Education is the biggest employer in the Bathurst region and Thursday, arguably, will be the biggest day of the year in education.

Because at the same time as one group of students farewells its time at university, another group will be taking a big step towards starting.

Hundreds of local Year 12 students will be up early on Thursday to receive their Higher School Certificate results, the first milestone in their two-step path to university admission.

They will pore over the results and some will cheer while some will cry.

And most of them will go through the stress again just 24 hours later when they receive their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) – the magic number that will decide where those students with their eye on university education will embark on the next stage of their learning.

But Thursday also marks the start of Bathurst’s university graduation season, when hundreds more students return to the city to receive their degrees to mark the end of their tertiary education.

At least the graduating uni students know what to expect from the day.

The poor Year 12s have been left biting their nails for more than a month and many will believe the success or failure of their schooling hangs on Thursday’s results.

Which is, of course, nonsense.

Every student and every young person is far more than the sum of their exam results. And the totality of what they’ve learned at school can never be measured in simple numbers.

Life is not defined by one exam, an HSC or ATAR score. They are certainly important, but in reality are just more building blocks to an individual’s desired future.

Not the end, but a beginning.

If students achieve less now than they hoped to that is not a barrier to ultimate success.

There are plenty of successful people in our community who did not excel at school and only found their niche long after their final exams.

There is always a second chance. If marks are not what they expected they can have another go, choose another course or find a different path to reach their goals.

If school taught our students anything, then it should be try, try, try again.

That is how you succeed.