Nearly 78,000 students who studied one or more HSC subjects have received their results this morning.
Among them was Kara Durante, 18, from Cronulla.
The Danebank Anglican School for Girls student said she was "super surprised" with some of her HSC marks this morning.
"I've never been that good at English and I got a 94, I was pretty happy with that," Kara said.
"I was also happy to get the top band for extension maths."
Kara, who topped the state for Biology, said she isn't too worried about her ATAR after seeing her marks.
"It was just my main goal to be an all-rounder and get a band 6 for all my subjects, and I did achieve that so that was fantastic," she said.
Kara, like many HSC students, said she didn't sleep very well last night.
"I got woken up by a nightmare that I got an 89, it was 5.40am," Kara said.
"Results were supposed to come at 6 but I got the text at 5.43am."
She now plans to spend the rest of the day relaxing at the beach and celebrating with her friends.
"I'm going to go to the beach and try not to think about everything and just hang out with a lot of my friends," she said.
This year, 120 students from 85 schools topped one of 114 HSC subjects, with eight students coming first in more than one.
The Leader spoke with local achievers yesterday.
About 70,000 students finished their HSC this year, and those eligible will get their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) at 9am tomorrow (Friday).
The ATAR is a rank calculated by the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) based on students' HSC result.
