Meet one of Ipswich’s smartest science students, and try your hand at some challenging Year 11 test questions in the process.
Most of us do not realise until later in life how formative and precious our schooling years were.
However, spend some time with James Wright and it quickly becomes clear he is unlikely to suffer that fate with the Westside Christian College captain seemingly possessing wisdom beyond his years.
He is not only wise, but smart too. James, 16, recently aced a national science competition run by the University of New South Wales, ranking as Queensland’s highest placed year 11 participant and among the top one per cent of Australian participants.
“When I first heard it I didn’t quite believe it. I’ve done well in these sorts of competitions in the past, I generally score distinctions or high distinctions, but to be the top performing student is just amazing,” he said.
“I’ve done these tests all through high school and the later part of primary school. I think I first did it at my parents’ want but I’ve grown to love them. They are really fun to do and perform well in.”
“I really do have a passion for science and maths. I love that it’s hard and fast, you’ve got the right answer and you know you have the right answer as opposed to something like English where it’s sort of about how you persuade someone to agree with your opinion.
“I’m much more of a logical person than a creative person. I study physics and maths C which are both seen as being very hard and getting the right answer in that is just so nice. It makes up for all the lost hours of sleep.”
James, who is now in his final year of schooling, wants to pursue aerospace engineering and either maths or science at university.
Before then, he will be doing all he can in his role as College Captain to help students in younger grades understand how they can get the most out of their schooling years.
“I love being able to impart some of the things I’ve learned over my five years of schooling at Westside with the younger grades, getting to talk to them and lead them,” he said.
“It is such a big time in their lives and if they don’t do the right things, if they let this opportunity slip, I reckon they absolutely will regret it.
“I also want to try and let them know that it’s going to be okay, that they can get through it even if it does seem really tough and let them know there will be people there to help them.
“The school’s leadership team is also going down to the primary schoolers four times this year and leading them in devotion which is going to be such an amazing opportunity to be able to take part in that.”
Test your smarts. Here are three questions from the test (Answers below the subscribe button):
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Answers: 1. C 2. D 3. D
3.5