The suspense and the sleepless nights are finally over for the 472,541 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2012 candidates, as the much-awaited results were finally announced earlier this morning.

This year's SPM results also marks another new high, after 13,721 public school students scored full A's, an increase of 751 candidates compared to the 16,970 straight A's scorers a year ago.

From the amount, 481 candidates from public and private schools have managed to score an A+ for all their subjects.

However, the national average grade (GPN), which measures a student's overall performance in the examination, took a slight dip from 5.04 in 2011 to 5.08 in 2012. A lower GPN score represents better overall performance.

The Education Ministry added that there was an increase in performance for 51 subjects, including 2 core subjects; Mathematics and Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral).