High Achiever Testimonials 2022
Rishi Yogesan
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
Of course, my first inspiration has been my mum and dad. Seeing how dedicated and motivated they are in doing whatever task they’re given really pushes me to act like them and adapt these beneficial traits. Their work ethic and ability to persevere through tough times, really inspired me to apply that to my life.
In addition, having the mindset that I spent 13 years of school in preparation for this one year means I should take advantage of all the opportunities and continue to press on in order to make myself proud.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
I have two pieces of advice:
1) Make sure you have an organised, realistic plan. Year 12 is hectic but going in with a study plan and an idea of how you are going to tackle problems such as setting small personal goals will go a long way and help ease the stress.
2) Look after your health. Even if it is as simple as going for a 20-minute walk or a bike ride, it will help to calm your mind and reset your thoughts so that you’re clearer going forward.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
There were a fair few challenging and emotional moments during Year 12 and the first way I dealt with this was by clearing my mind. I would go down to the river, sit on the bench, put my headphones on and take some deep breaths while I looked at the view and listened to music. It helped me to relax and reorganise my mind so that I could come up with a solution to deal with these hurdles. The second way was by talking to someone. The easiest way to lift the weight off your shoulders is by talking to people. You have your teachers, friends and family who will be glad to listen to you and help encourage and uplift your spirits.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
My plan going into 2023 is to make sure I put myself out there because you never fully know what other passions you might have. My goal is to have a healthy, successful life in the future, ensuring I keep my relations with family and friends strong. Career-wise, I don’t have a full idea of what I will be doing but I’m aiming to have an ATAR that is high enough to keep all options open.
Nic Ng
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
My core group of friends (Matt, Grant, Sam and Liam) have inspired me to work hard as we all strive for opportunities beyond school. Knowing that my mates were all working their hardest kept me focused and having a common goal meant that we could count on each other’s support when we felt dispirited at times. Jason Lu (Dux of 2020) has always been my inspiration with his attitude towards achieving his goals whilst keeping a balanced perspective.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
Surround yourself with like-minded friends who strive hard and apply themselves to achieve their best for personal development. Don’t significantly change your life by sacrificing activities that you enjoy. Academics are only a part of your growth as a person. Co-curricular and sporting experiences balance you out by developing other areas, provide stress release and help you to bond with others towards a joint goal. Most university scholarships and competitive entry courses require you to reflect on experiences beyond academics, so it is important to continue to pursue other areas that you enjoy and it will enrich your memories of having the best time at school.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
The year moves along pretty quickly so you don’t have much time to dwell on disappointments. Take the positives out of setbacks and move forward to the next assessment or commitment as quickly as you can. Have self-belief that if you work on how to improve from mistakes, a few poor marks will not be indicative of your final results. This applies to elite athletes trialling to make state representative teams in Year 12. Don’t be disheartened by disappointments, have faith that you are valued in the sport and there will be places in other teams. Move your focus back to academics and having variety in different activities puts the challenges you face into perspective and allow you to experience the satisfaction of different rewards.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
I have been offered a Conditional Fogarty Scholarship and will be studying Mining Engineering at UWA. I will endeavour to keep up my music and sporting activities whilst at university for social opportunities and there will definitely be overseas travel in my future for study and enjoyment.
Kenneth Lo
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
My inspiration has always been my family and friends, who encourage me to do my best in whatever I choose to do. However, I think my motivation has also come from just wanting to impress myself with high academic results and the need to push myself in various aspects of life.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
My advice is not to take on more than you can handle – for example, don’t focus on too many subjects or activities at once. Only choose subjects that you want to do, since you’ll do better in the ones that you actually want to study. Also, for every mark that you receive that is lower than you expect, remember that it does not define you and that it will all come out fine in the end if you make an attempt to improve.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
Often, if I receive a disappointing mark or result, I would take some time to reflect over what had been the reason behind this, and ways that I can improve and learn from this mistake. Also, I remembered to give myself some days off just to recharge – the quality of study is far more important than the quantity.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
My plan is to go to university and study in an area in STEM, explore other opportunities outside the world of academics such as travelling, and to keep in touch with friends and family.
Finn Lip
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
My inspiration for working hard is my desire to get into medicine.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
Make sure you have an organised schedule. Block out time for specific tasks in order of priority and make sure your goals for each day are achievable (SMART goals).
Maintaining a social life alongside study is important, and breaks are important. If you study non-stop, you will actually be less efficient than taking breaks in between.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
Listening to music and focusing on things outside of school. More importantly, you need to reset and focus on the next opportunity, the next test or exam.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
I plan on going to the University of Melbourne if I manage to qualify for the Chancellor’s Scholarship.
Joshua Chen
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
I am blessed to have a twin sister to share the joys and trials of school years with. Even though we are in different schools and have different interests and passions, we often help, motivate and encourage each other. She inspires me with her strong work ethic and incredible tenacity.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
I would say to be kind to yourself. If/when you get a disappointing result in an assessment despite putting in the hard work, try not to dwell on it too long but move on as the next assessment is just around the corner and you get to redeem yourself.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
For me, time management was my main challenge as I pursued my goal of representing Australia for a second year in the International Olympiad in Informatics. This meant that I had to spend many hours training including taking time off school to train and compete. Taking two weeks off school in Term 3 (and getting COVID!) just before the trial exams was probably not ideal, but I had really supportive teachers who helped with course planning and assessments.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
I plan to study Computer Science at university next year.
Andreas Dass
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
For me, my main inspirations have been my parents and little sister for always encouraging myself to push that little bit harder in all aspects, ensuring that I am able to reflect and honestly say that I gave it my all. Of course, I must also pay respects to every teacher that gave me a ‘bad’ mark in a paper or exam, as it were these marks that galvanised me to work harder and prevent those mistakes from reoccurring.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
Like the Year 12 students before me, I advise incoming Year 12s to try and enjoy their last year of schooling and to be wary of ‘burnout’, as the multitude of tests and exams can quickly overtake your social life. However, I also would add that the sad reality of Year 12 is that it is one of the most important years of your life and having ‘too much fun’ can be just as detrimental as it can be beneficial to one’s academic performance, so finding a balance between the two is absolutely essential.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
The main way I have dealt with some of the challenges and hurdles that have presented themselves to myself this year in an academic setting is by absolutely ‘drilling’ myself for what went wrong, and then using and learning from the experience to ensure I rise above in the future, although I do understand that this might not be the most constructive strategy for everyone.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
In 2023 I’m not entirely sure where I will be, although through my university submission spree I obtained a few offers that appeal to my interest, both outer and inner state. What I’m leaning towards is studying aeronautical engineering at UNSW, and from there perhaps even going to further continue this study in the United States.
Roman Green
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
I was inspired by my parents, who both undertook further academic studies during most of my upper school studies, and Juan Kuther, my tutor for Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Specialist, who taught me to study efficiently and effectively.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
I have three snippets of advice:
(1) You do not know a subject area until you have tested yourself by attempting past tests and exams. It is not enough to simply believe you understand a concept. It is too easy to fall into the trap of assuming you know something when in reality, you do not.
(2) Not all study is equal. It is important that the form of study you undertake leads to quantifiable improvements for you. Personally, I found that it was more effective to go through past assessments than it was to make notes. That’s not to say notetaking isn’t effective, but the process of attempting past assessments and revising material I got wrong was a far better use of my time. In Year 12, I largely stopped making notes or revising notes in favour of alternate study methods.
(3) You should only compete with yourself. Your goal should be to go above and beyond your personal best as often as possible, regardless of what those around you are achieving. Every time you do something, aim to do it better than you did the last time.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
Accepting that I can only do my best and moving on.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
I have no idea what I want to do in life. I am planning to do Engineering, Law or possibly Medicine at university while I figure myself out.
Jack Landau
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
I wanted to push myself as hard as possible and see what I was capable of. Furthermore, knowing that obtaining a higher ATAR would open up my options in the future and make things easier has also helped me to work hard.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
I think that the most important thing for students coming into Year 12 is for them to know their limits. The workload for Year 12 can seem daunting and it can be easy to push yourself too hard and bite off more than you can chew, thus students shouldn’t be afraid to take a break from time to time or drop a subject if the workload is proving to be too much.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
I found that taking a step back and looking at the big picture really helped me to overcome challenges because at the end of the day, one or two bad test results aren’t the end of the world, despite what you may think. Instead of worrying about how that test is going to affect your grades, your energy is better spent acknowledging the errors you made and focusing on strengthening your gaps in knowledge, so as not to repeat the same mistake again.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
I plan on starting to study at uni at the start of 2023, but I don’t have any concrete plans for what I want to do after that. I’m happy just going with the flow and seeing where my life will take me.
Aditya Barua
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
Being in an environment where people are achieving feats of excellence in so many different fields has been hugely motivating throughout my time at Christ Church. I am fortunate to have had hardworking mates with whom I cultivated healthy competition, and equally having teachers that went above and beyond in facilitating my academic and personal growth.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students
I have two pieces of advice for them. Firstly, make sure you’re taking heaps of breaks. It is so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of assessments, sport and extra-curriculars; taking the time to slow down and genuinely relaxing will go such a long way. Also, I guess now more than ever, I realise the importance of savouring the little moments – like messing around in class with your mates. As I’m sure almost every Year 12 graduate can attest to, the year goes by so fast. Make sure you enjoy it.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
Being cognisant of your weaknesses (and actively working on them) is probably my best approach to dealing with challenges. Year 12 will come at you with obstacles in all shapes and sizes, and while there is no universal advice we can prescribe to overcoming them; making sure you are aware of where you went wrong is super important. Not getting too caught up in it and moving on swiftly is something I found helpful.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond
I plan to study Medicine at uni. Apart from that, who knows really.
Krish Mall
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
I have never had an idol in particular, or even a lofty goal to work towards, as I got entry into my desired university course early in Year 12, however I have always had a desire for personal success and the driving force to make me work hard has always been my personal desire to do well.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
It’s best if you adopt a mindset that puts pressure off just the results, as often your results can be influenced by uncontrollable variables on the day that perhaps don’t go your way. Put yourself in a position to do well by doing enough preparation such that you feel confident in your ability, and you feel like you have a good chance of doing well in tests and exams, and with this mindset, the results personally never affected me, irrespective of if they were good or bad results. Just trusting your process and preparing enough to feel confident typically yielded a more stress-free exam season, and the results didn’t ever mentally or emotionally affect me.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges
Typically when tests are closely packed, and stress is piling on, I found it helpful to have a malleable perspective, and not look at how many tests and exams are lined up for the next four weeks, but rather just look at the next week or the next five days, and prioritise my study accordingly. In Term 3 you will definitely feel a barrage of assessments every week, but as long as you just keep up with every week, you will manage just fine. I didn’t prepare too much in advance when I had a lot on my plate in the immediate future, and when I had some downtime, I broadened my perspective to plan ahead. List your subjects according to difficulty and by that order you can effectively distribute your study time.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
My plan for 2023 is undertaking a five-year Chemical Engineering major with a minor in Extractive Metallurgy at Curtin University, and hopefully relaxing a little more at least for the next year. Beyond that, I will endeavour to take up some internships and seek a career in rare earth metal processing and plant design.
Samuel English
What or who has been your inspiration for working hard?
I tried to immerse myself with peers who have the same aspirations as myself, which is definitely the most important inspiration for sticking with my routine. It would be impossible to stay consistent without a network of similarly hard working people surrounding me.
What advice do you have for incoming Year 12 students?
Don’t get caught up in looking at your grades after every test. Although it is very tempting to plug your scores in to the ‘ATAR Calculator’, you will experience ups and downs throughout the year and at the end of the year if you have worked consistently you will be satisfied with where you find yourself.
How have you dealt with hurdles and challenges?
Take everything into perspective. It may seem like a test or exam may ruin your grade in a subject, but if you take a step back you will understand that the individual scores aren’t very important, it is consistent effort that will pay off. Try and immerse yourself in all of your “lasts” that will happen in Year 12, which will be far more important once you have finished.
What is your plan for 2023 and beyond?
I will be going to the US to study as a student-athlete in California.