"My parents [Carl and Sandra] were very excited, they were very proud," Isabella said.

"They've been so supportive throughout the whole thing, so part of it is their success as well, dealing with all my meltdowns, and my brother [Arie] did all the chores and dishes for me when I was studying, so I guess it's a team effort."

The Hunter School of the Performing Arts student received an ATAR of 99.6 on Thursday, which the Universities Admissions Centre said was the highest in the region.

"I felt good, I think it's taking a while to sink in though," Isabella said.

"A lot [of work went into this] and especially those extra weeks when they pushed back the HSC, it was sort of like 'I have more time to study and knuckle down and keep up the momentum', so it was a lot of work.

"I've always achieved quite well academically, so I feel I may have had a lot of pressure to keep achieving the best I possibly can, so that was definitely an element.

"It is good to prove to yourself what you can do when you put in the time and effort."

Students received their HSC results from 6am on Thursday and their ATARs from 9am.

Isabella said it had been a rollercoaster 24 hours.

"It was awful, I have not been anxious about school for so long, I've just been in chill mode and then you kind of remember 'Oh ATARs are being released' and it was nerves again," she said.

"I was thinking 'How did I ever survive the HSC exam period? I was feeling nervous every night!' but it was okay, you just had to endure it."

Isabella received marks in the highest band possible for English Advanced, Biology, Society and Culture, Visual Arts and Chinese Continuers.

HSPA principal Tracey Breese said Isabella also achieved first place in the state for her Society and Culture Personal Interest Project and received the Asia Education Teachers' Association Peg White Award.

"To be honest I think COVID worked well for me, I work really well alone and I'm an introvert and I think it played in my favour to have time at home to work at my own pace, instead of having to go in to school for those final weeks," she said.

"I know I'm very lucky to be in that situation.

"Moving online straight after trials saved me a lot of time actually and I could really focus on what I needed to do instead of going to class and having a more general review.

"The only thing not good was having exams pushed back so far, because people who study a lot for it, it is really hard not to get burnt out from having to keep up the momentum for so long, it was really really tiring."

Isabella will take a gap year and relax before doing some summer skills courses, working and travelling.

She has deferred an early offer from the University of Newcastle (UON) to study arts and science.

She is also considering a double science and media and communication degree at Macquarie University.

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Newcastle Grammar School's Emma McGrath received a 99.5 ATAR, while her fellow students Vivien Kuru achieved 99.3 and Jack Humphreys 99.1.

"I'm obviously really happy with the result but to be honest - with how much everything has been pushed back - I kept forgetting marks were being released today," Emma said.

"I don't have early entry so I'm relying a bit on this mark to get into engineering at one of the Sydney universities."

Vivien also received a state ranking of fifth in Geography.

"I didn't think my subject selection would get me up this high, so I just came into it aiming to do as well as I could," Vivien said.

"Needless to say I was shocked and pretty stoked when I saw it this morning."

She is considering physiotherapy at UON.

"I was going to work for six months and then travel but it's too unpredictable at the moment I think," she said.

Jack said UON had offered him early entry to computer systems engineering and science, which was "a bit of a safety net".

"So I came into today with no real expectations, but was really stoked when I saw the result," he said.

St Philip's Christian College dux Ruby Targett received 99.35 and was ninth in the state in Legal Studies.

"I'm really excited, I was not expecting it so I'm super happy with it," Ruby said.

"I put in a lot of hard work throughout year 11 and 12 trying to put good study habits into place like getting up early and working long hours, I really just wanted to do as well as possible so the 12 years I spent at school was worth it."

She has accepted an early offer to study physiotherapy at UON.

Merewether High's Kepei Tan received an ATAR of 99.1 and was second in NSW in Geography.

"I'm really proud of that, especially with such a tough year and just the whole COVID situation and not being able to see friends, it was a bit difficult to stay motivated but I'm happy to see my hard work paid off." She hopes to study medicine.

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