Yet 12 months earlier, he wasn\u2019t even considering taking PE.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d long dreamed of being accepted into an American university as a student athlete playing squash and believed good physics and maths grades would get him there.<\/p>\n
However, when room opened up for an extra subject during his final Auckland Grammar year, he reconsidered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d be better off taking a subject that I really enjoyed and was really fascinated about, and that was PE,\u201d said Goodson, who is one of New Zealand\u2019s top-ranked junior squash players.<\/p>\n
It was a last-minute choice that really paid off, he now believes.<\/p>\n
When the Herald spoke to him earlier this year, he\u2019d received study offers from several US universities.<\/p>\n
And, while he was still waiting to hear back from his preferred university, he believed his Top in the World award for PE had been an asset in his applications.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the only New Zealand student happy to have sat the Cambridge exams.<\/p>\n
More than 40 local secondary schools offer Cambridge as an alternative qualification to New Zealand\u2019s home-grown NCEA curriculum.<\/p>\n
That led a total of 8000 Kiwi students to sit November\u2019s Cambridge exams in competition with about 192,000 other students from around the world.<\/p>\n
From among them, 25 local students achieved Top in the World awards for the highest mark in subjects ranging from music, economics and information technology to psychology, classical studies and maths.<\/p>\n
Former Auckland Grammar student Finn Goodson has kept his eye on the ball as one of New Zealand’s best squash players and as a star student who scored the highest marks of anyone in the world in Cambridge’s Sport and Physical Education AS level exams. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Overall, New Zealand students claimed 101 individual awards.<\/p>\n
Auckland Grammar students scored the most individual awards with 23, while private schools ACG Parnell and Pinehurst picked up the next most individual awards with 22 and 20, respectively.<\/p>\n
The awards are given out to junior students aged 14-16 taking the General Certificate of Secondary Education, and those aged 16-19 taking AS and A-level courses in each subject, where AS is the first part of the course.<\/p>\n
Tim O\u2019Connor, headmaster at Auckland Grammar, was delighted with his school\u2019s \u201cbrilliant\u201d results, saying about half its students chose to take Cambridge assessments while the other half chose NCEA.<\/p>\n
Cambridge suited some students better because it was a \u201crigorous international qualification\u201d that had allowed recent Grammar boys to gain direct entry into leading universities, such as Cambridge, Oxford and the University of Sydney, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s a significant advantage to them if they can perform well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cambridge also gave students strong foundational knowledge and had an \u201cacademic rigour\u201d that aligned with Auckland Grammar\u2019s values of having its boys \u201cfully tested at the highest level\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
And while Cambridge could be stressful, given students\u2019 university entrance hopes could be made-or-broken in the exams, O\u2019Connor said Auckland Grammar prepared them for the pressure.<\/p>\n
He said new Auckland Grammar arrivals start their first day at the school by taking an exam before going on to sit many more.<\/p>\n
By the time they\u2019re sitting Cambridge or NCEA exams, \u201cit\u2019s part of life and it\u2019s not something necessarily to be afraid of\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Goodson agreed, saying he learnt how to prepare for exams in a similar way to how professional athletes prepare for games.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur exam preparation, our study, what we eat the night before, we know what to do \u2013 and that\u2019s thanks to Grammar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really treated almost as sport academics.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor praised all his Grammar individual award winners. <\/p>\n
That included Harry Junxi Fan, whose all-round talent led him to score the highest marks in the world in both AS Mathematics and AS Literature in English.<\/p>\n
Daniel Zheng was another to pick up two awards, scoring the highest marks in the world for History at both the AS and A levels, while Luca Toner got New Zealand\u2019s best mark in AS Chemistry and is now also off to university in the US.<\/p>\n
Avondale and Macleans College were two other high-performing public schools. Both offer students the choice of taking Cambridge or NCEA.<\/p>\n
Avondale students claimed 11 individual awards, with Seivin Kim being named New Zealand\u2019s best student across three A-level subjects, while also scoring New Zealand\u2019s highest score in Physics A-level.<\/p>\n
Overall, Kim has won six Cambridge individual awards across four years.<\/p>\n
Now a first-year biomedical student at the University of Auckland, she told the Herald she chose Cambridge for its wide variety of topics and depth of study.<\/p>\n
Alex Gibson, from Christchurch’s Burnside High School, scored the highest marks among all junior students taking the Cambridge International music exams last year. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Avondale principal Lyndy Watkinson said she was \u201cexceptionally proud\u201d of her students\u2019 recent successes.<\/p>\n
Mia Horvath\u2019s Top in the World Information Technology award marked the third time she\u2019d been the best in the country in the subject (having now won at IGSE, AS and A levels), while last year the school had the top maths scholar in all three exam levels.<\/p>\n
Macleans College principal Steven Hargreaves said his school has offered Cambridge for 20 years and picked up seven individual awards, including in several blue-ribbon subjects.<\/p>\n
That included Wesley Lik Hao Lau scoring the world\u2019s best marks in mathematics at A level and Catherine En-Ping Luo achieving New Zealand\u2019s best at AS level physics.<\/p>\n
Lau also played in the school\u2019s top volleyball and badminton teams, sang in the choir and was \u201ca thoroughly decent young man, who works hard at everything he does\u201d, Hargreaves said.<\/p>\n
Pinehurst School principal Michael Waller said his team were proud of the 20 individual awards won by students but said everyone did well in November\u2019s exams.<\/p>\n
The school only offers the Cambridge curriculum and had Top in the World winners in subjects, such as Art and Design (Sonny Wu) and Global Perspectives and Research (Amelia Neal).<\/p>\n
Finn Goodson said Auckland Grammar prepared students for the pressure of exams in a similar way to how athletes prepare for games by learning how to develop routines and simulating game day pressure during practice sessions. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Wu had done incredible work with the support of Pinehurst\u2019s teachers, Waller said, and may even end up with some of his work on school walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at three pieces of student work on the wall right now,\u201d Waller told the Herald of the school\u2019s move to take down traditional art pieces and replace them with pieces done by students.<\/p>\n
He described Neal, meanwhile, as the type of young person the world needed, given her \u201copen mind\u201d and willingness to offer \u201cthoughtful, balanced insights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pinehurst also has an emerging star on its hands with Xibei (Percy) Kuang, who achieved the best marks in New Zealand across five subjects at the junior IGCSE level, Waller said.<\/p>\n
Goodson, meanwhile, was hoping all the preparations and study he\u2019s done for the Cambridge exams will have him ready to face the challenges coming up in America, both off and on the squash court.<\/p>\n
Being accepted into university over there could see him playing squash games against players in the world\u2019s top 10, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019ll be an awesome opportunity, the competition is insane over there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n