There was agony and ecstasy as teenagers across East Sussex finally opened their A-level results yesterday.

For some it was confirmation of their hard work. Others gasped with surprise at unexpected passes or fails.

The sun shone as students filed into the gym at Park College, Kings Drive, Eastbourne, to queue up for results then rush outside to find friends and phone their families.

Bottles of champagne were in evidence for those expecting success.

Talk was of offers, points and plans for evening celebrations or commiserations.

Susie Darwent, 18, from Eastbourne, was among the success stories at the college.

Susie achieved six As in five A-level subjects and one AS-level subject.

She will go on to study English at the University of East Anglia but yesterday was looking forward to ending two years of hard work with a night of celebrations.

She said: "I'm relieved but obviously very pleased as well. I was really nervous before I came in but I am pleased we've got them."

Similar scores were achieved by Sarah Burson, who notched up four As and will go to Cambridge to read English.

Maria Cox, 17, dismissed the idea exams were getting easier.

She said: "It is not true. We do well because we have worked very hard and there is so much expected of us."

More than 2,800 students were entered for A-levels at Park College and 100 per cent pass rates were recorded in 17 subjects including drama, French and history.

Next door on the Eastbourne campus of Sussex Downs College, staff and students celebrated a similar success story.

The college, formerly Ecat, recently merged with Lewes sixth form to become the biggest further education centre in the country.

Yesterday, students achieved a 92 per cent pass rate in Eastbourne and 95 per cent at the Lewes sixth form centre.

More than 500 pupils took A-level and AS-levels and Eastbourne students bumped the pass rate up by six per cent from last year.

Principal Dr John Blake said: "I'm greatly impressed by all of the students who have worked extremely hard to achieve their dreams."

Girls at private school Moira House were called in one by one for their results, while anxious parents waited by the school gates.

Lorna Clark, 17, gained two As and a B in English literature, maths and history.

She said: "I really wasn't expecting them. I can't quite believe it. I worked hard and I hoped I would do well but you never know."

Students achieved a 94 per cent pass rate, with 64 per cent of pupils passing with grades A to C.

Headteacher Ann Harris said: "Moira House has enjoyed another excellent year and I have to congratulate the girls on their examination successes. I also have to pay tribute to their teachers."

Across the rest of East Sussex, sixth form centres told of rising passes.

Students in Hastings, Bexhill and Seaford all waited with bated breath for the brown envelopes which contained their passports to the future.

Sixth-form students at St Leonards-Mayfield School in Mayfield were delighted at their 100 per cent pass rate.

Headteacher Julia Dalton said: "With the new AS examinations dominating the first year in the sixth form, the pressures to succeed in exams are unrelenting.

"This year group were the first year to take the AS exams and it is especially to their credit that they have done so brilliantly this year.

"We are delighted that at St Leonards-Mayfield School those girls who achieved such a remarkable clutch of A-grades also found the time to join in a wide range of other activities, ranging from completing the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award, singing solo in the Messiah to gaining the performer's diploma on the cello."

Eastbourne College celebrated a 92 per cent pass rate, with particular success going to Fiona Wiles and Alice Myerson, whose results were among the top five highest results in the country in physics.

General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers David Hart said: "The results are a tribute to the efforts of students and their teachers. They have come up trumps despite all the pressures imposed by an overloaded examination system.

"Nobody should be the least bit surprised standards have risen, partly because students have used the AS level process to generate the best possible results in order to gain university admission or good jobs."

The number of students who studied maths dropped by 20 per cent this year and Mr Hart said it marked a serious crisis.

He said: "The most urgent steps must be taken to recruit more maths teachers and to encourage more students to take mathematics, otherwise higher education research and economic performance could be at risk."

Holy Trinity School in Gossops Green, Crawley, also achieved an enviable 98 per cent pass rate, with 65 per cent of the 185 pupils sitting exams getting A or B grades.

Deputy head Peter Sumner, who has been compiling the results for more than 12 years described them as "record-breaking".

Richard Parrish, head of sixth form, said: "This year has seen more examinations than before. Students have really turned up trumps."

In East Grinstead, students at Imberhorne School were breaking out the champagne after achieving a record pass rate of 97 per cent.

Of the grades awarded, 58 per cent were either A, B or C and 39 students taking the new advanced-level vocational qualifications, equivalent to two A-levels, achieved a 95 per cent pass rate.

Headteacher John Morrison said: "I'm pleased with the work of students and staff.

"Students of all abilities have achieved their potential and have overcome the difficulties involved with the introduction of the new qualifications."