Key Academic Results
Success at Mercedes College is measured by academic excellence as well as each student's confidence, breadth of skills, abilities, and engagement with their community to positively embrace and continue to shape their future.
The Mercedes College community congratulates the Class of 2024 on their achievements in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, and South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE).
IB Diploma students are scored out of a maximum of 45, with Simon Aylward our highest achiever with 41 points (ATAR 97.70), making him our IB Diploma Dux. Simon achieved Merits in German B SL, Spanish ab initio SL, History SL, and Physics HL. We also recognise the personal achievements of Marcus Quarisa, who achieved 39 points (ATAR 95.25), and Merits in Chemistry SL and Physics HL.
Our top SACE student for 2024 is Douglas Rigter, with an ATAR of 98.75, making him our SACE and 2024 College Dux. Our second highest achievement in SACE was by Ella Densley, with an ATAR of 97.75, making her our College Proxime Accessit. Ella also received Merits in Spiritualities, Religion and Meaning, and Physical Education.
After ATAR conversion of all IB results, 21.6 per cent of Mercedes College students achieved in the 90s, with 10.3 per cent placing in the top 5 per cent nationally, having gained an ATAR of 95 or higher.
Mercedes College also commends 12 students who together achieved 17 Merits across 12 subjects, as well as 11 students who studied an IB subject alongside their SACE, helping to boost their final results.
Tertiary Success
For those graduates looking to continue to tertiary studies, 84 per cent of the 101 university offers received were for first preferences.
Popular tertiary directions for the Class of 2024 include:
- Health and Medicine (27 per cent)
- Commerce (21 per cent)
- Engineering (12 per cent)
- Law (10 per cent).
Graduates are also going on to study in fields as diverse as Computer Science, Psychology, Architecture, Nursing, the Arts, and Nutrition.
NAPLAN 2024 Community Report
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
There are four NAPLAN proficiency standards at each year level:
- Exceeding | the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong | the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing | the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support | the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
Mercedes College Performance
At Mercedes College, we use NAPLAN results to track student performance. We look at individual students and their proficiency level, and use this data together with other information to plan any additional support needed for the student to progress in their schooling.
We also consider the proportion of students in each proficiency level.
Achievement in the upper two levels is an indication that students are demonstrating or exceeding expectations at the time of testing. Approximately 70 per cent of students nationally will achieve the upper two levels. The following table shows the percentage of Mercedes College students who have achieved in each of the upper two levels, all of which meet or exceed this expectation.
| Year 3 | Year 5 | Year 7 | Year 9 | |
| Grammar and Punctuation | 75.0% | 82.9% | 72.1% | 73.3% |
| Numeracy | 79.5% | 81.3% | 85.7% | 86.7% |
| Reading | 84.1% | 81.3% | 82.9% | 80.5% |
| Spelling | 70.5% | 74.3% | 79.8% | 82.6% |
| Writing | 97.7% | 84.3% | 73.3% | 71.4% |
For further details about how Mercedes College compares the performance of successive cohorts to assess the impact of internal initiatives, and for comparative data against other Catholic schools (thanks to Catholic Education South Australia), please download this document.