AS ROXANNE Mashadi opened her tiny brown envelope she flung her arms around school friend, Grace George, as she became one of an elite group of students to be awarded 10 A*s.
Chelmsford County High School has experienced another year of record results with 88.23% receiving A*s to As.
This also meant out of 120 students, 105 achieved eight or more A*s to As.
"I have been working for my GCSEs since I have been very young, I want to be a vet so I need the best grades," said Roxanne, 16, from Danbury.
"I could not say what the key to the best grades was, revision groups at the end of the year really helped."
Her friend, Meera Gajjar, who also got 10 A*s, added: "You don't get made fun of for wanting to do well here."
"I revised a sufficient amount, I did not want to overdo it, and I did as much as I could do."
Lydia Hepworth, from Chelmsford, who tallied up 11 A*s, said: "I just took every day as it came, I think that is the key to doing well, do not think too far in advance.
"Being on study leave means I had a lot of down time, and I actually watched a lot of TV, in fact I had more downtime than I did studying."
Bethany Jackson, 16, from Bicknacre, who got an impressive 10 A*s said: "I spent a lot of hours stuck in my room on my own.
"It is nice to have friends who have the same sort of ideas as your own, and we all get similar grades because we work together and feed off of each other's energy."
