By Anna Patty and Heath Gilmore
JOHN WORMELL sat his final Higher School Certificate exam in physics on his 16th birthday, after completing the most difficult HSC maths course four years earlier.
And when he was nine, while he was still in primary school, he polished off School Certificate maths, which is not normally tackled until year 10.
Yesterday John, who attended Sydney Boys High School, took out first place in classical Greek continuers, joining 106 other HSC students - 70 girls and 36 boys - who received first-in-course awards.
He decided to study classical Greek because it required problem-solving, like maths.
Blitzed it ... John Wormell, who came first in Classical Greek Continuers, Madeleine Gottlies, who topped English Extension 2 and Shelia Nasser, named first in Aboriginal studies, celebrate yesterday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Next year he plans to study science at the University of Sydney where his mother, Mary Myerscough, works as an associate professor of maths and where his father, Paul Wormell, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Western Sydney, studied as an undergraduate.
''They never pushed me and just tried to keep me interested,'' he said of his parents.
John's father said his son had been raised in a ''house that values learning''.
''He has never been coached; we don't push him,'' he said. ''There have been times when he has gone off the boil with his work ethic, when we have had to say, 'Son, you really do need to get your homework done. You can't just cruise'.
''If we had a kid that wasn't academic that would be fine too, as long as they were happy, well-adjusted and interested in life.''
John was one of 63 students from government schools who were recognised for topping an HSC course this year.
Madeleine Gottlieb, 18, from Bellevue Hill, was one of 44 students honoured who attended an independent school. She literally devoured English literature at six months old; she ate an entire cardboard book, cover and binding. The year 12 student from Moriah College at Queens Park went on to top the state in English Extension 2.
She said her parents had told her she would cry if they could not read her bedtime stories. Now her favourite stories are by authors such as Ian McEwan and Truman Capote, but she still feels bereft if she is unable to inhabit good stories.
Sheliza Nasser, who sat her HSC at Cheltenham Girls High School, and Mariama Akunyare, from Burwood Girls High School, were among the comprehensive high school students who topped subjects - Sheliza in Aboriginal Studies and Mariama in English (standard).
More than 71,000 students began receiving their HSC results from 6am today.