Ref. 71829-10 Rajinder Singh SangharaA-LEVEL RESULTS: EXCITED chatter filled the dining hall of New College as students queued up to find out whether they had made the grade or not.

And many of them were overjoyed to be heading to some of the country's top universities 12 of them will be studying at Oxford or Cambridge.

The overall pass rate was 97 per cent with 22 students achieving three A grades or more. 68 per cent of grades were between A and C.

Rajinder Singh Sanghara, 18, earned five straight As in history, ICT, maths, philosophy and business studies.

He will be studying for a BSc in management at the London School of Economics.

Rajinder, who lives in the town centre, said: "I feel really high, I have had a lot of support from all my teachers.

"I called my parents straight away and they were really happy.

"I felt ill when I woke up this morning, really nervous and anxious but now everything is great."

Thomas Jellis, 18, will be studying geography at Oxford University after gaining four As in maths, chemistry, French and geography.

He said: "I am really looking forward to university life."

New College is Swindon and Wiltshire's largest A level centre with 490 students receiving their grades yesterday the highest number of candidates in a year.

Among them Chris Lawrence and Owen Weller scored in the top five marks out of the country's mathematics candidates, Claire Lesley-Beaton and Vincenza Galati were in the top five for art and design and Daniel Hazelton was in the country's top five for Fine Art.

Neel Issuree, 18, from the town centre, achieved four As in maths, physics, computers and further maths.

He will be going to Imperial College in London to study for a joint degree in Maths and Computing.

He said: "I chose New College because it had a good reputation and the range of courses I wanted to do."

He hopes to become an investment banker.

Claire Crichton, 18, of Highworth, got three As in biology, psychology and sport. She is taking a Gap year to work in an Aids orphanage in South Africa.

After that she will study sports and exercise science at Bath University.

She said: "I had to get three As to get onto my course so I am over the moon."

Principal Graham Taylor said: "The A level results this year reflect a top class performance and are a credit to the talented and hardworking students and a tribute to the efforts and support of New College staff.

"The results mean that virtually every New College student will get to their first choice university and those going straight into work will have an excellent set of results for their CV, providing a good platform for their first job."