In addition to this honour - which means he received top-band marks in 10 or more units - the Smith's Hill High School student's Italian marks were the fourth highest in the state, following closely behind his classmate Rachel Dowavic who was ranked second in that subject.

Patrick was joined by five other Smith's Hill students - Lucca Barrone-Peters, Michelle Royters, Adrian Wright, Nicholas Zengoski and Yan Zhe Xu - and roughly 1200 students from around NSW on the all-round HSC achievers list.

He attributed his high Italian marks to a love of languages - he also studied French - and some healthy competition from his classmates.

"We had an excellent class with a lot of people who were really gunning for high marks and were able to support each other and spur each other on to reach for the stars," Patrick said.

"Rachel was always the best in our class so there was always a level of modelling your achievements against hers and that slightly competitive but non-threatening environment certainly helped."

Language teacher Margaret Lobmayr said she wasn't surprised by her students' high marks, as she had spotted their talent and watched them work tirelessly throughout the year.

"I knew right from the beginning that they would do well, because they were very interested in the language," she said.

"They're very clever students and I only had to feed them with the work and they did the rest, so the credit is for them."

Adrian, Michelle and Nicholas also excelled in their studies for French, Japanese and German respectively, which Ms Lobmayr said had probably contributed to their HSC success.

"Learning a language helps students to see wider with every other subject ... and it also helps them to understand the English language better," she said.