of students doing the HSC shows how encouraging it is that students are continuing with their education,’’ he said.
The Australian tertiary admission rank (ATAR) was released today.
For the first time, students can get their HSC record of achievement as a PDF file on January 7, which can be used to get into early employment or further training.
HONOUR ROLL
All Round Achievers List — students who have achieved results in the top band possible (band 6) for at least 10 units of HSC courses.
Caringbah High School
Ashley Clare Colaco, Matthew James Di Meglio, James Connor Feggans, Claire Judith Gorman, Madeline Dawn Howard, Alexander Ciaran Lekovic, Benjamin Jack Munns.
Cronulla High School
Anja Cherry.
De Salle Salle Senior College Cronulla
Victoria James, Tissiana Mangialavori.
Engadine High School
Alexandra Louise Neave.
Menai High School
Alexandra Boyling.
St Patrick’s College Sutherland
Brandon Davis, Maddison Leach.
Blakehurst High School
Matthew Fong.
St John Bosco College Engadine
Jackson McKinley.
Woolooware High School
Courtney Louise Wood.
St Mary's & St Mina's Coptic Orthodox College Bexley
Mark Rafla, Danebank Anglican School for Girls Hurstville, Brianna King, Eliza Kuang, Brigette Lo, Sarah Vogel,Zhi Yi Wang
Marist College Kogarah
Vaibhav Chandani
Aquinas Catholic College, Menai
Rebecca Odewahn
Sydney Technical High School
Matthew Zhao Cen, Pengyu Chen, Filip Drazovic, Arthur Zi Yang Huang, William Jia Hao Huang, Alexander Lam, Mark Loga, Stephen Ernest Payne, Marco Rosario
Georges River College Oatley Senior Campus
Gloria Kwo Wing Le, Trevor Tan
De La Salle Senior College Cronulla
Heloise Hurst
St Ursula's College Kingsgrove
Lauren Commeignes
Madeleine Cox
Elizabeth Daher
Brinley Hall
Samantha Roberts
Savanna Russo
Anjali Tiscia
Marist College Kogarah
Joshua Favetti
Bethany College
Eilis Grainger
St George Girls High School Kogarah
Katherine Guo, Sharon Ying Yi Ho, Helen Jin, Shirley Lin, Silvia Suet Yee Lin, Sarah Louise Lombardi, Lucy Nguyen, Isabella Thuy-Linh V Pham, Suvini Nisansa Suriyarachchi, Debbie Tran, Aimy Yan, Isabella Yan, Carmen Alice Zhu
Do you think the HSC is a good reflection of how well schools perform?