Near perfect, from calculus to classics

By ALAN PERROTT education reporter

It's just as well 2003 was the last hurrah for the secondary school Bursary exam as it may have just met its master.

Richard Yu is a quietly affable, if private, 17-year-old who received just one mark short of a perfect score across five subjects.

The Auckland teen achieved the maximum possible 96 per cent in calculus, maths with statistics, physics and classics, a subject he had never before studied. His other marks were 95 per cent for biology and 93 in his favourite subject, chemistry. The sixth mark is not included in his overall score.

How can 96 per cent be the top mark?

Due to scaling, a mark of 100 per cent is not possible and almost all subjects can grant a mark of 96 per cent only, even if the student makes no errors.

If Richard's overall score of 479 from a possible 480 is confirmed next month, he will never be overtaken.

Bursary, sat by about 500,000 final-year secondary students since 1966, is being replaced by the level 3 NCEA qualification and the New Zealand scholarship, a new level 4 qualification.

The King's College scholarship student was also equal-top scholar in last year's New Zealand Education and Scholarship Trust exams, the first to get A+ grades across all six subjects.

What is his secret?

"I don't know. I do work quite hard, but I guess I don't find the work that difficult. I like to understand what I'm studying, I don't like rote learning. In the end it's really about getting the practice."

Despite already being a class ahead of himself in 2002, Richard sat a handful of Bursary exams that year "just for practice" and passed them with ease.

Practice for the maddeningly modest Richard also means that for every school textbook he is issued he borrows another handful from his teachers so he can study other perspectives on the same subject. With supreme understatement Richard said only that he read "a lot".

Perhaps the lack of clutter in his life is the key. "I am morally opposed to alcohol," he said, "and as for women, I'll keep that for later." Ask him about the Big Day Out and you get only a blank look.

He does know plenty about music - as long as it's classical. In his down time, Richard studies the piano, viola and violin. He also joined the school archery, soccer and fencing teams.

He has won a scholarship to study medicine at Auckland University, where he hopes to train as a surgeon before heading overseas to complete a doctorate.

"I just think being a surgeon is a good job. It's a position where you can offer something to society with your knowledge."

King's College principal Roy Kelley described his former star pupil as a "genuinely talented and humble young man".

"He has made a huge impression at this school. Academically, he would be as good as anyone you would find anywhere."