Meet Ballarat's highest scoring VCE students for 2022: ATAR scores open up the future for Ballarat students

Orlando Dabner

ATAR: 97.65

SUBJECTS: English, revolutions, food studies, maths methods, and a university extension in criminology

The ATAR pressure was off for Woodmans Hill Secondary College student Orlando Dabner who already had early offers to study engineering at several universities in Victoria and interstate.

But with an ATAR of 97.65 he's now hoping for an offer to study engineering at Monash University, where he would be eligible for a $6000 a year scholarship to study, or to a university offering a graduate package where he could complete his masters as well.

From there he's hoping to springboard on to a pathway that will take him in to the stratosphere ... literally.

Orlando's lofty goal is to become an astronaut and studying engineering is the first step to space.

"It's my end goal to become an astronaut and at the end of the day, Woodmans Hill has actually done such a huge emphasis on science since I was in year seven. I was part of the first science academy that went through year seven to 10 and I did accelerated physics ... now I want to keep going with that and really make a tangible difference for Australia and the world.

"It's a pretty high goal and if get there I get there and if I don't I will have learned a lot and done a lot."

It was a "good day" for Orlando and his family, who are all suffering COVID, after he logged on to get his results.

"My nan is staying with us so I'm sleeping on the couch right now and I woke up about 6.50am to find out through some people that the scores were out early.

"I got on the computer myself and took five minutes to let it sink in and enjoy myself then I went and told my family who were all still in bed. I was hoping for probably around 90 or so going in to exams and because I got the early offers I was less nervous about it but it turned out really well."

Orlando tried to separate his home life and school life as much as possible throughout the year, doing as much work as possible at school and trying to ensure he cared for his mental health and wellbeing.

He also balanced working at a local cinema where he could indulge his love of movies, and talking about movies.

"I got as much as I could get done at school, and when there was a requirement to buckle down and do work at home I tried to keep a very strong balance ... which I think is what kept me calm and focussed going in to exam season. I saw other people going in to it quite stressed and I'm really glad that at the end of the day I was going in to it, put my head down, got the work done and got out of there."

BALLARAT CLARENDON COLLEGE

Zachary Hengel

ATAR: 99.9

SUBJECTS: English language, chemistry, biology, physics, specialist maths, maths methods

"Work hard, play hard" was the motto that got Zachary Hengel through the tough demands of year 12.

And it worked for him, recording Ballarat's top Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking of 99.9 - just 0.05 off the highest possible score.

Zachary, who has attended Ballarat Clarendon College since he was three, balanced his studies with involvement in school productions and performing arts to make sure he had a break from academics.

"I thought it might distract me but it was actually helping me decompress and giving me a social outlet ... so it was work hard, play hard," he said.

Zachary was hoping for a score of around 99.7 that would get him in to medicine at Monash University, but was surprised to see 99.9 when he accessed his results.

Medicine has always been his goal.

"There are a lot of factors and I think it's because it would be such a compelling career with people. It has such a long career path so I can keep learning and better myself and really expand my knowledge.

"It's got such a deep personal connection with people and that's something I really do like, something I really want to be able to provide people."

Zachary said his teachers at Clarendon had pushed him and his classmates heard, but made they realise "we are capable of a lot more than we think".

PHOENIX P-12 COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Jarrah Halloran

ATAR: 97.55

SUBJECTS: Further mathematics, English, media studies, psychology, sports and recreation (2021).

Jarrah Halloran blew her goal of an 82 ATAR out of this water on Monday morning when she discovered her results.

Before she checked her ATAR score she was already surprised by her almost perfect study score of 49 in further maths.

"I was hoping for a 40 in maths and thought that was going to be my best [this year]," Jarrah said.

"I wasn't expecting that."

She then broke the news to her parents over the phone.

"I had to call her work and she was screaming on the phone,"Jarrah said.

"And then I called Dad as well and he was on the forklift at work and he said he had a tear in his eye."

Jarrah expected the year to be stressful but was grateful for her strong support team that helped along the way.

"I just tried to get little bits done, I didn't want everything to pile up," she said.

Playing netball for the Ballarat Swans was an important outlet during the year which allowed her to take time out and think about something else.

"It was good, because I could exercise with [my] friends and when I was at netball, I wouldn't really be stressed about school or anything and then I also had work as well," she said.

A support network had been really important during the year, friends in her year and the year above were able to share advice and staff members were a big support.

"I had just heaps of teachers that cared for me and always helped me out."

She hopes to stay in town while commuting to uni next year to study speech pathology.

LORETO COLLEGE

Hannah Ollerenshaw

ATAR: 99.1

SUBJECTS: Specialist maths, maths methods, English literature, physics, politics, Japanese (2021)

Hannah Ollerenshaw wants to do her bit to help even up the gender gap in engineering in Australia.

Just 11 per cent of working engineers in Australia are women but Hannah is keen to join their ranks after achieving an ATAR of 99.1.

"I was hoping for above 99 but I don't think I really expected it," she said.

With that score she hopes to receive an offer to study a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne University and go in to engineering from there.

It's the second year in a row her family have been anxiously awaiting ATAR results after her brother completed year 12 last year.

"He did very well and I have had people to look up to, people I wanted to do well against ... but the family has been through a lot, it's been intense."

Hannah admits her year 12 wasn't particularly balanced, with a focus on doing well in her studies and not much else.

"I went full throttle. There wasn't much else other than school work. I was kind of worried about COVID so I spent my time studying at home," she said.

Hannah had planned to set her alarm to wake up at 6.30am, ahead of results being released at 7am, but didn't think she could stand the wait so opted for a 6.55am wake-up instead.

"It's the earliest I've been up since school finished," she laughed.

MOUNT ROWAN SECONDARY COLLEGE

Frances Pino

ATAR: 95.9

SUBJECTS: Further maths, English as additional language, health and human development, chemistry, psychology, biology (2021)

Frances Pino does not recommend working two jobs while studying year 12, but it was a recipe that proved successful for the Mount Rowan Secondary College student.

Despite little time for self-care and completing almost all of her study while at school before heading to work at Zambreros or a local fish and chip shop, Frances received an ATAR of 95.9.

Her goal had been to score at least 70 so she could study nursing at ACU Ballarat but even with her sky-high ATAR she's determined to continue on her chosen path.

"Everyone is telling me I've got more opportunities now and maybe more offers but now I've got my ATAR I really want to stick to nursing," she said.

"I've always been fascinated by health and human anatomy and anything to do with the human body. I really thought medicine would be a little too much for me so I'm planning on nursing first then ... maybe study medicine once I'm working if I like it."

Frances was nervous to check her ATAR, letting her dad check her study scores first and asking him to smile if they were above 30.

"He was smiling a lot," she said.

"It's like a big breath breath really. It's nice to think it's all done now. For me, looking at what I got ... I feel like it's a really good cherry on top for me to know such a challenging year, a chapter of my life, is ending and it's really nice to have good success."

Despite the challenge of managing school and two jobs, she's keen to dive straight in to university life, rather than taking a gap year, and keep the motivation momentum going.

"I feel like if I try to stray away from study I'll lose that motivation I have right now so I want to continue and go straight to uni."

BALLARAT GRAMMAR

Ryan Hovey

ATAR: 99.3

SUBJECTS: English language, biology, chemistry, physics, specialist maths, maths methods (2021)

Unlike most of his classmates, Ryan Hovey slept in and didn't access his ATAR as soon as it went live shortly before 7am.

It was almost 8.30am when he woke up and checked online to learn he had topped the class of 2022 at Ballarat Grammar with his ATAR of 99.3.

With a subject load skewed to his interest in science, it's little surprise he's keen to leap in to a career in medicine.

"I'm hoping this leads to an offer to study medicine. I've obviously got my fingers crossed how the interview went, but I'm very happy with my result because it's right up there so I'm in with a shot.

"As you can see by my subjects, I've got an interest in science and helping people which I think go hand-in-hand and I've got some really good role models as doctors so I feel it's almost a calling."

Ryan is unsure what type of medicine he'd like to specialise in but enjoys watching the 24 Hours in Emergency type shows so a career in the ED could be in the cards.

Managing a heavy workload is nothing new to Ryan, who tried to look after his mind and body as much as possible during the year.

"My thing has always been that everything you take out of your body battery you've got to put back in," he said.

"Doing sport, playing piano, just trying to take my mind off study when I'm stressed out especially in the exam period. I just tried to mix and match to make sure I didn't completely dedicate my life to study and burn out."

ST PATRICK'S COLLEGE

Toby Clack

ATAR: 99.25

SUBJECTS: Specialist maths, maths methods, chemistry, psychology, English, biology (2021)

COVID cemented Toby Clack's ambitions to work on manufacturing vaccines and cures but his interest in medical research and biomedicine began well before the pandemic.

"It's a really important job and a great way I can apply myself and help better the lives of people," Toby said.

With an ATAR of 99.25 it's likely he'll receive an offer to study biomedicine at Melbourne University, which he has had his sights set on for some time.

"Since about year nine I decided this was a way I could help people and the world, and that's only become more important now with our awareness through COVID.

"What motivates me is imagining if I could cure COVID, but I hope it happens before I get there, or if I could cure cancer but I also hope that's done well before I get there."

As news of vaccine development throughout the COVID pandemic broke, Toby read as much as he could about how it was done.

Pushing through the last three years of COVID disruption to schooling, then returning to the classroom for the past 12 months, Toby said he and his mates relied on each other to get through.

"We bounce off each other and motivate each other. There's no rivalry at all, just great friends pushing each other to succeed."

But he admitted that, for the last year, there has not been much balance to his life as he worked hard to get the results he needed to study biomedicine.

"I just said to myself with my hobbies of reading, drawing, playing eight-ball, I've got my whole life to do those and one year to do year 12 so I committed everything to doing school and made it my top priority - there was a lot of hours and dedication."

DAMASCUS COLLEGE

Fraser Crumpler

ATAR: 99.3

SUBJECTS: Specialist maths, maths methods, French, English language, physics, biology (2021), further mathematics (2020)

Fraser Crumpler says it's ironic he was out early working his summer job as a concreter and had to wait for a break in his work to check his ATAR before learning he was the highest scorer at Damascus College.

"It was a bit funny doing a trade job and being dux," he said.

"I am pretty happy about my results; I had put in a lot of hard work so I was expecting a reasonably high score."

Fraser hopes his ATAR will score him an offer to study the Bachelor of Science and Masters of Engineering at the University of Melbourne.

He says year 12 was a bit of a slog.

"It was pretty hard to balance everything. I had to give up exercising, it's been hard with mental health and finding motivation to do stuff which my impossibly high standards didn't help ... but they did help me with my score," he said.

To try to keep the balance, Fraser tried to make sure he got plenty of rest and not get too stressed but that wasn't always successful.

"There's a lot of pressure and expectation."

He also found it difficult settling back into the classroom after two COVID-disrupted years.

"I felt like COVID kind of knocked a lot of people about over the past few years, then we were expected to just get back in and keep going which wasn't always easy."

BALLARAT CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

Harry McGilligan

ATAR: Not disclosed

SUBJECTS: English, chemistry, maths methods, business, and psychology

Harry McGilligan had a plan to get through year 12 but now he's there the future isn't as clear as he thought.

Each week he set attainable, achievable goals and stuck to that, planning how many hours he would spend working and how many hours he would study.

"I tried to really stick to it to stop over-working and not burn myself out," he said.

He plans to take a gap year next year and try to figure out what he wants to do.

"I'm not totally sure what course I want to get in to so I thought the best bet would be to work for a year, earn some money and see where it takes me."

Until recently Harry was thinking about becoming a teacher, but now he's considering something in the medical or allied health fields such as physiotherapy.

Harry said online learning during COVID was tough and he thinks that caught up with some of his studies this year.

"During online learning I really put some subjects aside and that caught up with me this year," he said.

MOUNT CLEAR COLLEGE

Marlon Sellings

ATAR: 88.2

SUBJECTS: English, further maths, maths methods, philosophy, business management

Marlon Sellings has had a good insight in to how business operates, having worked three shifts a week throughout year 12 as a grocery store cashier.

And it has formed the basis of his goal to study commerce at Deakin University in Geelong next year.

"I'm not 100 per cent sure at the moment but I'm hoping to study commerce and given I've done pretty well in my maths subjects and I did business management, I think going in to business management will be something I'll enjoy," he said.

While he's not sure what type of business he'd like to be involved with, he's sure the course will unveil something he'll enjoy.

The juggle of working three shifts a week, completing year 12 assignments and course work, and finding time to play badminton and to relax, meant Marlon had to be focussed for success.

"I tried to study at school and after school and keep the weekend for work and doing what I enjoy," he said.

"For the past few years I've been playing badminton with my friends and through the year we had a team playing in Wendouree so we usually trained on Monday and played on Thursday so that was my social side," he said.

Marlon joined a call with friends where they all accessed their results together and celebrated.

"We all got pretty similar scores so we are all pretty happy."

BALLARAT HIGH SCHOOL

Todd McGinley

ATAR: 98.8

SUBJECTS: Chemistry, English language, physics, specialist maths, maths methods (2021) and a university extension course in mathematics.

Todd McGinley woke up this morning to a call letting him know about his perfect score in VCE chemistry.

He said that was the most exciting part of the results announcement this morning.

It is a subject Todd discovered he had a passion for when bored on holidays during year nine and has stuck with ever since.

"I just downloaded this chemistry app, and then just started learning more chemistry," he said.

He knew he wanted chemistry to be his top subject, hoping to beat his 45 in maths methods the previous year.

"I started practice exams pretty early for chemistry, because early on I knew that is what I wanted to do," he said.

Todd said he enjoyed the experience of learning mathematics at a university level.

While he wasn't able to go on campus this year he was able to get a sense of how classes run and what it is like preparing for exams and other assessments without the clear VCE guidelines.

Outside of school he turned to gaming to take time out and spend time with friends.

Ms McGinley said he was hoping to study a Bachelor of Science at Melbourne University.

While the course will let him explore a few different science areas he hopes to pursue a maths pathway.

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