Scotch College

Class of '97 - room at the top

If the class of '96 achieved the best overall results at Scotch since the advent of the TER system, then the Class of '97 performed the best of any year at the top end of the distribution.

Scotch had 38% of the class in the top 10% of the State, 21 boys achieved 99 plus TERs and amazingly 5 gained 99.95 (approximately the top 25 in the State).

Jai Darvall, Chris Fricke, Mayur Krishnaswamy, Daniel Mathews and Ken Nguyen, achieved this maximum score. Dr Donaldson had no hesitation in awarding these boys Co-Duxes of Scotch.

After the 99.95 brigade, the top scores were Geoffrey Kong and Micheil Paton (99.85), Philip Chang and Alan Tse (99.80), Toby Woods (99.65), Sina Mahjoob (99.60), Chuong Goh (99.55), Owen Williams (99.45), Daniel Bevz (99.40), Tony Albert, James Blaszak, Rohan Martyres and Varesh Vidhyaovit (99.35), Andrew Barker (99.20) Andrew Willersdorf (99.10) and James Godsil (99.00).

In recent years, since the re-introduction of full fee paying university places, Melbourne University has established a programme of scholarships, designed to attract the best students from Australia. Seven Scotch boys from the class of '97 received scholarship offers from the University of Melbourne.

Daniel Mathews received a National Scholarship to study Science/Law, Kenneth Nguyen a National Medical Scholarship (one of five awarded), Chris Fricke a Scholarship to study Commerce/Science. Geoffrey Kong and Micheil Paton were awarded Undergraduate Scholarships to study Science and Arts/Law respectively. James Blaszek earned a Veterinary Science Scholarship and David Sheludko a Music Scholarship.

The overall performance was very pleasing. 91 boys (38.1%) scored 90 or above, placing them in the top 10% in Victoria. The median score was 82.65.

Scotch also achieved a best-ever result with nineteen perfect scores of 50. They were achieved by Daniel Mathews (English, Specialist Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematical Methods), Geoffrey Kong (Specialist Mathematics, Mathematical Methods and Chemistry), Mayur Krishnaswamy (Mathematical Methods and German), Jai Darvall (Specialist Mathematics and Physics),

Tony Albert (Mathematical Methods), Philip Chang and Toby Woods (English), Maun Suang Boey (Yr 11), Nicholas Kotros (Yr 11) and Hiroshi Miyazaki (Yr 11) (Mathematical Methods).

Based on the percentage of our students who scored 40 and above (top 8% of the State in a subject), the top subjects at Scotch in 1997 were:

(1) Specialist Mathematics (43.4%);

(2) Information Technology (37.5%); (3 &4) History (Revolutions) and German (33.3%);

(5) Mathematical Methods (31.4%);

(6) Physical Education (27.0%);

(7 & 8) Environmental Studies and Physics (26.1%);

(9) Chemistry (23.5%);

(10) English (22.5%)

While Melbourne University continues to be the favoured destination for Scotch boys with 40% of the Class of '97 heading in that direction, Monash (22%), RMIT University (11%) La Trobe (7%) and Deakin (6%) are also favoured. Interestingly, there was a strong swing from the previous year to the Science/Computing/Engineering courses. In 1996 Commerce/Business courses were the most popular. The popular destinations of the Class of '97 can be summarised as follows : Science/Computing/Engineering (82); Commerce/Business (71); Arts/Humanities (22); Law (14) and Medicine (10).

It has been a great challenge and a real pleasure to work with such a fine group of young men.

Mr Neil Cracknell, Head of Year 12