Graduate jumps for joy with surprise OP1 win

After working all year towards an OP3, a Sunshine Coast high school graduate is celebrating a huge win after a surprise OP1 result.

CONGRATULATIONS: Saint Andrews Anglican College students Angel, Conor, Lucie, Issy, Sam, Callum and Charles all achieved an OP1-5.

A HARDWORKING St Andrew's Anglican College graduate is this week celebrating after a surprise OP1 result.

After deciding she wanted to apply for a spot in the Bachelor of Commerce degree at Melbourne University, Lucie Tolhoek set her eyes on an OP3. But instead, the 17-year-old received the top rank.

"It felt pretty surreal, I wasn't expecting it, so it felt really good," she said.

"I was hoping to get above a three.

"It was a bit of a relief for the 13 years of schooling I've done."

Looking to the future Ms Tolhoek hopes to combine several passions.

"I was set on that business area but I found economics really interesting so I'd love to do something with that, but I also love Chinese and would like to intertwine that with business and economics and maybe even legal," she said.

The 2019 St Andrew's cohort farewelled the OP system in style with 10 students, 12.34 per cent, receiving the top mark, the highest percentage since the school's inception.

A further 35 per cent of the cohort received a score of 1-5, 77 per cent received an OP1-10 and 99 per cent of students received an OP 1-15.

St Andrew's Anglican College director of studies David Elley said the school's results reflected students' dedication and hard work.

"The 2019 cohort has been dedicated to their studies, with a significant number of students choosing to practise for the QCS tests in their own time," Mr Elley said.

"Both students and their teachers should be proud of their achievement.

"While this cohort has been naturally academic, it has been their efforts and ability to listen and learn, that has led to these impressive results."

Ms Tolhoek said while she was "quite stressed" leading up to her exams she didn't sacrifice too much and made sure she had "me time".

"I don't think I sacrificed a lot, I didn't do as much sport as I probably would have wanted, I really had to cut back on extra-curricular activities so that I could study," she said.

"But I'd allocated certain hours that I'd be like I'm not going to do any work now and I'm just going to relax.

"Baking was such a big downtime for me or maybe going for a run or seeing a friend."

Ms Tolhoek said she will find out if she has been accepted into her degree of choice on January 15.

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