The results were sent to the students in the wee hours of the morning. But for Dubbo College Senior Campus student Darcee Nixon, it was no reason to get up early.

“They came through at 5.30am but I didn't wake up especially for it. I just woke up when I normally do,” she said.

Ms Nixon has already been accepted into a science degree at the University of Newcastle. She’s hoping to use it as a bridging course to study occupational therapy if she’s not accepted into the course in the next round of offers.

With a plan already in place and a job lined up for her gap year, Ms Nixon said she was stress free.

“When I first started year 11 I was super stressed about it. I thought ‘I’m going to try and get band sixes in everything’ but when I sat the HSC I thought ‘why am I even putting in the effort? It doesn’t matter’,” she said.

Despite her change in attitude, Ms Nixon achieved two band sixes and was two marks off a third.

Fellow student Jennifer Spence said she was happy with her results.

“It’s probably above what I was expected to get into uni and everything, I’m pretty happy,” she said.

Ms Spence said she planned to study commerce at the University of Sydney. There had been a mixed bag of reaction from her friends after hearing their results.

“Some happy some a little disappointed, I suppose,” Ms Spence said.

Tyler Spang was equally unconcerned about his results. Mr Spang got a mark of 88 in Earth and Environmental Science, as well as two 86s in other subjects.

He will continue his Earth and Environmental studies next year at Macquarie University. However, Mr Spang said his results did open up more opportunities.

Among his friends no one had been very worried about the marks, the student said.

Ms Nixon said she wanted to say a big thank you to Dubbo College Senior Campus for ‘everything’, especially the learning centre.

The HSC results are in, but while the school books can be packed away, two principals say the skills learnt will continue to be of use.

St John’s College principal Kerry Morris said she was very proud of her students.

“This year we weren’t expecting the big results but we had some results that we didn’t expect. So they’ve done better than we were expecting which is wonderful,” she said.

The school had performed exceptionally well across most of the key learning areas, Ms Morris said.

Dubbo Christian School principal Warren Melville said it was a delight to see the hard work of his students pay off.

“There are some standouts of course but I think the thing to celebrate is the students in that middle range who have just achieved really sound results and I think they’ll be really proud of what they’ve achieved,” he said.

The HSC cohort had been incredibly supportive of one another, Mr Melville said.

“This group have always been like this but in the last two years they’ve really knuckled down, worked with their teachers and we think it’s really paid off. It’s something to really celebrate.”

Ms Morris’ advice for the students was for them to keep on doing their very best.

“Keep that focus and drive, that’s the best thing. It doesn’t matter how academic a child is if they’ve got that drive and that work ethic they’ll be successful.”

A record number of students completed the Higher School Certificate in 2017.

There were 68,816 students who were awarded a mark on Thursday. A record 57,068 students are eligible for an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank for entry to university on Friday.

There was also a higher than ever before number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who achieved their HSC with 940 eligible for an ATAR.

Twelve per cent of the students who completed the HSC scored in the top band (band six or E4), while 41 per cent were in the top two bands and 71 per cent were in the top three.

A record 1394 students had a top band result in ten or more HSC units. Another 18,020 had a top band result in one or more course.