As almost 68,000 students reached the end of 13 years of schooling with the receipt of their Higher School Certificate marks on Thursday, one school proved again that it's at the top of the pile.
Selective school James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford has taken out the first spot in the HSC for the 21st consecutive year, with student marks from an extraordinary 73 per cent of the school's exams scoring in the highest band.
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HSC results 2016: Top schools revealed
Here's which schools scored big in the 2016 Higher School Certificate.
Not only has James Ruse taken the top spot 21 years in a row - it's also done it pretty comfortably.
Since 2009, the closest any school has come to toppling James Ruse from the number one spot was five years ago, when North Sydney Boys came within seven percentage points of the top result.
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Over the past four years, the Carlingford superstar has maintained a solid lead of at least 10 percentage points. By comparison, the gap between 2nd and 3rd tends to hover between three and six percentage points.
Unsurprisingly, academically selective government schools like James Ruse dominated the top HSC results, closely followed by expensive independent schools.
But a Fairfax Media analysis revealed the top-performing schools among those with the lowest level of socio-economic advantage included public schools Canley Vale, Bonnyrigg and Coonabarabran.
Across the state girls significantly out-performed boys in 70 per cent of courses, according to a Fairfax Media analysis of Band 6 scores (scores of 90 or above) by gender.
Within the top 20 schools, perennial top 10-listers Baulkham Hills in north-western Sydney came in second spot, while North Sydney Boys took out third, just pipping their neighbours North Sydney Girls.
Read our live coverage of results day here.
Sydney Grammar was the top private school at No.6, while Cheltenham Girls was the highest ranked comprehensive public school in the top 100, coming in at No.53.
Within the top 20, independent girls school Wenona gained 17 places, Normanhurst Boys gained 14 places and eastern suburbs private school Reddam House and the selective, co-ed music school Conservatorium both leapt nine places into this year's top 10.
The biggest falls in the top 20 this year went to PLC (Croydon), which plunged 16 places and Girraween, which dropped 12 places to fall out of the top 10. Sydney Girls, which has historically come within the top five, this year dropped 10 places, from third to 13th.
More than 67,000 students received their individual marks in their Higher School Certificate on Thursday morning via text messages or email, and a record 55,961 of them will be eligible for an ATAR, which they will be able to get from 9am on Friday.
It followed Wednesday's announcement of the 124 students who placed First in Course in the 113 eligible HSC subjects taken this year.
Eleven per cent of students achieved a top band result (Band 6 or E4), with 40 per cent in the top two bands. This is a result that has held stable for the past six years, but with a slight increase (1 per cent) of students in the top band, in a positive sign of student improvement after weeks of news of the relative decline in our results in international, sample-based tests.
Board of Studies head Tom Alegounarias said the achievement of students receiving their HSC today was a positive counterpoint to the recent bad news around Australian student results in international sample tests like PISA and TIMSS.
"If you're a top achiever in the HSC you're regarded amongst the top achievers in the world, you will go direct from the HSC to places like Oxford, Princeton, Cambridge, Harvard," he said. "If you are outstanding in this credential, you are meeting the best standards in the world.
"That's why it's different to the sampling examinations, because there's no test effect, and everyone steps up to the HSC.
"You'll remember from your own experience, as do I, that you may have been uneven in your attentiveness between Years 7 and 9 and 10, but when you cross that line at the beginning of year 11, you know this is serious, you've got the senior uniform on and you're ready to show what you can do."
Boys outperformed girls in 22 per cent (or just over one in five) courses, and they were were neck-and-neck (within 5 per cent of one another) in 8 per cent of courses.
About 80 per cent of students took a mathematics course, and 90 per cent took at least one STEM course.
About 4 per cent of students did not meet the minimum standard and will not get their HSC this year.