Sara and Sanja Krneta

The science of school

Sara and Sanja Krneta credit the open plan learning environment and self-motivated learning for their easy transition to university life.

The Australian Science and Maths School (ASMS) is a secondary school bringing together students with a passion for the fields of maths and science to study for the final three years of high school.

“When we first got here we, like everyone else, found the open learning spaces really distracting, but after a while, with the help of the teachers, you learn to focus again and when the things you are studying are as interesting as what we were doing it’s hard not to focus,” Sanja said.

“We were doing nanotechnology, biochemistry, astrophysics – what you study here you wouldn’t learn in a normal school. Even though it’s science focused, there are still elements of English and philosophy in there.”

On completing year 12 the Krneta twins found themselves in the enviable position of having a wealth of options. With ATAR scores in the high 90s they followed their science interests, starting a clean technology degree before deciding their passions lay in helping people directly.

“We have swapped to medical science because we realised we would like to ultimately work in clinical medicine. We wanted to have that people contact that we wouldn’t have if we were in a lab,” Sanja said.

“Flinders has been a really welcoming university, and our background here at ASMS has given us the skills and knowledge to transition across to university quite easily,” Sara said.

“ASMS is not as structured as it is at other schools, so it’s much more like real life. I’d absolutely recommend ASMS to anyone with a passion or interest in science and maths.”