Hugo Brown picked up accounting and passed a scholarship level accounting exam in the same year.
Felicity Whale passed four scholarship subjects, and she’s still got a year of school to go.
The pair are students of Hamilton’s St Paul’s Collegiate School and described by a senior staff member as among the best half-dozen students he has come across in his career.
Hugo, 18, had already finished NCEA and passed three NZ Scholarship exams before he started Year 13.
But he had more than 30 hours of exams at the end of 2015 because he picked up more subjects at Level 3 and NZ Scholarship.
He passed eight scholarship subjects, three with outstanding mentions, putting him among 10 Premier Award winners.
"I was pretty shocked, to be honest," he said.
"I never thought it would be me. I was pretty happy."
One of the scholarship passes was in accounting, which he picked up in Year 13, because it looked interesting and he thought it would be helpful in future.
But there is one pretty normal thing about this teenager – after the last of his exam hours, "I'm pretty sure I went to Burger Fuel."
Hugo’s results and corresponding bonuses take the financial pressure off as he starts a bachelor of engineering at the University of Auckland, which awarded him a scholarship.
Felicity, 17, racked up about 30 hours of exams and went to choir practice after the last one.
"That was a very busy academic year."
The 2016 deputy head girl, known as Fizzi, passed four scholarship exams – one at outstanding level – a year earlier than most students attempt them.
At Level 2, she got an excellence for every achievement standard in five of her subjects – more than double what’s needed for an excellence endorsement.
Spanish ranked as one of her favourite subjects, but she enjoyed earth and space science for scholarship – "and I'm not just saying that because Mr [Peter] Hampton’s here".
"I have a great passion for Spanish, so I just find it enjoyable to learn about ... but I like earth and space because it helps deepen my knowledge about all the other sciences I do."
The students' achievements were exceptional, St Paul’s Collegiate deputy headmaster for academics Peter Hampton said.
"I was talking with the headmaster, Grant Lander, about this and we think probably Hugo and Felicity are amongst the top half dozen odd students we have had in our schools over all the years we've been teaching."
Many Year 12 students who did scholarships then used it as a practice run for Year 13, "but Fizzi and Hugo are good enough to nail them in their first year".
"When you consider that, typically, scholarship is sat by Year 13 students in New Zealand, for a Year 12 student to gain four scholarships including one outstanding would place Felicity... probably up in the top students in New Zealand in Year 12," he said.
Hugo had set a similar pattern the year before, Hampton said.
But it wasn't all academics for the pair, both boarders at the school.
Hugo fitted in squash, debating and mooting, as well as trips to a science forum and the International Chemistry Olympiad in Azerbaijan.
Felicity kept up with tennis, cross country, ceroc dancing and music, including playing drums in the rock band and big band.
She also plays the Paraguayan harp, something she discovered when she and her family lived in Paraguay for a year.
