***SCROLL DOWN TO SEARCH FOR YOUR SCHOOL***

Half its students have come from private schools and some travel for up to five hours a day to attend class.

Select-entry state school Nossal High is in high demand and it's no wonder why.

The school has rocketed up the list of top VCE performers, moving from 26th place to 15th in the space of a year, with a median study score of 36.

Principal Roger Page said 58 per cent of his students received an ATAR of 90 or above.

"Our students come to us because they want excellent results and we will achieve that," Mr Page says.

Located at the Monash University campus in Berwick and surrounded by paddocks, the school has a strong focus on collaborative learning and aims to prepare students for tertiary education.

"We know many high-performing students with high ATARs drop out of university. We don't want that," Mr Page says.

A Fairfax Media analysis of data released on Thursday by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority shows that select-entry state school Mac.Robertson Girls High is the top-performing Victorian school. It had a median study score of 38 and a staggering 38.2 per cent of its study scores were 40 or above.

Principal Dr Toni Meath said the school encouraged students to prioritise extracurricular activities during their VCE year, and to take up subjects that they were genuinely passionate about.

"The story of Mac.Rob is that girls who are getting the really high ATARs are also getting involved in musicals, drama productions and in sports … they're not just studying away with their heads in their books. They are fully engaged in the school."

Jewish schools continued to perform strongly, with Beth Rivkah Ladies College (37.8 per cent of study scores 40 or above), Bialik College (36.5 per cent), Mount Scopus (35 per cent) and Yeshivah College (23.2 per cent) all finishing in the top 10.

Principal of Yeshivah Beth Rivkah College, Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler, said the school's strong religious education helped students excel in all areas of their learning.

"We find that the students who excel in Jewish education also excel in their general education. A lot of what we call 21st century thinking skills are skills that have been applied to Jewish learning for the past 1700 years. It is all about analysis, collaborative learning, problem solving hypotheses, testing hypotheses … today's way of approaching real life world scenarios has long been part of Jewish learning."

Ballarat Clarendon College was the best regional performer, finishing in seventh place with a median study score of 37.

Melbourne High, Shelford Girls' Grammar, Fintona Girls School and Lauriston Girls School were also among the top 10 performers.

Big improvers included East Doncaster Secondary College, which lifted its median study score from 31 to 32 and Charlton College which lifted its median from 31 to 33.

Victoria University adjunct professor Richard Teese said he was not surprised that select-entry state schools and private schools often finished in the top 10.

He said both carefully selected their students, and private schools "bent over backwards" during the VCE. They were also better resourced than state schools, who welcomed all students.

"Private schools are much more likely to put in special consideration requests. No stone is left unturned in terms of exam tactics."

Fairfax Media has ranked Victorian schools based first on their median study scores, followed by the percentage of scores of 40 and above.

Increasingly, parents select schools for their children based on VCE and NAPLAN data. Use the interactive below to find Victorian schools, the programs they offer and data on their students' achievements for 2015.