Northern Ireland's GCSE results show a 1.5% increase in the amount of students getting A or A* grades.
The number attaining A to C grades is up by just over 2%. More than a quarter achieved A or A* and almost all who entered passed their exams.
In a break with tradition, students received their results from all examination boards on Thursday.
In the past, the local board, the CCEA, had its results ready by Tuesday of this week.
Students then had to wait another two days for results from the English and Welsh boards.
The results show students in Northern Ireland are again doing better that those in England and Wales in the higher grades - they are 2% ahead in A* and 5% ahead in A-star to C.
There has been a big rise in those doing single single sciences with biology entries up by 73% and chemistry by 40%.
In languages the numbers doing Irish and French have both fallen.
The overall number doing both A-level and GCSEs has dropped, probably due to a fall in population numbers in that age group.
^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~05~RS~)