IT was a Thursday that could dictate the rest of their lives. That's how many Barton Peveril College students must have felt as, with a swarm of butterflies in their stomachs, they filed through the gates of the giant campus in Chestnut Avenue.

For this was D-day, or rather A-day, when teenagers would find out whether all that swotting and burning the midnight oil had paid off.

Others preferred to stay at home, where at 8.30am they were able to fire up their computers and find out their fate by going online.

However, there is nothing quite like ripping open those all-important brown envelopes to discover how you have fared. It is also nice to celebrate with your pals and find a shoulder to sob on if the results have not quite gone your way.

There are also those traditional jumping up in the air poses for the cameras.

They really were jumping for joy at Barton Peveril, where they chalked up another record year. The A-level pass rate was 98.7 per cent, with 71.5 per cent A-C passes from an entry of 2,513.

This was well above the national average and shows an increase on last year's pass rate of 98.3 per cent.

Barton Peveril principal Godfrey Glyn dismissed as a "load of nonsense" claims that A-levels were getting easier.

He said: "Our students have achieved outstanding results this summer. The sun is really shining today at Barton Peveril with our highest ever pass rate."

The results were just the tonic for 18-year-old Rhian Hinton, who clinched As in biology, chemistry and maths, which was more than enough to book her place at Southampton University, where she will read medicine.

"I was 18 yesterday so this is a perfect birthday present. I am going to be a doctor!" - she cried as she prepared to shout her examination success from the rooftops.

Eighteen-year-old Justin Joachlim, from Totton, also had plenty to shout about.

He opened his brown envelope to find that he had four As, including environmental science, where his results were in the top five in the country.