However, while MacKillop College’s Isabella Barrett is still pinching herself at securing such an impressive result in this year’s Higher School Certificate, she’s come up short of the nearly perfect mark she wanted.

A farm girl from near Coonamble who is a boarder at the college, the 18-year-old was aiming high and was after an ATAR of 99.7.

That would have gained her certain entry to study law and media at Sydney University next year.

Still, Isabella isn’t complaining, and yesterday told the Western Advocate she had to double check to make sure she wasn’t dreaming when she accessed her ATAR mark just before 9am.

“I logged on and when I saw the mark thought ‘it can’t be true’,” she said. “So I logged off and tried again and it was correct, 99.2. I was so happy. It was a very happy surprise. Mum and dad were there too and mum cried.”

Isabella said she is still hopeful she may get a second round offer for the law and media course, but has plans to achieve her dream.

“It depends on the offers, but I should get an offer to do the media and then move into law after the first year,” she said. “The marks you need are crazily high though, but I guess there are enough people getting them. Anyone who gets that 99.7 mark must be an absolute genius.”

She said being a boarder at MacKillop really helped her keep a routine and with study supervisors to help, she couldn’t have wanted more from an education.

Isabella’s HSC results included 93 per cent in  religion, 93 in economics, 94 in English advanced, 45/50 in 1 unit English extension, 92 in legal studies, 94 in modern history, and 48/50 in 1 unit history extension.

She will learn her fate when first round university offers are out on January 21.

Of the 55,482 students who received an ATAR this year, only 47 reached the highest possible ranking of 99.95, of which 14 were female and 33 male. One third of students scored 80 or more.

The median ATAR for female students dropped to 70.30 this year from 71.00 last year, while the median for males increased to 67.20 from 67.00. 

Some 16.5 per cent of students received an ATAR of 90.00 or above.