This report ranks the best NSW HSC schools in order of their Distinguished Achiever success rates in 2021.
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 | 70.58 | 1006 | 710 |
| 2 | North Sydney Boys High School | Crows Nest | 2 | 59.29 | 953 | 565 |
| 3 | Baulkham Hills High School | Baulkham Hills | 3 | 58.24 | 1207 | 703 |
| 4 | Sydney Grammar School | Darlinghurst | 4 | 56.13 | 1167 | 655 |
| 5 | Sydney Girls High School | Surry Hills | 5 | 53.23 | 1007 | 536 |
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| 6 | Reddam House Bondi Campus | North Bondi | 6 | 52.34 | 640 | 335 |
| 7 | Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus | North Curl Curl | 7 | 51.99 | 804 | 418 |
| 8 | Hornsby Girls High School | Hornsby | 8 | 51 | 700 | 357 |
| 9 | North Sydney Girls High School | Crows Nest | 9 | 49.25 | 871 | 429 |
| 10 | Normanhurst Boys High School | Normanhurst | 10 | 49.15 | 763 | 375 |
| 11 | Kambala | Rose Bay | 11 | 47.68 | 518 | 247 |
| 12 | Meriden School | Strathfield | 12 | 47.09 | 841 | 396 |
| 13 | Sydney Boys High School | Moore Park | 13 | 46.55 | 1246 | 580 |
| 14 | Conservatorium High School | Sydney | 14 | 43.92 | 189 | 83 |
| 15 | Abbotsleigh | Wahroonga | 15 | 43.79 | 1039 | 455 |
| 16 | Ascham School | Edgecliff | 16 | 43.77 | 610 | 267 |
| 17 | SCEGGS Darlinghurst | Darlinghurst | 17 | 42.15 | 650 | 274 |
| 18 | Moriah College | Queens Park | 18 | 40.47 | 635 | 257 |
| 19 | Girraween High School | Girraween | 19 | 39.43 | 814 | 321 |
| 20 | Ravenswood School for Girls | Gordon | 20 | 38.73 | 519 | 201 |
| 21 | Loreto Kirribilli | Kirribilli | 21 | 38.67 | 781 | 302 |
| 22 | Fort Street High School | Petersham | 22 | 38.65 | 960 | 371 |
| 23 | St Catherines School | Waverley | 23 | 38.42 | 557 | 214 |
| 24 | Wenona School | North Sydney | 24 | 38.26 | 690 | 264 |
| 25 | Pymble Ladies College | Pymble | 25 | 36.67 | 1189 | 436 |