Irish Leaving Certificate grades drop as Covid-era adjustments are reduced for 70,411 students

Unwinding post-marking adjustments

On Friday morning at 10:00, 70,411 registered candidates received their Leaving Certificate results through the online portal of the State Examinations Commission (SEC). The candidate group includes 65,326 students for the traditional Leaving Certificate, 4,779 for the Leaving Certificate Applied, and 306 enrolled in level 1 and 2 learning programmes. This marks the highest participation volume in the 100-year history of the examinations, representing a 15% increase over the past two years. Most students receiving results began second-level education in September 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

To prevent sudden drops in scores, the SEC applied a post-marking adjustment (PMA) across all 470,000 graded papers. The statistical intervention lifted 35.5% of grades (166,868 results), leaving 303,409 grades unchanged. This represents a measured decline from 2025, when 52.4% of grades received an upward adjustment, and 2024, when 68% were boosted. The average adjustment for 2026 stood at 4.0%, scaled linearly from 7.0 marks at the lower end of the achievement spectrum down to 2.3 marks at the highest end.

Shifts across grades and subjects

The narrowing of grade inflation brought aggregate outcomes close to levels seen in 2020, removing the additional 2.4% increase introduced in 2021. Top results decreased across multiple levels compared to the previous year. The proportion of higher-level examinations receiving a H1 mark dropped from 12.1% in 2025 to 10.1% in 2026, though it remains above the 5.9% recorded in 2019. Higher-level H2 grades fell from 19.5% in 2025 to 17.8% in 2026.

Subject-specific results also showed declines in top classifications. In higher-level mathematics, where students expressed dissatisfaction following paper one, H1 grades decreased from 11.0% in 2025 to 8.1% in 2026. Higher-level English saw H1 awards decrease from 5.0% to 4.0%. At the ordinary level, O1 grades dropped from 3.7% in 2025 to 2.7% in 2026, while foundation-level F1 grades declined from 6.2% to 5.3%.

College admissions and next steps

The reduction in grade enhancements affects third-level admissions through the Central Applications Office (CAO). Approximately 20,527 CAO applicants are presenting Leaving Certificate results achieved in previous examination cycles when grade adjustments were larger. This creates competition for tertiary places between the 2026 cohort and prior applicants who hold higher points averages.

Students can view their individual component marks, post-marking adjustments, and final grades on the examination portal from August 25. The CAO is scheduled to issue its round one course offers on Wednesday, August 26, starting at 14:00.

Trajectory toward the 2028 baseline

Former minister for education Helen McEntee previously instructed exam authorities to return grading scales to pre-pandemic standards on a gradual basis to prevent sharp drops for exam classes. The SEC plans to apply a final post-marking adjustment to the 2027 examination cohort, which is expected to lower overall enhancement by a further 1.2 percentage points.

Statistical interventions will cease entirely in 2028. Because SEC data indicates student baseline performance has improved by an average of 2.0% since 2019, authorities will not force grade averages fully back to 2019 levels. As a result, the 2028 cohort is projected to achieve grades averaging 1.2% below the 2027 level and 2.4% below the 2026 results.