This year’s top mark in Higher history has gone to the head girl at Dundee High. Lauren Pringle’s mark of 98 per cent put her at the top of the 8,125 candidates who sat the exam.

This is the fourth year out of the last five that the school’s history department has scored Scotland’s top mark. Lauren’s result follows on from the department’s best Higher mark in 2007 and 2004, and the best Advanced Higher mark in 2005.

“I’m very, very happy with this result,” said Lauren, 17, of Longforgan. “History has always been one of my favourite subjects, but the Higher course allows you to study some fascinating topics, and apply a much more in-depth process of analysis. I particularly enjoyed our study of the way democracy evolved in Britain, because we had never studied it at that level before.”

Along with Scotland’s best result in history, Lauren also notched up As in Higher English, maths, physics and chemistry. She is now working towards Advanced Highers in history, English and modern studies, and hopes to study law at Oxford next year.

Ian Wilson, head of history at Dundee High, said: “Lauren richly deserves this award, as she has been a brilliant and committed student with a great passion for history from an early age. Her performance did not come as a surprise, as she had produced a string of outstanding performances throughout the year. She is set for a brilliant career.”