In its report on the 2020 SPM results, the education ministry said the number of students who obtained credits, or Cs, in all subjects improved slightly from 77,038 to 77,731.

A total of 144,447 candidates passed all subjects, a slight decrease compared to the 147,738 the year before, it said.

A total of 401,105 registered candidates sat for the exam, involving a total of 83 subjects, at 3,310 examination centres across the country.

Students were able to obtain their results online from 10am today, the first time the results of this major exam were not handed out physically.

The SPM certificate and exam slips will also be distributed virtually to students.

Students without internet access will be handed their physical certificates and exam slips by their schools.

The national average grade of SPM results for the 2020 cohort of students was the best in the past five years, with a steadily declining trend from 5.05 in 2016 to 4.8 this year, with lower scores indicating better performance.