Queensland ATAR results: 32 students receive 99.95

Just 32 of the more than 27,000 Queensland students who will receive an ATAR today have woken to a perfect result. We introduce you to some of them, including one school that had 11 students. WATCH THE MOMENT THEY FOUND OUT

Stephanie Bennett

3 min read

December 17, 2021 - 5:01PM

Queensland students discover they got the perfect ATAR 2021

Education

Don't miss out on the headlines from Education. Followed categories will be added to My News.

A top Brisbane school has landed an extraordinary achievement in today’s ATAR results, boasting 11 of just 32 students across the entire state to land a perfect 99.95.

Brisbane Grammar School battled a Covid-19 outbreak and saw its entire school community plunged into lockdown earlier this year, but that didn’t stop the school landing the remarkable achievement.

In comparison, Victoria’s top school Haileybury this week saw eight students land a perfect score.

Brisbane Grammar School headmaster Anthony Micallef. Picture Brian Crawford

Headmaster Anthony Micallef today said the school aspired to be “the best school for boys in Australia”.

“The exceptional ATAR results of the class of 2021 were possible as a result of strong academic culture, high co curricular participation, and a focus on student wellbeing,” he said.

Superstar students from across the state woke to a perfect ATAR today with a mixture of tears and delight as years of hard work culminate in a dream result.

Just 32 of more than 27,000 Queensland students to receive an ATAR will be awarded a 99.95 – the highest possible result.

About 6500 students, or 23 per cent, received an ATAR of 90 or above, with the median ATAR for the 2021 cohort 78.55.

More than 23,000 students who qualified for an ATAR managed to have general English in their top five best subjects.

About 19,000 or 70 per cent of students landed an ATAR by completing five general subjects, 4500 completed four general subjects and one applied subject, and about 3600 completed four general subjects and VET course.

Annabelle Hazelton, Orlando Hunter, Thejana Udawattage, Samantha Atherton, Caine Day, Abigail King, Aditya Neurgaonkar and Claudia McPherson all received a perfect ATAR score. Image/Josh Woning

Among the special group to land a 99.95 were Matthew Flinders Anglican College’s Claudia McPherson, who plans to study a dual degree in Engineering/Computer science at the University of Queensland next year.

“I genuinely could not believe it (getting a 99.95),” she said.

“It didn’t register for a moment, I just really didn’t expect it.”

Ms McPherson studied a mix of subjects in her final year, including Japanese, literature, physics and maths subjects.

She said choosing subjects she enjoyed, rather than those she felt she “should” do, was one of the keys to her success.

“I just really wanted to have fun, I’m very heavily involved in co-curricular activities … and I think having that stuff helped, because I wasn’t just studying all the time so when I was, I actually looked forward to it.”

Overall the 32 students achieved the top result with a combination of 14 different subject choices, including engineering, literature, mathematical methods, biology and four different languages.

An incredible eleven students from Brisbane Grammar School landed the perfect ATAR .

Brisbane Girls Grammar School dux Samantha Atherton and classmate Abigail King were also ecstatic to receive their perfect scores, and said they were both still in shock.

“I tried not to get my hopes up too much – I still really can’t believe it,” Ms Atherton said.

Also landing the top result was Nudgee College’s Dux Caine Day, who was hoping to study a Bachelor of Advanced Finance and Economics (Honours).

Brisbane State High School’s Aditya Neurgaonkar was also thrilled to get his dream result, and said he planned to study engineering next year.

Also celebrating a perfect score was Brisbane Boys’ College’s Orlando Hunter, St Rita’s College’s Annabelle Hazelton, Sheldon College’s DUX Lachlan Andrews, St Joseph’s College Gregory Tce’s Geordan Papacostas and Ipswich Grammar School’s Thejana Udawattage.