Some of the country's brightest young minds have been named as the top performers in the 2009 Scholarship examinations.
Results for nearly 9000 students were posted on Monday and were on the NZQA website from Tuesday.
Carrying a monetary award of $30,000 over three years of tertiary study, the Premier
Scholarship prize is awarded to the top five to 10 students in the country each year.
Asher Emanuel, 18, and Nelson Lam, 17, of St Kentigern College are two of the eight winners.
Not only did they receive the top award, but the students topped the country for Scholarship English and Scholarship music respectively, both scoring full marks in the exams.
Asher could not believe it when he found out he had won on Wednesday.
Nelson said: "I couldn't breathe and I was shaking out of excitment - I nearly died."
The boys' parents were extremely proud. "It's a big honour for them and will alleviate a high financial burden," said Nelson.
They both said Scholarship exams were hard to study for, with their open-ended, unpredictable format, but said the progressive approach of NCEA helped them gradually learn all the information they needed.
Nelson is off to the University of Auckland to complete a bachelor of music and science and dreams of working as a composer and conductor.
Asher has won a scholarship to Victoria University and will take up law, English and political science.
Scholarship is a monetary award to recognise top students and replaced Top Scholars in University Bursaries, when NCEA was introduced.
Students are expected to demonstrate high-level critical thinking, abstraction and generalisation.
