Leaving Cert results: Record number of students to receive results today
Hannah Kate Costello
A record number of candidates are receiving results today: 70,411 students, an increase of 15% in student numbers since 2024.
Secondary schools around the country will also open their doors for pupils to collect their grades in person.
The Irish Examiner reports that more than one third of this year’s Leaving Certificate grades have been bumped up, as pandemic-era post-marking adjustments are set to be phased out completely from 2028.
A record number of students will receive their results at 10am on Friday, which have been adjusted post-marking by exam authorities more modestly than in recent years.
It comes after former minister for education Helen McEntee directed that the return to normal grades would continue on a “very gradual basis” with exam authorities keen to avoid a "cliff edge" plummeting of results.
The 2026 results were adjusted closer in line to those issued in 2020 as part of moves to tackle grade inflation, which ballooned due to the upheaval caused by the pandemic.
However, the number of top marks awarded this year still remains far higher than in pre-pandemic years, but lower than in 2025.
In 2026, 10.1% of higher-level grades received the top mark of H1, worth 100 CAO points in almost every subject. A H1 in higher level maths carries 125 points.
This 10.1% of top marks compares to 12.1% in 2025, post the appeals process, and 11.7% before.
This figure stood closer to 15% across 2024, 2023, and 2022.
However, in 2019, the last year the Leaving Cert ran as normal, this figure stood at 5.9%.
Students will have access to their component marks, post-marking adjustment, and final mark from August 25.
The first round of CAO offers will be issued to students next Wednesday from 2pm.
Approximately 20,000 applicants to this year's CAO are presenting Leaving Certificate results from previous years.
Speaking with Newstalk this morning, Michael Gillespie, TUI General Secretary, says it's the beginning of a new road for students.
"Firstly, I'd like to congratulate students themselves who are getting their results today. I hope they celebrate with their family and their friends in an appropriate manner."
"Now it's not the end of anything; it is the beginning of a new road for them, and it's not all about the point system or anything like that."
"A lot of them [students] will go into the apprenticeship system, which has now expanded hugely: PLC courses, further education, there are huge opportunities."
