Three students from the same Ontario public high school earned perfect scores in the elite International Baccalaureate program – a rare achievement that the three credit to their exceptional teachers.
Dasha Metropolitansky, Brian Guo and Hanson Liu graduated from White Oaks Secondary School in Oakville, Ont. with a perfect score of 45 points in the internationally-recognized IB program.
The program involves advanced classes in languages, mathematics, humanities and sciences, extra volunteer hours, and an emphasis on personal development. Simply passing is often considered an achievement.
They are three of only 13 students in North and South America who accomplished the feat this year. Thousands more highly motivated IB students graduated from 5,000 schools around the world.
On July 12, Metropolitansky says she was sitting at her computer refreshing the IB website as she waited for her score to be posted. The site wouldn’t load because, she assumed, there were thousands of students just like her logged in and waiting.
“At some point I click refresh and it loads and I see the numbers and the score and it just didn’t feel real. It definitely felt surreal,” she told CTVNews.ca on Thursday. “I 100 per cent yelled and called my parents who were all very excited and still kind of in shock just because it’s so rare for somebody to get a perfect score.”
The 18-year-old student said she soon learned that two of her friends from White Oaks had also achieved the same impressive grade.
“I think in general, it’s unprecedented in North America and South America for a school to have three kids get a 45 [score], but especially for a public school,” she said. “I’m just so proud and I’m proud of White Oaks for sure.”
Metropolitansky credits the school’s staff and the “special group” of students in her year for the success.
“I just think there was something about the group where the students were really committed to their studies and to excelling, but I think also a really important factor was the staff at our school,” she explained.
Guo echoed that sentiment and thanked the secondary school for helping him throughout the program.
“I prepared thoroughly, my teachers gave me excellent counsel and resources. But even then, one cannot really have much security in saying they can get a 45, just because any slip up in any course would break the score. So for me I am truly thankful that things turned out in my favour and to two of my wonderful classmates,” Guo said.
Liu said he felt “extremely grateful” that he and his fellow students could represent the high school.
“I was very surprised when I checked my results, but when I found out that two of my classmates also got perfect scores, it was just really overwhelming. Because three from one school – especially a publicly funded one in Canada – that’s pretty unheard of,” he said.
Metropolitansky said the teachers in the IB program take a lot of time going over the results from previous years and modifying their teaching plans in order to achieve the best results.
“They also go to a lot of courses and training sessions held by other IB teachers in the GTA, for example, so they can always be improving their skills,” she said.
It’s one of the primary reasons why Metropolitansky chose to attend classes at White Oaks – that, and the quality of its debate team. She was the youngest person ever to represent Canada on the national debate team and was ranked second in the world as an individual debater at the World Schools Debate Championships (WSDC) in Bali, Indonesia last year.
As for what comes next, Metropolitansky is headed to Harvard University where she will study for two years before deciding on a concentration. Down the road, she said she’s considering a career in law.
Guo will attend Duke University in North Carolina and Liu will attend classes at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. in the fall.
