One of the star performing schools in the north was Inverness’s Millburn Academy where 15 pupils passed with straight As.
Some of the S5 higher pupils took time out from their summer holidays to celebrate together at the school.
One of their number, 17-year-old Sarah Desmond even ended up six highers at A level, having begun her studies in Australia at the beginning of the year before moving to Inverness.
Several of the high-achieving pupils plan to go on to university to study medicine and so faced a nervous wait to see if they had achieved the grades to get onto the famously competitive courses.
Among them was 17-year-old Christy Crook who said: “I literally had my fingers crossed.
“I had thought it went OK but you never know do you.”
Another straight A student was James Walton, 16, who plans to study engineering at university.
He is set to take a giant leap for Millburn Academy with a trip to Texas in October to spent time around the engineers at Nasa.
It is the third straight year that Millburn has achieved double figures with straight A passes with 12 in 2014 and 13 last year.
Meanwhile, across the city, Shona Urquhart from Inverness High School also achieved the distinction of being a straight As student. Shona was out of the country on a Department for Education expedition.