It was a restless night for Shoalhaven High School’s HSC high achievers, but they were relieved when the results came in at 5.30am.
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Shoalhaven High dux April Rodda’s best mark was in Society and Culture, scoring 93.
“I was waking up every two hours checking,” she said.
“I thought I was going to fail everything, and I obviously didn’t so that was good.”
All her results were in the high 80’s or 90’s.
“I’m going into criminal law next year,” she said.
“I’m not going to lie, I spent most of my time studying for legal studies.”
The twin, from a family of five kids, has bragging rights over her brothers and sisters.
“I just beat all of my brothers and sisters,” April said.
“They were obviously happy but they didn’t want to be too overjoyed because I have a twin sister and I just beat her as well.
“In the subjects we both did, we got the exact same marks.”
Her twin sister also goes to Shoalhaven High, and since Year 11 in biology, for each test, they scored the same result, so fittingly they got the same HSC biology result.
She’s used the ATAR calculator to no avail, getting significantly different results each time she punches her scores in.
“I got early entry so I’m not too worried,” she said.
April will miss her high school.
“I really liked school, I was school captain as well, so I loved this school,” she said.
“It was really stressful but at least it was worth it.”
English paper one was the worst exam by far according to April.
“I didn’t answer one of the questions,” she said.
“I was going to be happy with a 60, so to score in the 80’s was a surprise.
“That was the top mark for the school as well, so I’m pretty happy.”
Fellow Shoalhaven High students Lexi Carter and Rebecca Nielsen both performed really well in senior science, and scored mostly band fives.
“I thought I’d get band fours, but I got band fives and one six,” Lexi said.
Lexi plans to study psychology at University of Wollongong.
Rebecca also went better than expected, especially in English and maths where the exams were a real challenge.
“I’m actually not going to uni next, I don’t have any plans, I just wanted to get my ATAR and see where I go from there,” she said.
Rebecca works full time hours, and is saving for a well-earned holiday.
