This report ranks the best NSW HSC schools in order of their Distinguished Achiever success rates in 2020.
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 | 68.18 | 1034 | 705 |
| 2 | Baulkham Hills High School | Baulkham Hills | 2 | 63.69 | 1256 | 800 |
| 3 | North Sydney Boys High School | Crows Nest | 3 | 59.64 | 882 | 526 |
| 4 | North Sydney Girls High School | Crows Nest | 4 | 58.68 | 922 | 541 |
| 5 | Sydney Grammar School | Darlinghurst | 5 | 58.06 | 1154 | 670 |
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| 6 | Hornsby Girls High School | Hornsby | 6 | 54.63 | 723 | 395 |
| 7 | Normanhurst Boys High School | Normanhurst | 7 | 54.62 | 736 | 402 |
| 8 | Conservatorium High School | Sydney | 8 | 52.05 | 171 | 89 |
| 9 | Sydney Girls High School | Surry Hills | 9 | 50.97 | 979 | 499 |
| 10 | Sydney Boys High School | Moore Park | 10 | 47.49 | 1255 | 596 |
| 11 | Ascham School | Edgecliff | 11 | 46.32 | 639 | 296 |
| 12 | Reddam House Bondi Campus | North Bondi | 12 | 45.72 | 643 | 294 |
| 13 | Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus | North Curl Curl | 13 | 44.97 | 805 | 362 |
| 14 | SCEGGS Darlinghurst | Darlinghurst | 14 | 43.69 | 689 | 301 |
| 15 | Wenona School | North Sydney | 15 | 43.36 | 821 | 356 |
| 16 | Abbotsleigh | Wahroonga | 16 | 42.67 | 935 | 399 |
| 17 | Meriden School | Strathfield | 17 | 42.16 | 899 | 379 |
| 18 | Fort Street High School | Petersham | 18 | 41.95 | 913 | 383 |
| 19 | Knox Grammar School | Wahroonga | 19 | 40.92 | 2065 | 845 |
| 20 | St Aloysius College | Milsons Point | 20 | 40.66 | 915 | 372 |
| 21 | Kambala | Rose Bay | 21 | 39.76 | 410 | 163 |
| 22 | Presbyterian Ladies College Sydney | Croydon | 22 | 39.47 | 674 | 266 |
| 23 | Loreto Kirribilli | Kirribilli | 23 | 39.13 | 800 | 313 |
| 24 | St Lukes Grammar School | Dee Why | 24 | 38.26 | 528 | 202 |
| 25 | Tangara School for Girls | Cherrybrook | 25 | 36.97 | 165 | 61 |