Yashodha Ediriweera, Bella Gooch and Luke Millstead had three different approaches to checking their ATAR score yesterday morning but the end result was the same for all, a score of more than 99.
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The trio of St John's students were the standouts of the 2014 cohort. Luke finished with a mark of 99.75, Bella with 99.6 and Yashodha with 99.05, putting them all in an elite group.
Their score is good enough to guarantee them entry into almost any subject they want.
For Luke, that means mechatronic engineering, a combination of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and software, at University of NSW.
Yashodha is looking at medicine, also at University of NSW, and Bella wants to study combined law at Sydney University.
While Yashodha and Bella both checked their HSC marks on Wednesday, Luke somehow resisted the temptation, believing he might get his hopes up too high about his ATAR mark.
He waited until 9am yesterday, when the ATAR became available, to check both.
"It was hard but I didn't want to get my hopes up.
"I've heard of people looking and expecting high ATARs so I made a pact that I wouldn't look at them and waited until about 9am this morning," he said.
"The cricket was on, I watched a couple of movies, I just tried to take my mind of it."
Yashodha was hoping for a good number after getting five band sixes and a band five a day earlier. She logged on just after 9am.
"I was a bit nervous but I tried to push it to one side until after nine, then I logged on and I was really happy," she said.
Bella was one of the many across NSW who discovered the results were available a few minutes before 9am.
"I was up at 6am because I was so nervous and I sat in my bedroom and continually refreshed until it popped up. I got mine just a few minutes before nine," she said.
"In all honesty I was so excited I burst into tears. It's enough to get me into the course I want to do."
All three were understandably delighted with their results and will now wait patiently until January 21 to see the first round of offers from universities. However after 13 years of schooling and 12 months of incredible pressure, the three said they felt more relaxed than they could remember and ready to enjoy Christmas and their summer break.