THERE were plenty of nerves in the lead-up to The Scots School’s Max Semmens getting his HSC results – but it wasn’t Max who was feeling tense, it was his dad, Steve.
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And could Max tell?
“Not really,” he admitted on Thursday morning, having received two Band 6s and four Band 5s. “I was too busy studying.”
Max, one of five Scots students from a cohort of 31 to receive a Band 5 (a mark from 80 to 89) or Band 6 (a mark from 90 to 100), had good reason to be feeling relaxed as the results were announced.
“I went fairly well in my trials and I felt pretty confident with my HSC,” he said. “And I had early entry [to university].”
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Max will study a Bachelor of Rural Science at the University of New England with a view to becoming an agronomist.
And why agronomy?
“It’s a realisation that our world, it's got such a growing population, but we’re running out of resources and we need agriculture as a way to supply enough food and fibre to support all these people,” he said.
“We need people to innovate in that area – and not just research and create but actually implement all these new technologies and new techniques and make these advances have an effect.”
Max, whose Band 6s were in agriculture and biology and Band 5s were in chemistry, English, maths and modern history, said he was careful to spread out his studying.
“It's a marathon, not a sprint,” he said.
Scots deputy head Tracey Leaf said the school’s cohort of 31 had seven Band 6s and 30 Band 5s and a “significant number” of early entries for uni.
“Essentially, Scots has been very much about the whole child,” she said.
“But, obviously, we're always pleased when the kids do well in their HSC because they've worked hard.
“We're very pleased to see some kids who have achieved some personal bests.
“We've always had a focus on the kids getting on to the path that they want to track down in regards to their career and, predominantly, our students have always managed to get in to what they want to do, which is really the goal of doing the HSC.”