Academic Excellence

Oxbridge Mock Interviews at SNC

We held the second Oxbridge Mock Interview questions session in Week 8 to provide Year 10 students Calum Tavani, Shanzae Jehangiri, Jessica Ramos and Ana De Veyra with an opportunity to develop the ability to think laterally, and apply their thinking to new ideas and different contexts. There was no right or wrong answer to a question, rather a focus on its originality, and how the person perceived a certain question. Students are able to develop their thinking skills beyond the mere seclusion within individual subjects. It was wonderful to have teachers and students participate as spectators. 

The Oxbridge Mock Interviews are a great and fun way to test your problem-solving skills, creativity and opinions.     Calum Tavani - Year 10

The Oxbridge Mock Interviews were a great insight into philosophical and lateral thinking.                                                 Shanzae Jehangiri - Year 10

The Oxbridge Mock Interviews gave interesting questions such as “How am I able to do that?” which challenged my ability to analyse different perspectives.                                                                        Jessica Ramos - Year 10

Science Café at UWA

On Thursday 24 August, Mrs Miranda and eight students of St Norbert College including myself went to Winthrop Hall in the University of Western Australia to meet and converse with scientists, all of which were experts in their respective fields. As the representatives of St Norbert College my peers and I arrived in Winthrop Hall excited for the day ahead. We arrived at our table and met Dr Demelza Ireland and Dr Grzegorg Skrzypek. With my discussions with Dr Ireland, I learnt that she was involved in the fields of immunology and women’s health and interestingly participated in research aiming to combat the inflammatory response of the umbilical chord to antibiotics. Dr Skrzypek informed us that he was involved with using stable isotopes of certain non-metals to trace ecological processes. Later on we also met with Dr Judy Dunlop, whose work aimed at the conservation of threatened species by controlling threats and enhancing existing populations; and Dr Vanessa Bowden, an expert in psychology who works on helping in the construction of technology so that they are perfectly suited for human use. Finally in the open session I met with Dr Clair Lee whose work involves testing new medical treatments intensively for use on humans. I immensely enjoyed meeting these scientific professionals and, like my peers, was greatly thankful for the opportunity.

                                                                                         Millenium Paneru - Year 10

The Science Cafe was an exciting experience for all of us. Having morning tea with scientists was a very exciting opportunity, especially for those of us who were interested in pursuing a career in the scientific industry. We were allowed to ask whatever questions we wanted to the scientist who answered them with their great expertise. We learnt about the making of artificial wombs, reactive isotopes, mechanical psychology and the possibility of life on Mars. This was an exciting experience for all of us and I highly recommend it for future years. 

                                                                                             Simran Shivnani - Year 10

Tournament of Minds

This year we had two teams registered in the Tournament of Minds for Engineering Mathematics Challenge and Social Science Challenge. Both groups exhibited excellent team spirit.

Tournament of Minds was a great experience to develop new friendships in different year levels. My experience of Tournament of Minds was great. The competition day was really fun because in between the two challenges we all hung out together. Overall it was a fun learning experience.                                                                                     Holly Giles – Year 7 

TOM was a fun learning experience. It helped me to make new friends and I found things that I never knew.                  Isioma Onyemgba – Year 8

The past weeks of doing Tournament of Minds (TOM) have mostly been great and fun. It was a blast working with the other members and I feel TOM is a great way to make new friends. TOM is also something you got to put a lot of hard effort and work into, it wasn't easy doing the challenge and it wasn't any easier performing in front of the judges, but at the end everyone did their best and we had lots of fun, which is what matters.                                                                                 Robert Watson – Year 7

The Tournament of Minds is a great experience for those who love a challenge. It made us think outside the box as well as expand our knowledge in an area of Mathematics. I highly recommend that people should take part in this competition, as there is something for everyone - in any of the four categories. The spontaneous challenge also involves philosophical and abstract thinking, it shares similarities with an Oxbridge interview.                                          Aldric Ratnasekera – Year 10

I enjoyed the Tournament of Minds because I got to work with the team to create our script, machine and to practice for the challenges. I was amazed when we did the actual competition because it was fun to act out our Long Term and for the spontaneous challenge.                                                                                                                                Ayden Ratnasekera – Year 7