'I didn't study like crazy' says Catalonia's only perfect-scoring exam student

"This will take days to sink in," says Carla Vendrell, the only student in Catalonia to earn the perfect mark of 10 in the university entrance exams this year, because, she says, she "didn't study like crazy" to get such a high result. 

The student from Olot who learned at INS La Garrotxa explained to media while on holiday in Menorca that she still "can't believe" she is the only Catalan student to earn a 10/10.

Ecstatic with her results, she pointed to her two years of high school as the key to achieving her perfect score, where she prepared "very well" for the university entrance exams. 

From September, Carla will swap the Olot high school classrooms for lecture halls at Pompeu Fabra University where she will study law.

"I was very clear that I wanted to study law and I'm happy because I will be able to do it. Getting the highest grade is something that surprised me and I'm very happy about it," she says.

"I didn't spend a stratospheric amount of hours studying," she adds, as she tries to absorb everything that's happening: "Everyone is calling me," she explains.

Carla is spending some well-deserved vacation days in Menorca. There, she found out the grade she got some days ago, but it wasn't until this Friday that she became aware that it was the only 10 in Catalonia. "I thought there would be three or four more," she told the Catalan News Agency.

Yet, she is not in a hurry to forget about her teachers who have helped her to get to where she is today: "They are the best." 

Carla now faces four years of undergraduate studies at Pompeu Fabra University with a host of new professors, but she is clear that the first thing she will do next Tuesday when he returns from holiday is to go see her high school teachers and thank them for their work. "Without them, I wouldn't be here," she concludes.

World Champion

Academia is not the only area where Carla exceeds.

The young skater has been a member of Olot Skating Club since 2009, and two years ago she was proclaimed world champion in Paraguay. Carla was one of those who won the 13th championship for the most dominant figure skating team.