Almost 143,000 students are receiving their results today after sitting the new Highers for the first year and National 4 and 5 qualifications for the second year.
Rt Revd Dr Angus Morrison advised students to "keep cool and speak to others" when finding out their marks.
SQA figures show that there were a record 156,000 Higher passes [similar to English A-Levels] this year, up 5.5% on 2014.
Overall, a total of 107,295 pupils sat the new Highers, with a pass rate of 79.2%. A further 92,555 pupils sat the existing Highers, recording a pass rate of 76.7%, slightly down on the 2014 pass rate of 77.1%.
Higher English passes were up 17.7% to 27,902 and Higher modern languages passes increased by 15.2% to 7,419.
Best wishes to everyone - like one of ours - receiving exam results today. I well remember the butterflies. Keep cool and speak to others.
— Church Moderator (@churchmoderator) August 4, 2015Scottish Education Secretary Angela Constance said: "This is another strong performance by Scotland's young people.
"They have worked hard and I congratulate each and every one of them, as well as the families and carers and teachers and lecturers who have provided support."
Following the results almost 25,000 people were given university or college places, up by 3% compared with last year's exam results day.
As of midnight, 24,800 Scottish applicants had been accepted into higher education through Ucas, the organisation which processes applications, up by 800 on the 2014 figure.
A total of 24,000 of these have been placed at a Scottish university or college.