MACKILLOP College's Ben Brennan is celebrating the end of his school journey with one of the region's top ATAR scores after the 2020 Higher School Certificate results were released today (December 18).
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Ben earned an ATAR of 98.1 and hopes to pursue a career in medicine. He was named the school's dux and was joined among the top achievers by Aleigha Biron with 95.5 and Daniel Ward with 95.
Ben topped the Lismore Diocese of Catholic schools in Chemistry and PDHPE.
Aleigha also hopes to explore a medical degree while Daniel is going to enjoy a gap year.
MacKillop College dominated today's HSC results with the class of 2020 producing marks to declare their school one of the best between Newcastle and the Queensland border.
In total, 65 MacKillop students placed on the state's honour list of high achievers who received top bands in their respective subjects.
Across the subjects, MacKillop students excelled.
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In an incredible effort from the Creative Arts department, all Visual Arts, Drama, Dance and Music students received marks over 80. Most students were nominated for HSC showcases of best major works in the state.
In every other subject, from Legal Studies to Business Studies, Physics and PDHPE, the results were convincingly above state average. In the Physics class, 83 per cent of students received a Band 5 or Band 6.
MacKillop College principal Cath Eichmann said she was proud of the students and inspired by the teachers.
"The teachers worked incredibly hard this year, as they always do, but particularly throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, to ensure that every student accessed quality learning," Mrs Eichmann said.
"The teachers have spent many many hours not only teaching online and in the classroom, but marking essay after essay and providing feedback on work to help the students refine their skills. Our students were given every opportunity to succeed and they did."
MacKillop students also topped the Lismore Diocese in: Dance (Lily Heath and Amelia Munro), Drama (Georgina Saad), Earth and Environmental Science (Monique Thomspon), Economics (Imogen Smith), Standard Mathematics (Lleyton Wall), History Extension (Malachy de Groot), Physics (Robert Cameron, Zac Lawrence and Isabella Pearson), Studies of Religion II (Aleigha Biron and Daniel Ward) and Japanese Beginners (Ezrela Abraham).
HSC FAST FACTS
- 54,894 students were eligible for an ATAR. This is 137 fewer than in 2019.
- 48 students received the top ATAR of 99.95. Of these students, 15 were female and 33 were male; they came from a mix of government and non-government schools and studied a wide range of courses.
- 17 per cent of students received an ATAR of 90.00 or above, 33.9 per cent received an ATAR of at least 80.00 and 50.3 per cent at least 70.00.
- The median ATAR was 70.15 this year, slightly higher than in 2019. To achieve a middle ATAR, students generally need to be in the middle of their courses and receive HSC marks between 70 and 80. However, because of the large percentage of students with marks between 70 and 80, the ATARs of students with HSC marks around 80 will often be very different from the ATARs of students with HSC marks around 70.
- The median ATAR for females was 71.30 whereas the median ATAR for males was 68.70.
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