Students will receive the results of the 2025 Leaving Certificate when they log on to their Candidate Self Service Portal (CSSP) on the State Examinations Commission portal from 10am this morning.
Grades this year were expected to drop back by 1.1 per cent from those secured in 2024.
Following her announcement earlier this year of the adjustments to the assessment arrangements for students taking examinations in 2025, Minister for Education Helen McEntee gave a commitment that there would be a gradual return to pre-pandemic grade profiles for Leaving Certificate results starting from this year.
Her predecessor Norma Foley had already confirmed in April of 2024 that a gradual process of returning to normal Leaving Certificate outcomes would start in 2025 with a post-marking adjustment exercise to bring results on the aggregate to a point no lower than broadly midway between the 2020 and 2021 levels. The results today are expected to be above 2019 levels by 5.9 percentage points on average.
RM Block
The timelines for the full removal of the post-marking adjustment and the exact level of future-year adjustments after 2025 will be informed by the 2025 experience. The Department of Education believes that it is appropriate that they review the 2025 experience before making a judgment on the length of time required for a full return to normal marking processes.
This commitment to avoid a “cliff-edge” in the profile of results had required a 7.5 per cent adjustment to the marks awarded to students in 2024 through the marking process, bringing them to 7% above the 2019 pre-Covid average.
How will this new policy effect securing a preferred CAO course for 2025 Leaving Cert students?
The 7 per cent grade inflation that has become embedded in the system since 2020 is a complex problem to correct. Inflating everybody’s marks by a standardised percentage does not improve a Leaving Cert student’s place in the overall rankings. If an applicant is the 101st on the course list where there are 100 places on offer, they will still miss out on an offer.
Why then did the Minister continue from 2022-2024 to offer inflated grades to students if it was not going to improve their chances?
The answer is that students who have just sat the Leaving Certificate account for 60 per cent of the total number of applicants to the CAO in any given year.
This year, there are 19,782 Leaving Cert applicants in the CAO process who secured their Leaving Cert mainly in 2020, 2021, 2022,2023 or 2024.
With high Leaving Cert marks baked into the results of those classes it would have been grossly unfair to the class of 2025 to have allowed the pattern of results to revert to pre-Covid levels, leaving them on average 7 per cent worse off than CAO applicants from previous years.
But by deciding to gradually revert to pre-pandemic grade averages over a four- or five-year time span, the Leaving Cert class of 2025 and subsequent years will be awarded grades on average of more than 1 per cent below those secured by the 2022-2024 students.
The key number to look out for today will be the percentage of grades enhanced by the adjustment process. In 2024, it was 68 per cent. It was 70 per cent in 2023. The difference between the previous level of enhancement and those awarded today crystalises the disadvantage this year’s Leaving Cert graduates face compared to those seeking a CAO place who sat the Leaving Cert in the previous five years.
The role of schools now that students receive their results online has changed
Schools have always provided an important role in offering guidance and support to students on results day. School principals will provide support to students by allowing them to come to the school, if they wish, at a scheduled time to meet members of the student-support team, including guidance counsellors, year heads, tutors and chaplains.
Given that the new academic year is only days away, last year’s Leaving Cert classes who arrange to go to their school to seek support will be required to attend by appointment so that the teachers they wish to meet can arrange to be available.
The SEC will also now provide the Leaving Cert results directly to the CAO. This will allow the CAO to process applications for entry to higher education without delay and release the first-round offers at 2pm next Wednesday, August 27th. At that stage applicants will see whether they have secured the required number of points to receive an offer on one of their top college choices.
Key dates
Candidates in the Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied examinations will be afforded an opportunity to view their own marked scripts in the coming days.
Initially, candidates will see their marks included for each component on the portal on Tuesday, August 26th at noon.
The portal will also allow candidates to apply to view their marked examination scripts and to view their scripts online.
Viewing of most scripts online will be available from 9am on Saturday, August 30th for 24 hours until 9am Sunday August 31st.
This allows candidates to satisfy themselves that the marking scheme has been applied correctly to their work and, in addition to enhancing transparency, is designed to assist candidates in making an informed decision to appeal a result in one or more subjects.
With the migration to online marking for most subjects, the process will primarily involve viewing marked PDFs of scripts online via the Candidate Self Service Portal.
In any subject that is manually marked, viewing hard-copy marked scripts will be facilitated in schools in one of two three-hour sessions on Saturday, August 30th, 9.30am-12.30pm or 2-5 pm. Candidates will continue to have access to the published marking schemes, whether the subject was marked on paper or online.
Candidates will also have access to the examination’s appeal process. This will follow the SEC appeal procedures and will include an opportunity to view the scripts marked by the examiners. Appeals are open from 10am on Sunday, August 31st to 5pm on Monday, September 1st.
The appeals process will include further recourse to Independent Appeals Scrutineers, whose role is to check to ensure the correct procedures were followed throughout the appeals process.
The SEC has stated that the intended date for the issue of the results of the 2025 Leaving Certificate appeals process is Friday, September 26th. Students are advised to visit www.examinations.ie for more information.
