It was a mixture of relief, surprise and happiness for local year 12 graduates as they received their HSC results on Thursday and ATARs on Friday morning.

Jack Montgomery was the only student from Moree Secondary College to get a band six this year, achieving the top band in mathematics.

He scored a band five in PDHPE and band fours in the remainder of his subjects - English, Primary Industries and physics.

"I wasn't expecting to get that high," he said.

"After the exams, I was like, 'man, I flunked that'.

"But now I feel like I could have done better."

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Jack currently has "no idea" what he wants to do after school but is planning on having a gap year to save money and figure out his next steps.

Elka Devney was another high achiever, receiving band fives in each of her subjects - society and culture, dance, PDHPE, advanced English and mathematics - and E3 in extension English.

"I am happy," Elka said.

"In quite a few of my subjects I was one or two marks off getting a band six, but it is what it is.

"I'm still happy with band fives, especially after the year we've had. Remote learning didn't make it easy.

"I'm happy it's over."

Elka will be heading to the Gold Coast next year to study communications, majoring in journalism and PR, at Bond University.

She has secured a leadership scholarship which will cover part of her tuition at the private university which she said will help "a lot".

"I had to get a certain ATAR to keep that, so I got what I needed," Elka said.

Elka has received a few other scholarships to help her study next year.

Fellow student Grace Carter also hopes to study communications at university next year, and received a total of eight early entry offers for various universities.

At this stage, she is leaning towards the University of Newcastle degree, however can't decide whether to go straight to university or move to the Gold Coast for a gap year.

Grace received a band five in legal studies and band fours in the remainder of her subjects - advanced English, drama, ancient history and mathematics advanced.

"It was better than I thought I would go," she said.

"Maths was really surprising. I got 74 in advanced maths which I wasn't expecting."

Grace said she's relieved finally get her results, but "a little bit sad" now that school is over for good.

"I really liked school life," she said.

"It was a lot simpler. It's been very strange the past few weeks not getting up and going to school every day."

Brennan Cumberland also did well in the HSC, although while he was pleased with his results he was a little disappointed when he saw his ATAR on Friday.

"I saw my marks for my subjects and was pleased with those, but that and my ATAR didn't match up," he said.

Brennan received all band fours - in advanced English, legal studies, drama, ancient history and agriculture - however just missed out on a band five in agriculture.

"Agriculture was my best subject, surprisingly," he said.

"It was the day before or the day after legal studies and because there was way more content for legal studies I studied a lot more for it. I still focused on agriculture, but I didn't think it would be as good."

He also got an E2 in extension history.

While Brennan was happy with his marks, he didn't need to worry about achieving a certain ATAR as he also received a number of early entry offers.

He has accepted his offer to study international studies at the University of Wollongong and will be moving down there in February.

"I'm not quite sure what I want to do with it yet, which is why I'm doing both majors - international relations and global sustainable development," Brennan said.

Moree Secondary College congratulated all its year 12 students on their achievements this year.

"Results are out and congratulations to all those students who received outstanding results, but a special congratulations to those students who stretched their results in the face of great uncertainty," the school said in a Facebook post.

"Remember to celebrate the successes you have made. Your future is immense!"