TAVISTOCK College pupils celebrated a crop of fine results in GCSE examinations on results day last Thursday.
Principal John Simes said the college was bucking the national trend of girls achieving better grades than boys in the exams, as girls and boys at Tavistock had performed equally well.
He said: 'They have done outstandingly well yet again.' Mr Simes said media coverage which suggested GCSE and A-level examinations were getting easier was unfair.
'The examinations are not getting easier, every year, we have comments in the media about the exams getting easier. I can tell anyone, that some of the work I did in the sixth form, including Shakespeare plays, we are now doing in Year 7.
'It seems to me that young people are working very hard and schools are getting very intelligent in the way they prepare students for the examinations.'
Mr Simes said Year 11 students had achieved exceptionally high levels in languages, especially Japanese and French. The other subjects with particularly good GCSE pass rates were physics, biology, physical education and maths and English.
Mr Simes said around 10 per cent of students had achieved all subjects at the highest level of A or A*.
He said he did not yet have the complete picture of the college's GCSE results, because some science and English papers had been submitted for re-marking.
However, Mr Simes said all the Year 11 students had now sorted out their next options, with many meeting the high entry requirement set this year to carry on their studies in Tavistock's sixth form. He said he was also pleased the sixth form was expanding with a number of international students joining next term.
Last week, Tavistock College A-level students recorded the college's highest ever pass rate of more than 95 per cent.