Wangaratta's Macy Nichol and Beechworth's Ulrika Wild topped the state in their marks for Ancient History and German respectively, despite being a year younger than other students across the state.

The teens completed the VCE subjects while in year 11 as part of the school's accelerated learning program.

Teacher Meryl Herman, who has taught the girls since year 7, said it was an "incredible" achievement considering COVID-19 disrupted face to face learning last year.

"To be at the top, we're talking the top of their subjects, is extraordinary," she said.

"The data tells us that rural and regional students are at a disadvantage compared to their metro cousins and this is a common feature that most of these awards are delivered to metro schools.

"We know that it's rare ... if you see schools performing in the regions, it's private schools and sometimes they're the more expensive.

"So I'm singing it from the rooftops, because we're so proud of them."

Ms Herman said the "extraordinary achievement" was a testament to the "amazing" girls' passion, motivation and dedication.

"To excel at this level, it's those last few rungs that's all within them," she said.

Across the state 297 study awards were presented.

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Ms Nichol said receiving an Ancient History study award had improved her confidence to attempt a career in the field.

"I worked hard for it and especially with working at home I had to put in a lot of effort and drive myself," she said.

"So I wouldn't say that it was an easy award to get.

"It just meant that the work that I had put in had paid off and that doing something to do with ancient history was much more plausible for me to pursue as a career.

"Because I used to actually say 'nah, I won't get anywhere', but it told me that I could probably do it."

Ms Nichol plans to study Ancient History at Sydney's Macquarie University after completing year 12 this year.

Friend and classmate Ms Wild said studying online from home was easier for her, since she was already studying German by correspondence, but it was still challenging.

"German's really hard and I had times where I was like, 'do I want to even do it as a VCE subject? Is it worth all the struggle?'," she said.

"So I'm really glad that I did do it now"

Ms Wild said she was excited to receive the study award because the subject was important to her.

"My dad is from Germany, he moved over when he was 12," she said.

"I still speak German with him, but it's not at the level that we need to be doing for VCE.

"That was a real motivation to doing it, I could speak German, but being able to really fully communicate with my relatives in Germany and having a possible future job or living opportunity in Europe means a lot to me.

"And also getting to know the German culture better, because at home we don't do heaps to celebrate it ... so it was a nice way to connect with language and the country."

Ms Wild said some regional and rural students thought they needed to go to expensive private schools to achieve academically.

"That's absolutely not true," she said.

"It shows that you can go to a rural and regional public high school and still do really well if you put your mind to it."

Ms Wild has been offered one of 25 Australian National University Tuckwell scholarships to study medicine.

The teens wanted to thank their families, teachers and others who supported them.

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