mmg.com.au

In a curious turn of events, two close friends became joint duces of Moama Anglican Grammar School when yesterday morning they discovered they had achieved exactly the same ATAR score.

When results were released around 9am, Brittany Santilla and Jess Naughton, both 18, went online to find they topped their school’s year level results with ATAR scores of 94.15.

But the similarities between the girls do not end there.

They also attended primary school together and, coincidentally, studied exactly the same HSC subjects and therefore have taken every class together over the past year.

At their school presentation evening recently, the girls came in dead even and tied for awards in biology and food technology.

Their other subjects saw the girls go neck and neck, with only one mark separating them throughout the year.

‘‘We’ve got the same results all throughout the year,’’ Miss Naughton said.

‘‘It’s pretty weird.’’

Although the girls did not study together, they helped each other out and said there was no competitiveness between them.

‘‘If we had a question, we’d ask (each other), but we didn’t study together,’’ Miss Santilla said.

‘‘We had different ways of studying.

‘‘We definitely helped each other.

‘‘Even when we didn’t work together, we’d still get the same scores.

‘‘We’ve been dead even all year.’’

Principal Andrew Pullar said he was ‘‘immensely proud’’ of the girls.

‘‘They’ve set themselves a goal and worked hard to meet it,’’ Mr Pullar said.

‘‘They’re friends and they worked hard together.

‘‘I couldn’t be more delighted.’’

Mr Pullar said three students of a cohort of 32 achieved ATAR scores in the 90s.

He said 38 per cent achieved ATAR scores above 70 and 21 per cent were above 80.

‘‘We’re really pleased with those results,’’ Mr Pullar said.

‘‘56 per cent achieved at least one study score above 40 and eight students achieved study scores of above 40 in at least three subjects.’’

The Moama Anglican Grammar School students were among 73,397 students enrolled in this year’s HSC.