Caleb Clark from Arndell Anglican College receives top honours at 2020 International Youth Math Challenge

But according to a Hawkesbury student who placed in the top two per cent in the world in an online schools math challenge, you're more effective at the discipline when you're thinking outside the box.

Caleb Clark, in Year 12 at Arndell Anglican College in Oakville, received top honours in the 2020 International Youth Math Challenge, competing against young people around the world.

He was awarded a Gold Honour award for being ranked in the top two per cent of participants, as well as the National award for placing first among Australian entrants.

Caleb - who completed, and received the highest band in, two subjects in the HSC before he even hit Year 12 - wants to do a degree in maths or physics when he finishes high school, but hasn't worked out what sort of job he wants yet.

When questioned about whether maths was all about following rules, he said: "Often as you get further advanced in maths, you find that if you break those rules, often that's where interesting things will happen."

"[Maths isn't] about following rules and doing what your teacher tells you, but it's about experimenting so it makes sense to you, which is where a lot of the learning happens sometimes," Caleb told the Gazette.

Caleb's maths teacher, Stewart Douglas, said Caleb would often "go off on his own tangents" in class.

"Sometimes he comes up with some pretty interesting stuff, and I'm always willing to help him if it's outside of the box," Mr Douglas said.

As part of the Youth Math Challenge, Caleb had to progress through a qualifying round, followed by a week-long problem-solving round.

He worked to find solutions to various problems, some of which required university-level thinking to solve.

In the final round, an online assessment, Caleb had to answer some very complex mathematical problems, under timed conditions.

Caleb said he had an aptitude for maths in early childhood: "I remember before I went to school I was doing maths books with my mum and then when I got to school I seemed to have a strength at maths and I seemed to keep going from there."

He encouraged any other maths-minded students to ask their teacher about the International Youth Math Challenge.

"Even if you don't get a prize, it's a very rewarding experience that you learn a lot from," Caleb said.