The 2017 HSC by the numbers
This year's HSC cohort has achieved the highest number of all rounders, the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) has revealed.
77,975 students did one or more HSC subjects
A record 68,816 students were awarded their HSC
57,068 students are eligible for an ATAR for university entry (to be released at 9am on Friday)
A record 1749 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students achieved their HSC and a record 940 are eligible for an ATAR
An unprecedented 1394 students achieved the top band in 10 or more HSC units and received the All Round Achievers award
870 students got both a top place and in the top band and received the Top Achievers award
18,020 students got the top band in one or more courses and received a Distinguished Achievers award
2:14pm The best public non-selective school
The top 50 schools are exclusively made up of either selective (partial or full) or non-government schools, Conal Hanna reports.
The best public non-selective school is Cheltenham Girls at Beecroft which finished 53rd in the state, the exact same result as last year when it was also the highest placed public school.
1:44pm Ascham the only non-selective school in the top 10
Cassidy Ainsworth-Grace, 18, from Ascham School, found out yesterday that she topped the state in History Extension in this year's HSC.
And today brought more good news for the entire school.
Ascham is the only non-selective school to make it into the top 10 for this year's HSC, with 50.2 per cent of exams sat by its students receiving high scores of 90 or above.
The school jumped nine places from 18th last year to come in at 9th this year.
It has become even harder for schools to make it into the top 10, with a success rate of 48.94 per cent at Northern Beaches College Manly, the school that ranked 10th.
In comparison, the 10th ranked school last year had a success rate of 46.52 per cent.
Cassidy, who beat more than 2000 other students to come first in History Extension, said the result was a complete surprise.
"I thought the exam was really difficult, I'm totally shocked" she said.
She got the phone call telling her she had topped the state while she was in England for an interview at Oxford University.
"I had to wait 24 hours to find out what it was for," Cassidy said. "I found out I'd come first right after my interview. It did make me feel better, like I'm actually worthy to be there."
Cassidy, who is hoping to study history and economics at Oxford, said the interview was very difficult.
"It was very challenging," she said. "The economics one was all maths questions, they really push you."
Cassidy is one of 120 students who topped at least one HSC subject this year, putting her in the top 0.15 per cent of the 78,000 students who did at least one subject this year.
1:05pm The leading non-selective schools
Selective schools continue to dominate the top 10 schools list but here are the leading non-selective schools, Conal Hanna reports.
Ascham School at Edgecliff takes out the honour for this year's highest placed non-selective school, making number nine on the overall list.
12:53pm The top 10 schools
Here are the schools that had the highest success rate in this year's HSC i.e. the greatest proportion of high scores among the overall HSC cohort.
12:32pm Which school reigned before James Ruse?
No surprises - James Ruse Agriculture High School is the top NSW school for the 22nd year in a row.
But we dug around the Fairfax archives to find out which school topped the state before James Ruse's long reign. Take a guess.
In 1994, Sydney Grammar was NSW's top school, narrowly edging out James Ruse, which came second that year.
The top schools in 1994 looked quite different to this year's list, with North Sydney Girls (8th this year), Pymble Ladies College (20th this year), Fort Street High (12th this year), Barker College (51st this year), Knox Grammar (19th this year), Abbotsleigh (14th this year), North Sydney Boys (3rd this year) and Sydney Girls (4th this year), rounding out the top 10.
12:19pm We reveal the top schools in the 2017 HSC
How did your school perform? Education editor Alexandra Smith and data whiz Conal Hanna break down this year's HSC results:
James Ruse Agricultural High is again the top NSW school for the 22nd year in a row but Sydney Girls' is back in the top-10 at number four and independent girls' school Ascham is the only non-selective school in this year's list of best performers.
Australia's oldest selective school, Fort Street High, has jumped 18 places in two years to put it in 12th place on this year's list of top HSC schools. It climbed from 30th in 2015 to 21st last year and then landed just outside the top-10 in 2017.
Fort Street also was the star performer when it came to the number of courses it topped, with four students taking first place in six subjects.
As expected, the top-10 list is dominated by selective schools, including Baulkham Hills High, as well as North Sydney Boys and Girls, and the private selective school, Sydney Grammar.
The cut-off to make the top-10 schools list has continued to intensify in 2017 and has never been harder to crack, according to results dating back to 2010.
12:17pm The 2017 honour roll
Find the top achieving students in this year's HSC.
Type in your name, your friend's name, your neighbour's name, or search by school. If they got a band 6 in any course or topped the state, they'll be here.