Port Hacking High School students have enjoyed a final feast after a stressful morning waiting for their ATAR results.
The Universities Admissions Centre released the results from 9am on Friday just days after the HSC results were revealed.
To celebrate Year 12 students came together for the final time to say a farewell to friends and teachers.
Daniel Stucci, 18, said it was a relief to finally finish.
He has put off looking at his results, not even checking his HSC scores.
“I still haven’t looked at them,’’ he said.
He studied Physics, Business Studies, Economics, Math and English and hopes to study to become an electrician.
Fellow student Hugh Links, 18, said he was happy it was all over.
“It’s a relief to get your results so you don’t have to worry about it anymore,’’ he said.
He is deciding between two career paths.
“I’m tossing up between going to uni to study to maybe become a pharmacist or going through TAFE to do an electrical apprenticeship and going towards doing antennas.’’
Ashley Grady said it was nerve wracking wait since she finished in November.
“I’ve been nervous but excited at the same time because it’s over and I get to finally find out,’’ she said.
She studied Chemistry, Biology, Community and Family Studies, PDHPE, Advanced English and Maths.
She was happy with her result - scoring an 80 ATAR.
She is hoping to study occupational therapy at the Australian Catholic University or Western Sydney University.
Caringbah High School student Brinley Maher is celebrating after receiving a 99.75 ATAR.
She already has two university offers including a UNSW scholarship to study banking and finance and a UTS scholarship to study accounting.
This year, 46 students got the highest possible ATAR of 99.95, the Universities Admissions Centre, which administers the rank, has revealed.
Of the 57,061 students eligible for an ATAR, 48.5 per cent got 70.00 or above, 32.7 per cent got an ATAR of at least 80.00 and 16.4 per cent got an ATAR of 90.00 or above.
The median ATAR this year was 69.00, slightly higher than last year's median.
However, girls tended to have higher ATARs and the median ATAR for female students was 70.15 this year, compared to a median of 67.65 for male students.
Students need to receive HSC marks between 70 and 80 to sit around the median ATAR, according to UAC.
Of the 46 best-performing students, 22 were female and 24 were male.
While they studied a mix of subjects, the most common among them were English Advanced, Mathematics Extension 1, Mathematics Extension 2 and Chemistry.