Celebrating VCE success

With university classes starting again in March, North West City News celebrates the VCE results of the local 2023 Year 12 graduates as they get ready to embark on a new chapter of academic life.

Students from Haileybury College’s city campus in West Melbourne achieved outstanding results in last year’s final exams, including the Girls College DUX Abigail Lang, who graduated with an ATAR of 99.75.

“My best subjects were general maths and chemistry which I got 48 in, but I also studied English, maths methods, biology and Latin,” Abigail said.

“It was really tough – I recorded how many hours I studied from SWOTVAC to the last exam, and it ended up being around 180 hours over two months, but the shared stress of going through that with all of my friends made it a lot of fun.”

Fellow Haileybury student Rahul Deepak Kumar also achieved a great result, with an ATAR of 99.25 and scoring a perfect 50 in legal studies.

“I studied English, maths methods, sociology, and global politics in Year 12, and in Year 11 I finished legal studies and also studied VET Chinese,” Rahul told North West City News.

“Year 12 was definitely a very busy year of academics and assessments, but I also thought it was a lot of fun being able to hang out with friends for what is really the last year of schooling life.”

While both students will be attending Monash University in a couple weeks’ time, Rahul will take on a double Bachelor's degree in Law and Arts, with Abigail preparing herself to study medicine.

“I want to work as a heart surgeon, but I’d also like to look into women’s health and research women’s heart issues,” Abigail said.

Sixteen-year-old Allen Trang from West Melbourne’s Simonds Catholic College was also among the high achieving VCE cohort, undertaking a Year 12 subject as part of his Year 11 studies and achieving a perfect 50 in Biology.

“Initially it was quite daunting – there are students two years older than me and I’m competing against the whole state, but I really enjoyed what I learnt and found it was a very rewarding experience that I’m glad culminated into something I can be proud of,” Allen said.

Taking on English, maths methods, physics, chemistry and Japanese in his final year, Allen is both “excited and apprehensive” for the journey ahead.

North West City News congratulates all the 2023 VCE students for their efforts.