More than 70,000 NSW high school students received their HSC results this morning, sent out to anxious students by text, email or online.
Once again, girls were the big winners, topping 70% of subjects.
Seven in ten of the top performing students were girls with many topping the state in languages, history and English.
However, when it came to which school system topped this year’s HSC courses, the result was much narrower.
Of the state’s 116 HSC courses, public schools came out on top with 42 students taking the highest marks, compared to 39 from private and Catholic schools.
At the awards ceremony in the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, NSW Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, said all schools needed to do more to lift student performance, urging “even high-performing schools like James Ruse to strive for more high-performing students".
"All schools need to do more, whether you are a high SES independent school or any other schools, we expect all schools to strive harder," he said.
"It's an incredible array of students, a great snapshot of schools in Australia and NSW but a great reflection on the significant talent that we have in this state."
ATAR results will be released at 9am on Thursday.