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, up 15 per cent from 2024.
Secondary schools around the country will also open their doors for pupils to collect their grades in person.
The percentage of H1 grades dropped from 12.1 per cent in 2025 to 10.1 per cent this year.
MATHS: Percentage of H1s dropped from 11 per cent to 8.1 per cent.
ENGLISH: Percentage of H1s down from 5 per cent to 4.3 per cent.
IRISH: Percentage of H1s down from 11 per cent to 10 per cent.
At Christian Brothers College in Co Cork this morning, eight students received the maximum 625 points. In total, 150 students received their results at the school today and sixteen of those got over 600 points.
The Irish Examiner reports that more than one third of this year’s Leaving Cert 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, after exam authorities have adjusted them post-marking more modestly than in recent years.
This follows former Minister for Education Helen McEntee's direction that the return to normal grades would continue on a “very gradual basis”, with exam authorities keen to avoid a "cliff edge" plummet in results.
The 2026 results were adjusted closer 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 per cent of higher-level grades received the top mark of H1, worth 100 CAO points in almost every subject. An H1 in higher-level maths carries 125 points.
This 10.1 per cent of top marks compares to 12.1 per cent in 2025, post the appeals process, and 11.7 per cent before.
This figure stood closer to 15 per cent across 2024, 2023, and 2022.
However, in 2019, the last year the Leaving Cert ran as normal, this figure stood at 5.9 per cent.
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.
Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton said that “normal” Leaving Cert results will return in 2028.
“There has been a further adjustment (deflation) this year. There will be again next year, and then by 2028 we will be back completely to the normal Leaving Cert outcomes,” she said on Friday.
Meanwhile, Michael Gillespie, TUI General Secretary, said on Newstalk this morning that 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."
