A Mount Aspiring College student who finished her high school studies last year has pulled off an exceptional academic feat. In what senior staff believe may be a first for the college, Michaela Rogan gained Excellence grades for every one of the 107 credits she sat at NCEA Level 3 across internal and external assessments last year.

Michaela was also dux for 2016, and has picked up an Otago University Academic Excellence scholarship worth $45,000.

Despite this success, she said, while she had worked really hard over the course of the year, the "straight Es” came as a welcome surprise. The subjects Michaela sat were Maths with Calculus, Spanish, Art Design, Chemistry and Biology.

"It was definitely a goal to get Excellences in my internals because it was my goal to get dux, but while I wanted to do really well, I didn’t expect to get Excellence in all my externals,” she said. Michaela said when she first checked her external exam grades online, she thought she had misread them. She was particular happy to get top grades in Biology and Maths with Calculus, which she called "ridiculously hard”.

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As for young students hoping to emulate her success in the future, Michaela said the key was simple: hard work. "Any spare time I had, I studied. I didn’t think of myself as a naturally smart person, I just worked really hard,” she said.

Mount Aspiring College principal Wayne Bosley called Michaela "an amazingly-focussed academic who set herself high goals and worked extremely hard to achieve them.”

"Along with the entire staff, I am very proud of her and look forward to following her progress at university in the years to come. We all admired her goal to be the college dux at the beginning of last year and her fierce determination to succeed,” he said.

This year, Michaela plans to pursue a Bachelor of Arts and Science, majoring in Spanish and Chemistry at the University of Otago.

PHOTO: Supplied