Maria achieves country's highest result

18-year-old Maria Gallagher achieved a staggering 377 out of a possible 400 marks across four Edexcel psychology exams taken in 2009 and 2010 - giving her the highest result in England and Wales. 

Maria, who achieved straight A* grades for three A-levels, taken in psychology, sociology and communication and culture at MidKent College’s Medway Campus in Gillingham, was amazed when she received a letter from the British Psychological Society telling her the good news.

“When I came to college to collect my results in the summer, I was so shocked to find out I’d received three A*s, I didn’t even notice the mark breakdown,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe it when I found out I’d achieved the highest result in the country. It was a real shock. I had to re-check the letter the next morning to make sure I hadn’t dreamt the whole thing.”

Proud mum, Jacqueline Gallagher, couldn’t wait to tell her daughter the good news. The 54-year-old hypnotherapy trainer, who lives on Chatham’s Haig Avenue with husband Robert, scanned the letter so she could post it to her daughter’s Facebook account. She said: “I ummed and ahhed about whether to open it, but when I saw the post mark I knew Maria wouldn’t want to wait until she was next home from university to find out what it said.

“We’re incredibly proud of her. She proves that achievement really isn’t about your background or class. No one in our family has got a degree and we haven’t got pots of money. We’re just ordinary people with a daughter who loves learning.”

Maria was home educated from the age of 8, so had only taken three GCSEs in English, maths and science when she started her A-levels. “We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get her enrolled at MidKent College because she didn’t have the standard entry requirements,” her mum said, “but there was no way a school sixth form would have accepted her and we knew that going back to school wouldn’t have been the right thing for her to do. She was too adult in her approach to learning.”

Maria is currently on a scholarship scheme at the University of Kent at Canterbury, where she is reading for a degree in Applied and Clinical Psychology. She hopes to eventually achieve a PhD in neuropsychology.

She said: “I hadn’t ever considered going to university before I joined college. I always thought of degrees as something affluent people did. It was only when on parents' evening one of my lecturers, Laura Hryniewicz, said I should consider it, that I started to contemplate going.

“I’m doing well on the degree course so far and have achieved straight firsts for all my assignments to date,” she continued. “Now I’m absolutely focused on training as a neuropsychologist,” she added.