After months of waiting, almost 77,000 NSW students received their HSC results and university entrance ranks last week.

Emily Kirkpatrick from Tea Gardens received her marks at 5.47am via a text message from the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES).

Emily said she was “very excited” when she realised she had achieved in the highest performance band for Hospitality.

“I didn’t expect that I would get a Band 6, but I’m very happy with it,” she said.

“I definitely had a second look to make sure it was real and I checked it over and over again.”

Emily was also extremely pleased with her results in her other subjects which included Biology, English and Mathematics.

The Bulahdelah Central School student said consistent revision was the key to her success.

“I did every single past paper that there was, I even did some practice papers from Victoria,” she said.

“I also did a lot of revision and writing notes in different ways to try and remember them.”

Emily also received her ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) last week and said she is planning to study nursing at University next year.

“I got the results that I wanted, it all paid off in the end,” she said.

Her advice to future students is to stay calm and remain focussed.

“The HSC isn’t the be all and end all, there’s always plenty of other options if you don’t do as well as you hope to,” she said.

“Don’t stress and always pick subjects that you like because you are more likely to be focused on those particular ones.”

Students will receive their HSC Certificates in the mail from 20 January 2017.

By Mandy ELLIS