Trim Um student top scores among university hopefuls with 91.22 per cent

The top scorer in this year's university entrance exams is Kasama "Boom" Itthisawas-phan of Trim Um, where he maintained a 4.0 grade average. He wants to be a petrochemist.

What's his secret? Well, he works hard, obviously, and took extra tuition in subjects he says he's not so good at. "Good preparation means I don't have to read hard before tests."

But, Boom's an ordinary guy. Scoring a whopping 91.22 out of a possible 100 in the varsity entrance tests, he's also into computer games, watching television and sports. His new hobby is making short films.

He'll be attending engineering school at Chulalongkorn University.

However, Boom missed out on topping last year's highest pass mark - 93.16 by a budding law student who got into Chula. Another young engineer scored 92.14 last year.

Runner up this year is Kanyanant "Goongging" Sanglor, of Rajinee Bon School. She returned a score of 91.04.

She's chosen to read arts at Chula. Her book smarts come from hard work and lots of reading. She wants to be a translator or a writer.

Weekij Jaroensuk, of Triam Udom School, was third with 89.72 and will study law at Thammasat University.

Two visually impaired scholars passed this year's entrance exams - Nonthiya Pasane and Yordkhwan Khoowatchara-jaroen.

The most popular school among the 2008 crop of successful students is Burapa University's nursing college. That's followed by studying allied health sciences at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok. Another nursing school, that at Mae Fa Luang University in Chiang Rai, is the third most popular.

Passing students will be interviewing with their favourite colleges at the end of next week.

In all, more than 115,000 12th graders took the exams and more than 79,000 passed. There were just 122,500 places at 788 state tertiary institutions available.