IT'S BEEN more than a month since Denison College Kelso High campus students walked out of the school's exam room for the last time, and since then, students have been waiting patiently for their results.
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That was, until the morning of December 14, when Higher School Certificate (HSC) marks were released to students across NSW.
These individual subject marks were released at 6am, with the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) released three hours later.
And Kelso High staff and students had a lot to celebrate, with the year 12 cohort of 2023 receiving a higher number of band 6 (subject mark between 90 - 100) results than the school has achieved since 2012.
Overall, there were 10 band 6s, and 37 band 5s.
This is something that 2023, year 12 co-adviser and self-confessed student hype-girl Georgia Sverdloff was extremely proud of.
"We had a higher number of band 6s and band 5s than we have had in previous years, and that's a testament to a lot of their dedication and patience with doing year 12, because it's a tough year," she said.
And though Ms Sverdloff wasn't a classroom teacher for any of the year 12 students during their senior studies, she said it was merely a privilege to be able to help them along the way.
"It was just nice to be able to support them through it, because year 11 and year 12 are such difficult years for students, and it's really nice to be able to see them get through and do really well," she said.
One student who did particularly well was Chloe Stapleton, who achieved band 6 marks in both legal studies and modern history.
These results ultimately led to an ATAR of 92.25, higher than what she was expecting.
"I'm very happy with it, I didn't expect it. I thought I might get 91 so this is higher than I thought," she said.
And it was her determined study schedule that got her over the line.
Chloe said she spent three hours every afternoon on a school day preparing for the exams, and approximately 10 hours over the course of the weekend.
And though it was clear that her hard work paid off, and she had achieved results worth celebrating, she was instead spending the day at work.
This was all to save up enough money before heading to university next year.
Chloe received early entry into the Australian National University in Canberra to study a bachelor of International Security studies - a means to combine her love of law, history, and desire to see the world.
"I suppose it's an opportunity for travel, and I've always wanted to get into something with the justice side, but I don't really want to do law, and that kind of led me to it," she said.
"I'm really looking forward to what I can do and where I can go, and what the future holds for me."
