<p>Hello everyone.</p>
<p>I am an international applicant from Australia and am currently a senior at an exclusive private school. The uniqueness of my situation lies primarily due to the culture here. For us, getting into Australian university is contingent upon our internal school grades over our senior year and a series of final external examinations. Therefore grades 9-10 are seen as irrelevant by many students here, with year 11 viewed by many as a relatively important year in terms of momentum and such.</p>
<p>I went to a top academically ranked public magnet school, the equivalent of a Thomas Jefferson High School here, for years 9-10 before swapping to an exclusive private school to do my IB Diploma on a scholarship. I was dux in year 9, but I got incredibly bored in year 10, because we have a useless external year 10 certificate, called the school certificate, to which we all study towards. Year 10 was essentially the least academically challenging year since probably kindergarten. I kept top 10 rankings in english and mathematics but became incredibly apathetic towards all my other subjects.</p>
<p>I left in year 11 to do the IB, where I was dux in year 11 again. I am on track to graduate valedictorian with an IB predicted score range of 42-44. Will my sophomore year hurt me, considering the culture difference here? The converted IB mark to the university admissions index would be the equivalent of 99.6-99.9, with 9995 being the highest. This would put me at least in the top 0.4% of all students in Australia.</p>