Students in Northern Ireland received the most top grades of any region in the UK in this year's GCSE results, which were released today.
More than 78 per cent of students earned A, B or C grades - a 0.7 percentage point increase on last year.
The proportion of students receiving A grades also rose this year, reaching 28.6 per cent.
Just under a third of those students received an A* grade, the highest result in the exams.
GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams are usually taken by students in the UK in their fifth year of secondary school.
The exams are sat two years before students take their A-Levels in final year.
There was a notable improvement in the performance in mathematics this year, with two-thirds of candidates awarded a C or higher, up 0.4 percentage points on 2014.
Female students are also still well ahead of their male classmates in terms of GCSE performance, with 82.2 per cent of all female entries in Northern Ireland gaining a C grade or higher, up 0.5 percentage points on last year.
The percentage of male entries achieving the equivalent top grades rose a full percentage point to 75.1 per cent this year.
‘Steady improvement’
Justin Edwards, chief executive of Northern Ireland's awarding organisation, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), said: "This year's results show a steady improvement in A*- C grades.
“Importantly, the grades in English and mathematics have continued to build on the good performance of recent years.”
A-Level results released last week showed similar patterns, with Northern Ireland students outperforming their counterparts in Britain.