Rockhampton Girls Grammar School spoke to one of our highest achieving students after she received her ATAR result on Friday, December 16.
Mia Pienaar was one of two students at Girls Grammar who achieved an ATAR over 96, scoring 96.25.
She said she had been very nervous in the lead up to the results going live, but after seeing her ATAR she was “very happy” and “super relieved”.
Mia said her family was also very happy with her result as her high achievement meant she had a lot of options for future study.
Mia shares her plans for future study and travel abroad
Although she planned to take a year off in 2023 to work, travel the Queensland coast, and travel abroad to Europe, she has applied to eventually study Bachelor of Primary Education at the Queensland University of Technology.
“I’ve just always really loved little kids – ever since I was in primary school.
“The idea of it just excites me so I thought – I can’t really see myself doing anything else really,” she said.
How to achieve balance as a grade 12 student
Mia’s advice to younger students taking on their final year of school and wanting to achieve great results was to, “pace yourself in year 11 and 12”.
“It’s a big two years and it’s really easy to get burnt out. I felt like that happened a bit to me and a lot to the girls in my grade.
“Also try and pay attention in class, because I found that if I was away or I wasn’t listening, it took a lot more time and effort to try and catch up later."
She said taking detailed notes throughout the year allowed her to better understand the content when she came back to revise before studying for exams.
“I had already written it out and understood it the first time so that it didn’t feel like such a big job to go back and memorise,” she said.
To achieve balance throughout her senior schooling, she said she would schedule time to socialise or exercise and wouldn’t allow herself to “put it off”.
“I just tried to give myself a bit of space when it came to school, so if I was feeling overwhelmed, I just always thought it wasn’t worth it to force myself or cram myself."
The best part of attending Rockhampton Girls Grammar School
Mia said it was hard to just name one experience when it came to identifying the best part of her senior schooling at Rockhampton Girls Grammar, but she settled on “lunchtime”.
“I loved lunchtime.
“There’s something about just every day being forced to sit there with everyone and everyone’s having to do it all at the same time.
“You get the chance to hear what’s going on with your classmates.
“But I liked everything, all the sports carnivals were really great too," she said.