Tauranga Boys' College students who completed stage one university papers while in their final year of college are reported to have excelled at the level.

TBC principal Robert Mangan says the Year 13 students were offered the opportunity to study stage one university papers in economics, computing programme, philosophy and chemistry through the University of Waikato, and statistics through the University of Auckland.

The papers are part of the accelerate programme at TBC where boys study a year ahead of their peers.

Robert says the next round of boys to embark on the programme have completed NCEA Level 3 while in Year 12, and will spend their final year at college striving to achieve an excellence endorsement of their Level 3 NCEA while undertaking university papers and preparing for University Scholarship examinations at the end of the year.

Recent results achieved include a total of 18 A+, 10 A, and 10 A-.

In statistics, studied through the University of Auckland, Matthew Helem gained a grade of A+ and first overall from more than 400 students in the STAR Class.

Nathan Hobart gained A+ and second overall, Michael Sutton A+ and third overall, and David Driessen A+ and fourth overall.

The economics class achieved six grades of A+ and two of A.

In computing, Matthew Knox scored the very rare grade of 102 per cent, where maximum marks are awarded plus bonus marks. He topped the class, followed by Jordan Crawford with 101.8%.

The group of five students all achieved a grade of A+.

In chemistry, the boys achieved three A+, an A, an A- and one B+.

Philosophy students gained five A grades and seven of A-, which was the best ever result by students at the college, says Robert.

Students study the papers in a variety of ways with a mix of support from university lecturers, online material and classroom teachers at the college.

Next semester, students will study calculus through Auckland University and prepare for their scholarship exams.