Twins at Benenden School are celebrating achieving exactly the same set of GCSE grades – in exactly the same subjects.
Nicola and Victoria Tsang, 15, are fraternal twins, meaning they are not identical – but they have achieved identical grades. They both achieved nine Level 9 grades – the highest available – and two Level 8s each. Remarkably, both their Level 8s were in the same subjects: Spanish and Further Maths.
Their Level 9 grades came in Biology, Chemistry, Chinese, English, English Literature, Maths, Music, Physics and Religious Studies.
The sisters, from Hong Kong, have lived and studied together at Benenden School, one of the UK’s leading boarding schools, since they were aged 11, where they have been in the same boarding house.
Nicola, the younger sister by one minute, said today of their identical results: “It’s great how we both got good results – and the exact same results as well. We can’t believe it, it’s crazy!”
Victoria said she had a nervous wait after her sister had got her results because she was locked out of the results system for a few minutes – and then they realised the good news.
Nicola said: “I was so shocked, I thought they’d uploaded the wrong results! It’s quite difficult to get the exact same grades.”
Victoria added: “It was such a surprise; after all, in our mocks we got different grades. But we looked at the raw marks and they were different so we knew there hadn’t been a mistake: we’d been given our grades and they were actually the same.”
Victoria added: “We get to celebrate together too; I was quite worried about, for example, Nicola doing really well and if I didn’t do quite as well she’d be celebrating and me not so much.”
The happy news has coincided with their father’s birthday so a family celebration was well and truly in order!
The twins are now preparing to start their A Levels at Benenden in September – and perhaps unsurprisingly, they have chosen the same subjects: Physics, Maths, Music and Economics. They will also be moving into the same Sixth Form boarding house.
However, there are some key differences between the sisters: Nicola said her Maths result was her most pleasing, whereas for Victoria it was her Biology – chiefly because she finished early in one of the papers and hadn’t noticed two more pages of questions and had to frantically answer them!
Although the sisters are not identical, academic similarities between them are not uncommon. Earlier in their Benenden careers they got the same Maths test score, down to 0.5 of a mark. Also, in a former school they both made precisely the same mistake in a Maths test by mistakenly copying down the wrong number – despite being in different classrooms.
Victoria said: “We don’t have twin telepathy – but we do try to trick people that we do! I can’t receive messages from her brain or anything but we always think the same way. To me, Nicola is quite predictable, I always know what she’s thinking.”
Nicola said: “I usually know what she’s thinking as well – when she’s lying, I know it.”
“That’s so creepy!” Victoria said.
