This report ranks the best NSW HSC schools in order of their Distinguished Achiever success rates in 2018.
A school's Distinguished Achiever success rate is the proportion of all HSC subject completions by all students in a given year that resulted in a Distinguished Achiever award.
Where two schools have equal Distinguished Achiever success rates, the total number of HSC subject completions is used as a secondary ranking measure, with larger totals being ranked higher.
School ranking positions are assigned to the top 200 schools (at most).
Note that this report is an excerpt. To see the complete set of award statistics for each school, please go to the NSW School HSC Statistics report.
| 1 | James Ruse Agricultural High School | Carlingford | 1 | 74.73 | 1001 | 748 |
| 2 | North Sydney Boys High School | Crows Nest | 2 | 58.13 | 965 | 561 |
| 3 | Sydney Grammar School | Darlinghurst | 3 | 57.07 | 1244 | 710 |
| 4 | Sydney Girls High School | Surry Hills | 4 | 51.83 | 1040 | 539 |
| 5 | Baulkham Hills High School | Baulkham Hills | 5 | 51.03 | 1266 | 646 |
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| 6 | North Sydney Girls High School | Crows Nest | 6 | 49.95 | 955 | 477 |
| 7 | Sydney Boys High School | Moore Park | 7 | 45.87 | 1223 | 561 |
| 8 | Hornsby Girls High School | Hornsby | 8 | 45.6 | 750 | 342 |
| 9 | Reddam House Bondi Campus | North Bondi | 9 | 45.17 | 538 | 243 |
| 10 | Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus | North Curl Curl | 10 | 44.59 | 776 | 346 |
| 11 | Abbotsleigh | Wahroonga | 11 | 44.22 | 986 | 436 |
| 12 | Meriden School | Strathfield | 12 | 41.39 | 749 | 310 |
| 13 | Wenona School | North Sydney | 13 | 41.03 | 663 | 272 |
| 14 | Kambala | Rose Bay | 14 | 40.28 | 504 | 203 |
| 15 | Fort Street High School | Petersham | 15 | 39.37 | 945 | 372 |
| 16 | Normanhurst Boys High School | Normanhurst | 16 | 39.23 | 775 | 304 |
| 17 | Presbyterian Ladies College Sydney | Croydon | 17 | 38.82 | 662 | 257 |
| 18 | Ascham School | Edgecliff | 18 | 38.61 | 531 | 205 |
| 19 | St George Girls High School | Kogarah | 19 | 36.67 | 908 | 333 |
| 20 | Girraween High School | Girraween | 20 | 36.31 | 840 | 305 |
| 21 | Pymble Ladies College | Pymble | 21 | 36.12 | 1426 | 515 |
| 22 | SHORE Sydney Church of England Grammar School | North Sydney | 22 | 35.88 | 1087 | 390 |
| 23 | Knox Grammar School | Wahroonga | 23 | 35.32 | 1866 | 659 |
| 24 | Sydney Technical High School | Bexley | 24 | 32.91 | 872 | 287 |
| 25 | SCEGGS Darlinghurst | Darlinghurst | 25 | 32.89 | 675 | 222 |