Do the very top ATAR scores bring money - or even happiness?

Is the hard slog to get the very top ATAR result really worth it?

Looking down the list of those who got the top grades in the past, many are now in high-paid finance or medicine, so hard school work turned out to be profitable.

But talk to them about their lives and the picture isn't so clear.

Some feel academic success diverted them from more enjoyable, less prestigious careers - and perhaps also from a family life and children.

Others are pleased with the results but don't think the benefit lasted that long.

Emma Dobbie is without doubt successful. As a student at Canberra Girls Grammar School, she got the highest score possible - 99.95 in 2013.

It took her to ANU and a finance degree and now into a global bank.

But Ms Dobbie thinks her ultra-high score was a benefit for only about two years. It took her to the courses and career she wanted - but after that everyday merit kicks in. If you do your job well, you get on. After a while, nobody asks about school results.

She thinks the ACT way of testing is better than the one over the border in NSW because it relies less on memory and more on analysis.

"I really like the ACT system because it's a forgiving system," she said. A poor performance in one semester, say because of illness, isn't disastrous. There is more weight put on assessment through years 11 and 12.

And in English, for example, you are allowed to take the novel or subject text into the exam so the test is not about memory of quotes but understanding of meaning.

Her advice?

Don't start working for exams too late. "I worked extremely hard," she said. "You have to be on the ball from the start of year 11."

One of the few who did score high but then followed his heart was Erin Helyard, who got his 99.95 in 1995 on the NSW Central Coast. He pursued his passion for music, becoming a lecturer at the Australian National University and now in Melbourne. His link to the ANU continues.

At the time he enjoyed the challenge of getting the best possible marks, but now wonders if that pressure was too great.

"I remember that everybody assumed I was going to be a lawyer but I rejected that and I just ended up doing what I wanted," he said.

Mr Helyard does not regret the work he put in, particularly the devouring of books, and he thinks today's students are too addicted to the internet to enjoy that kind of reading. It demands an attention span beyond that of the digital age's nano-moment.

It is clear that getting a top ATAR opens doors and smooths the way to a good career. It makes money more available - but not necessarily happiness (though money may help there, too).

Maryam Eghtedari got the highest possible score of 99.95 when she finished at Canberra Girls Grammar School in 2012.

Since then, she's studied to be a doctor at Sydney University, with another year to go. Her high ranking meant she's had the chance to do research even though she hasn't graduated yet.

Ms Eghtedari's advice to students today would be to work hard but also to keep other activities going, like sport or learning a language. It's important not to become a narrow personality.

She says the key to academic success is working hard and being with ambitious people who do the same.

Does an ultra-high score - the maximum - guarantee happiness or fulfilment?

It does not.

Former Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School student Saadiah Freeman got 100 in 1995, a maximum not even allowed these days - 99.95 is the current top mark.

And it did open the way to jobs on Wall Street. She is now a management consultant based in Jackson Hole in Wyoming - the town is a magnet for the uber-rich who buy prairie ranches to get a (comfortable) taste of the iconic American West.

But for her, the ultimate high score brought access to this affluent life but not to an idyllic existence. She feels the 100 she got in Australia led her into prestigious jobs rather than ones that might have made her happier.

"It's been a double-edged sword," she said.  Ms Freeman was identified in high school as gifted and that put a weight of expectation on her to go down a prestigious path rather than a happy one.

"I felt that there was a certain expectation to go into fields and companies that have the name brand," she said.

At the age of 40, Ms Freeman's finally shaken off that slavery to ambition. She is no longer dominated by her job. She exudes wisdom.

She is based in the prairie town but lives much of the time out of a travel-trailer in the wilderness, combining that with work. She travels and lives out her passion for the outdoors, whether sailing or riding or simply feeling nature. She's been to Mongolia three times in the past year.

She does not, though, have children and that may partly be because of the pressure to succeed she succumbed to earlier in life.

Her advice? "You are always going to be more successful doing the things which interest you."