Its muffled sound at 6am heralding the moment for which the 'class of COVID' had been waiting. Finally, their HSC results would be known.

"I actually fell asleep on my phone, that's the only reason I was up that early to see what I got," said Cassie Sutton from The Riverina Anglican College.

When the ATARs were released at 10am, the 18-year-old had made the bold decision to check her results while in public.

She was "ecstatic" to find hers was 88.25, which she hopes will aid her into a degree in vet sciences with Charles Sturt University.

"I received my [ATAR] over coffee with mum at a cafe. I said to her, 'I'm either going to cry from happiness or sadness, but either way, you'll have to make sure no-one sees me'."

All Thursday, Cassie was brimming with excitement. She even had to remind TRAC college captain Marina Gabra to check her results.

"I sort of forgot about it completely," 18-year-old Marina said.

"I did want to know, I mean the last 13 years has led up to this moment, but I also didn't want to be defined by just a number. I've learned a lot more at school than just that."

Nevertheless, Marina was pleased with her 84.85 ATAR and will be on her way to studying a bachelor of arts and international relations at Wollongong University next year.

Lily Hamilton, 18, received an ATAR of 95.05, which she believes would have been second only to one other student in her year at TRAC.

"My goal was to get an 86, then I thought maybe I could get a 90, but I had convinced myself I'd get an 89," Lily said.

"I did so much better than I expected. I was happy with my efforts [in the exams] but I still felt bad about how I went."

2020 proved an incredibly challenging year for 17-year-old Michael Nixon at Kooringal High School.

Not only did he achieve a 98.45 ATAR in the HSC, but he also completed his American-standard SAT by placing in the 99.8 percentile.

It meant that the student faced two lots of gruelling exams throughout the year.

"There were only a few days, maybe a week between the [HSC and SAT] exams, I had to study for both at the same time," Michael said.

"I did want to do the SAT earlier in the year, but COVID pushed it back in the year. The restrictions in the exam were also a lot more strict, I had to wear a mask the whole time."

The anxious wait is not over for Michael. Armed now with his impressive international tertiary ranking, he is hoping to head to Stanford University in California, USA.

But it will be late-March before he knows if he has been accepted.

Despite being almost two years younger than her entire cohort, 16-year-old Chenny Sabay finished at the top of Wagga Christian College's ATAR pile.

She didn't wish for her number to be known publicly, but said that she received "in the high 80s".

"I was surprised by how I felt when I opened [the text message]," said the college vice-captain.

"It felt like this was the official handover like this was the end of the era."

Chenny moved to Australia from the Philippines in 2013 and proved her academic merit when she was accelerated from year 5 to year 7.

"I'm one of the babies of the year group because I missed year 6," she said.

"Year 12 was my first graduation because I didn't have one in year 6, [and this year] was a different kind of graduation [due to COVID]. That sort of makes it more special though."

She celebrated her results with a "bowl of ice-cream and a video call back home" to her family in the Philippines.

Next year, Chenny is hoping to begin a pathway to studying medicine, but she is still unsure on where she would like to begin her degree.

"I want to do rural medicine," she said.

"Maybe, I'll do medical research back in the Philippines. There's so much that can still be done and I want to do what I can to help."

Edward 'Ned' Prescott from Wagga High School was awarded a prestigious all-rounder award from the NSW Department of Education after scoring in the top band in more than 10 of his units.

He asked that his ATAR result not be disclosed publicly, but The Daily Advertiser can reveal he placed in the top 1 per cent of the country and came 9th overall in the advanced mathematics course.

"I wasn't paying too much attention to the results, [but] when you see you've got high exam results I guess it's then confirmed with a high ATAR as well," the student said.

Next year, Ned is now looking to study a bachelor of engineering in Wollongong, Canberra or Sydney.

"I'm still looking into where I want to go, I think it will come down to the location and where I think will be the best fit," he said.

A representative of the Catholic Education Diocese of Wagga Wagga told The Daily Advertiser it had one student - Zachary Morehouse from Mater Dei Catholic College - who placed 8th in legal studies.

With the release of results comes a collective sigh of relief from the graduating class that will go down in history.

Not only did the 66,000 students in the class of 2020 contend with the usual stressors of the HSC exams, but their senior year was also marred by the pandemic.

"This is an inspiring cohort of students and I congratulate them for rising to the occasion," said Sarah Mitchell, NSW minister for education.

The Daily Advertiser contacted each high school in Wagga to celebrate the HSC achievements. Several schools chose not to participate in this story.