Leaving Cert results are out on Friday. What can students expect?

After years of schooling and a marathon set of exams, results day is almost here for 60,000 Leaving Cert candidates – and their twitchy parents. But what can students expect on Friday morning when exam results are issued?
The days of students gathering to receive their results at school are, mostly, over. These days, exam results are issued online. While many schools allow students to access their results in-person, it is mostly by appointment. This is because schools are up and running and do not have capacity to host large groups of celebrating Leaving Cert students. It is a shame, given that students are missing out on what has been a rite of passage and an important source of peer support.
Results for this year’s Leaving Cert students will, on aggregate, be similar to the sets of bumper grades received by students over recent years.
Why? Grades soared during the Covid pandemic when teachers provided estimated grades for their students.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has directed the State Examinations Commission (SEC) to ensure this year’s results are kept at a similar level to recent years so students are not disadvantaged in the CAO points race.
In any given year, significant numbers of college applicants with results from previous years are in the hunt for university places. Those with inflated grades, inevitably, have an advantage over those with results from pre-pandemic years.
Last year, for example, the SEC adjusted students’ marked scripts upwards by an average of 7.9 per cent as part of a “postmarking adjustment”. This process resulted in 70 per cent of grades increasing. We’ll likely see a similar pattern on Friday.
While champagne corks may pop in many homes on Friday, for some there will be despair on Wednesday next when CAO college offers are issued.
Stronger grades mean more students are on high points which leads to elevated points requirements for many courses. This also makes it harder for universities to differentiate between top candidates. In recent years some unfortunate students on maximum points – 625 – missed out on their chosen courses due to the use of random selection. We may well see a repeat of this next Wednesday when CAO offers are issued.
The addition of college places in some high-demand courses such as medicine has taken some of the heat out of the points race, but competition for some others will likely be fierce.
Such high results, inevitably, will raise questions over the integrity of the Leaving Cert qualifications themselves. It is vital for grades to hold their value both for universities, which set minimum entry criteria for courses. There is some concern in higher education circles, for example, that inflated grades may be one of a number of factors behind higher dropout rates in college.
In addition, there is a negative impact on students from outside the jurisdiction. Students in Northern Ireland have been finding it increasingly difficult to access CAO courses in the Republic.
Norma Foley has pledged to reduce grade inflation from next year. The dilemma, of course, is that this will create unfairness for the class of 2025 and subsequent years in the competition for college places.
Conveniently, that is likely to become a problem for another minister for education after the next general election.