They topped the HSC over the past 40 years. Where are they now?

Unlike her fellow school-leavers in 1984, Cindy Pan did not learn of her HSC mark through the post.

It was her headmistress who broke the news, sharing that her final exam score of 475 out of a possible 500 marks was the best among her Abbotsleigh cohort, and that she would be made dux. She danced all the way home.

“Going to see the headmistress at school, normally you’re wondering if you’re getting in trouble,” Pan said. “I just remember it being very, very exciting.”

Pan, who wanted to leave school in year 10 to pursue a ballet career, balanced her medicine degree at the University of Sydney with modelling and acting gigs, and the media personality still squeezes in the odd dance class between appointments at her Chatswood GP clinic.

Forty years on, Pan has found that her marks account for a small fraction of her dearest school memories.

“Having attended all these high school reunions, no one really cares or thinks about who got what marks,” Pan said.

“The HSC just reflects one part of your ability, and there are so many ways to skin a cat.”

More than 76,000 HSC students – the largest-ever cohort – will receive their ATAR on Wednesday.

Before the marks flow through, the Herald tracked down school-leavers from the past four decades to see where they were now, what they learnt from the HSC, and what advice they would give to graduates today.

Class of 1984

Sandra Klepetko, who graduated from James Ruse Agricultural High School, recalls an anxious wait by the letterbox the morning her results were due.

She brought the letter back into the house, opened it with her family, and was “pleasantly surprised” to see the score of 449 staring back at her. She celebrated with friends at a Pennant Hills pub that night.

“It was a huge sense of achievement because it’s really the first thing I’d done for myself,” Klepetko said. “The year was spent doing a lot of study and not much else … the whole aim was to get the very highest mark we could, so we worked very hard.”

Klepetko studied geology at the University of Sydney, leading her to a graduate role in the mines of Mount Isa, where she didn’t know a soul for thousands of kilometres. She made friends while underground, including a colleague who eventually became her husband.

Having since worked in sustainability and waste management, as an environmental project manager and a photographer, Klepetko lives in Melbourne, where she leads a company that restores old pianos destined for landfill.

“I never would have imagined 40 years ago that I’d end up recycling old pianos,” Klepetko said. “Be open to learning always because it really is a never-ending process.”

Andrew Pauza, who attended Wollongong High, recalls a fondness for the “techie” subjects – maths, chemistry and physics – during his final year of school.

Despite harbouring childhood ambitions of becoming a pilot, Pauza chose to study physics at the University of Sydney before undertaking a PhD at the University of Cambridge in England.

He has lived in England for the past 35 years and worked on various projects – including some backed by the European Union – as a chartered engineer.

“You really do need to plan your life ahead,” Pauza said. “It took me a long time to realise you really need to sit down and give yourself a direction, and be really forthright about it.”

Class of 1994

A Herald journalist and photographer accompanied then 18-year-old Jane Thomson to collect her HSC results from the post office 30 years ago. She admits the entourage “did not help” with the nerves she felt that day.

They also captured the moment when Thomson, next to her mother Lyn in their Little Bay home, became “overwhelmed with delight” after unsealing the letter revealing her 98 tertiary education rank (TER).

“My result was far more than I had anticipated, and I remember feeling really elated for days afterwards,” Thomson recalled. “It was a really positive experience that I can hold on to with good feelings.”

Thomson studied psychology at the nearby University of NSW but practised for only three years after graduating before shifting her focus to freelance copywriting just as the internet was starting to boom.

In 2012, she founded The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society, which now has 15,000 members. She has hosted wine-tasting tours in Australia and abroad.

“No matter your result, there’s no straight and fast trajectory for a career,” Thomson said when asked her advice for school-leavers.

“Allow room for opportunity and change of heart, and keep embracing every opportunity and every choice you make as part of this exciting journey of life.”

Helen Chisholm, who got a perfect 100 TER in 1994, didn’t learn of her marks through the post, but through a mysterious message left on her answering machine that she first thought was a hoax.

“I was given the perfect stage to go into that year and do my best, and I’m really fortunate that I did well,” Chisholm recalled.

The Abbotsleigh student enrolled in arts and law at the University of NSW, which also included an exchange program at McGill University in Montreal. Chisholm moved to Canberra after completing her studies in 2000 and now works as a solicitor for the federal government.

“Nothing is set in stone from the year 12 results, and it’s the beginning of your journey,” Chisholm said. “There’s so many different pathways and directions to your interests in very surprising and roundabout ways.”

Remembering Katrina Dawson

Katrina Dawson, who lost her life in the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege, was one of 14 students to receive a perfect TER of 100 in 1994.

She told the Herald at that time she would study law but thought she didn’t want to become a lawyer. She completed a master’s in law, became a barrister in 2005, appeared in the High Court and volunteered at the Redfern Legal Centre.

In the decade since Dawson’s death, the Katrina Dawson Foundation has supported and mentored 24 young women through the Women’s College at Sydney University.

Class of 2004

Andrew Ngai was in Hong Kong when he discovered he had topped the state in extension 2 maths.

The Department of Education initially called Ngai’s father, who was in Australia, before eventually tracking down Ngai, who cut his trip short to receive the award waiting for him in Sydney.

“I thought I had a chance, but I didn’t expect to top the subject – I don’t think anyone really expects to top a course,” Ngai said.

With a 99.95 universities admissions index rank, Ngai undertook actuarial studies at the University of NSW after his parents floated the idea of the maths-heavy profession while he was in year 12. Ngai is now a senior actuary providing advice to clients in the insurance and government sectors.

“There are many different paths that your life can take, and it’s not all just anchored on this HSC result,” Ngai said. “Now when I look back, my marks are not the thing that defines who I am – there’s a lot more to what defines you as a person and having a successful life.”

Kate Steinweg was working her part-time pharmacy job at Bondi Junction when the department called her home phone to share that she had topped an HSC subject.

The Kambala student thought she was in with a chance of topping extension 2 English but came first in the advanced course instead. She got the news during her lunch break when she returned the department’s call on her mobile.

“They gave me the details of the awards ceremony and said to absolutely not tell anyone, so I hung up the phone and immediately called my teacher,” Steinweg recalled.

“I walked out [of the pharmacy after my shift] and my whole family were sitting at the escalators – it was really nice.”

Steinweg briefly studied law – the degree she was “supposed to do” – before returning to English, which spurred her on to a career in writing and publishing. She enrolled in medical school when she was 30 after deciding she wanted to be a doctor, and is now finishing her training as a GP.

Steinweg offers a reassuring message about the ATAR: “It matters so little.”

“We focus far too much on seeing academic performance as a marker of worth or status – I don’t think it’s correlative, and I don’t think I deserved as much attention and praise just because I happened to be good at exams.”

Class of 2014

Janek Drevikovsky, a Fort Street High School student who topped five HSC subjects to achieve a 99.95 ATAR in 2014, remembers year 12 as repetitive and stressful.

“The only way that you can do well in the HSC or any kind of standardised testing system is through batteries and batteries of practice efforts, which I did ad nauseam,” Drevikovsky said.

“It was a year I’m grateful for, and obviously a year that I won’t shy away from doing well at, but it’s also a very strange system, and one which I don’t think is reflective of the way the world operates.”

Drevikovsky was asleep when the Board of Studies called in the late morning to share the news of his success, and he celebrated with his family at Bar Italia in Leichhardt later that day.

He has since studied at Oxford and has worked in the law and media, including a stint with this masthead in 2020. He works as a legal research assistant at the University of Sydney – the same institution where he enrolled in law after high school.

Drevikovsky recommends a generalist course before choosing a vocational degree later, while suggesting students take a gap year rather than rush into university. He also warned high achievers of the “prestige addiction” that can foster a narrow view of success among standout students.

“I would encourage school-leavers to think more broadly, not about success or prestige, but about what they might open themselves to from life and what might actually look like a fulfilling life for them, and open themselves with a calmness to the possibility that it won’t all go to plan.”

Vidhushan Paheerathan, a student of Homebush Boys High School, received an ATAR of 94.75 in 2014 – a result that fell just short of guaranteeing him a spot in medicine. He studied physiotherapy at James Cook University in Townsville for two years before moving to medicine at the same institution.

Paheerathan has spent the past two years as a doctor at Mount Isa Hospital, where he began as a student on placement. He has worked to improve health outcomes for rural and remote communities in Queensland and helped to deliver his nephew this year.

Paheerathan was unable to qualify for medicine on his first attempt, but when asked his advice for HSC students, he said a student’s ATAR is “just a number at the end of the day”.

“There’s so much more to life than getting into a degree or a career straight away,” Paheerathan said. “These numbers aren’t the be-all and end-all, and once you have a passion in mind, there are ways to get there.”

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