PUPILS across Croydon are discovering whether months of revision and hard work has paid off, with many posting remarkable GCSE results.
Aaron Moore, 16, achieved highly despite having not yet fully recovered from a brain tumour he was diagnosed with two years ago.
The Harris Academy South Norwood pupil achieved an A, 6 Bs, a C and a distinction in his travel and tourism BTEC.
He said: "I'm really happy because it was hard to do all this work while recovering from treatment.
"I still have a few problems relating to the cancer but I am mainly better now and I want to be a journalist."
Oasis Academy Coulsdon pupil Manikandan Nagaraj could not speak any English when he arrived in the UK from India when he was ten-years-old.
Now 16, he was almost speechless with delight after realising he had achieved 14 GCSEs, nine of which were at A* to C grades.
Ricardo Barra, 16, achieved 13 grades between A* and A and was Harris Academy South Norwood's top performing pupil.
He said: "I worked really hard and wanted to get the right results to study physics, maths and further maths at A-Level here at Harris."
George Brown, 16, from Harris Academy Purley, said the school becoming an academy took him from troubled pupil to top of the class.
"Education was way below average before we became and academy in 2009," he said.
"I was excluded almost every week. If someone had said I would get three As people would have laughed.
"We get loads of support from teachers and the people around us make us believe we can aim high."
The McLeod family of Thornton Heath are celebrating the success of twins Natalie and Marcus, 16, pupils at Oasis Academy Coulsdon.
Natalie scored five A*s, six As and three Bs while her brother got one A, three Bs and five Cs.
Natalie, who is now planning to go to Richmond Upon Thames College with her brother, said: "I'm relieved and really happy. When I was revising I made sure I turned off Facebook so I wasn't distracted."
Marcus said: "I'm really pleased with my results."
Their mother Lurline added: "I'm relieved they've done well because well because they both worked so hard for it. I'm very pleased for them."
Tahniya Rahman, a student at Harris Academy Purley, hopes her impressive GCSE results will help her towards her dream of becoming a human rights lawyer helping children in developing countries.
The 16-year-old's 12 GCSEs included 3 A*s in maths, additional maths and finance.
"There's a big difference between the old school and this one,"she said.
"I did so much better than I expected. I'm so happy."
