A Year 11 high school student from north-eastern Sydney has taken top spot at an international neuroscience competition.

Jade Pham, representing Australia as champion, beat 22 other competitors to win the 2015 International Brain Bee Championship in Cairns on Monday.

The teenage student from James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney’s north east plans to use her $3000 prize to pay off education bills, then buy herself a bow for her archery.

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The would-be neurosurgeon gets to choose a laboratory anywhere in the world to do her internship. The United States is high on her list.

She said she had no idea she’d end up champion when she filled in the initiating online quiz, and her advice to other students is: “If you have a passion, go for it.”

“I didn’t expect to win at all,” she told AAP.

Ms Pham, 16, plans to spend the night catching up on sleep missed due to study, rather than lavishly celebrating the win.

Her competitors included a Nepalese student who won the national final in between the recent earthquakes, and a Ukrainian student who was almost unable to make it because of internal political conflict.

Science broadcaster Robin Williams praised all students, noting that English was not the first language of many.

“There was an Iranian sitting next to an Israeli and they were chatting away happily,” he said.

“It struck me how science can bring us all together … it was astounding.”

Mr Williams said he had no idea how to answer any of the 10 questions on topics such as anatomy, patient diagnosis and histology, and was humbled by the knowledge of the teenage competitors.

– with AAP