The top scorer in this year's high school entrance examination, or zhongkao, in Pingtan county, east China's Fujian province, sat down with Pingtan.gov.cn, the county government's official website, to reveal her winning formula on Monday.

Lin Shuying from Hanying Middle School scored 527 points out of 550 and claimed first place in the exam taken by 5,048 candidates.

Having spent all three years alone in Pingtan while her parents work in Shanghai has helped her become more independent in both life and study.

"She is an obedient child. We never really need to worry about her too much as she has everything in control, no matter at school or in daily life," said Lin's mother.

"Although she is kind of shy and quiet, she has no problem getting along with classmates and teachers. She is a little ball of sunshine," recalled Wu Dongqing, Lin's Chinese teacher.

Lin has always been the top three in exams since primary school. She showed tremendous talent in mathematics as she won prizes in a slew of State-level math competitions. In the past zhongkao, she scored 147.5 points, two shy of the full mark.

But don't take her as a study freak. Lin usually sleeps at 10:00 pm and gets up at 6:00 am. She never pulls all-nighters. Sometimes when she feels exhausted from homework she will ask for a break or do less, a request that was always granted by Wu.

Lin arranges her studies in a systematic way. She makes plans to brush up on past knowledge points every week, which has helped her become an all-around student, she notes.

After school, she likes practicing calligraphy and playing basketball to stay in shape and relax.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Micheal Thai