Each year, over 200 Sydney Boys High School students sit the Higher School Certificate (HSC). Since the new HSC commenced on average 72% of students score an ATAR/UAI of 90 or greater, and 17% score 99 or greater. In 2010, 149 students scored an ATAR of 90 or greater and 42 of students scored an ATAR of 99 or greater. Students are surveyed for their ATARs at the annual school brunch in the last week term 4 following the release of the ATARs. In the file below, students not in attendance have their ATARs estimated from their actual HSC results, using a reliable estimator program.

ATAR/UAI Breakdown 2001-2010

Each year, the Principal, Dr K Jaggar, gives a presentation on the results of the previous year. In 2011 this meeting was held during the P&C Meeting on Wednesday, February 16 in the Great Hall. The presentation document is provided below:

HSC Results 2010 Presentation
HSC Results 2009 Presentation
HSC Results 2008 Presentation
HSC Results 2007 Presentation

Students in Year 12 in NSW public schools are by the School Certificiate into higher, middle and lower performing students. Value-added progress analysis consists of graphs that show the comparison between School Certificate and Higher School Certificate results for each cohort in certain school groups:

HSC 2009 - Value-Added Progress - All Selective Schools
HSC 2009 - Value-Added Progress - Better Selective Schools
HSC 2009 - Value-Added Progress - Selective Boys Schools

Where Better Selective Schools is the combined value added results for the top six selective schools: James Ruse Agricultural High School, Baulkham Hills High School, North Sydney Girls High School, Hornsby Girls High School, Sydney Girls High School and North Sydney Boys High School.

The school's strength continues to be Mathematics. Students achieving, on average, for 2009 a score 5 marks above the state average in Mathematics, 7 marks above the state in Math Extension 1 and 13 marks above the state in Maths Extension 2. The school is similarly strong in sciences, social sciences, history and industrial arts/technology. The school's English results are not as strong, however figures demonstrate an improvement over time with English Advanced results now 6 marks above the state mean.

Subject HSC Results by Area (State vs School) 2001-2009
Subject ATAR/UAI Results by Area (State vs School) 2004-2009

Since the introduction of the New HSC in 2001, the number of "Band 6" results - scores of over 90 in a subject - have been steadily increasing across the state with a 54% increase in 2007 over 2001. This has been reflected in the school with a 80% increase in the number of band 6 scores in 2007 over 2001.

Growth of Band 6 Results 2001-2009

Broken down subject by subject, in numerical terms Sydney Boys High sees the majority of its Band 6 results in Mathematics and the Maths Extension subjects followed by English, sciences (Physics and Chemistry) and Economics. Small candidature subjects can achieve high percentage band 6 results - languages, Music, Ancient History, Visual Arts, Engineering Studies and Software Design.

Band 6 Results by Subject 2004-2010

Each year students who score 90 or above in 10 or more units of study are placed on the HSC All-Round Achievers list. In the 2010 HSC, 39 students placed on this list: Liam Aylmer, Andre Brokman, Michael Carr, Gareth Chan, Justin Chan, Dale Chen, Eric Feng, Oliver Fio, Matthew Fong, Jay Gao, Adarsh George, James Han, Jia He, Patrick Hsiao, Hugh Huang, Shejil Kumar, Jeffrey Lam, Michael Le, Tian Li, Kai Lin, Richard Lin, Weibo Liu, Robert Lu, Daniel Luo, Vithushan Mohan, Phillip Nguyen, Ashwin Ramesh, Sameep Sandhu, Joshua Sutton, Kieran Taylor, Aaron Tran, Mohammed Uddin, Nelson Wang, Michael Wang, Christopher Wong, Evan Wong, John Wormell, Adrian Zhang, Roger Zhang.

Particular congratulations to the following students in the 2010 HSC who all placed on state order of merit for the top 20 results in a subject: Kai Lin (11th in Chemistry), Vithushan Mohan (12th in Chemistry and 5th in Physics), John Wormell (1st in Classical Greek and 5th in Classical Greek Extension), Anirban Ghose (4th aeq in Engineering Studies); Aaron Tran (11th in English Advanced), Joshua Sutton (8th in Legal Studies), Max Wei (3rd in Mathematics), Dennis Kim (4th in Mathematics), Jonathan Mok (20th aeq in Mathematics), Jeffrey Lam (2nd aeq in Software Design and Development).

Over 98% of Sydney High students go on to university education once they complete their HSC. Popular courses for students include business and commerce courses, various combined law degrees, medical sciences and engineering. The breakdown of degree programs for the Class of 2010 (entering university in 2011) follows:

Degree Programs - 2001-2010

The general trend is for at least one third (and up to a half) of students to attend the University of New South Wales, another third attend the University of Sydney and the remainder are spread primarily to the University of Technology, Sydney and Macquarie University, but some attending other universities around the state, inter-state and overseas. In 2009 (2010 entry), half of all students chose to attend the University of New South Wales, with larger numbers attending the University of Western Sydney than has been seen in recent years.

The full table of student destinations between 1995 and 2008 (entering university between 1996 and 2011) is also available:
Student Destinations 1995-2010

Noticeable trends for the 2011 entry include:

• A rebound in the numbers of students studying Engineering and combined law degrees.
• Strong numbers of students studying Commerce/Business degrees
• A substantially larger cohort than in the previous ten years studying in the design/planning area
• A recovery in Computing and Information Systems
• Fewer students undertaking a course at UNSW, with higher numbers at UTS and the continued decline of Macquarie