It’s a conundrum that wouldn’t seem out of place on a higher level paper.

“Exam authorities artificially increased more than half of all Leaving Cert grades in 2025 in a bid to bring them down. Explain, in your own words, how and why?”

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the State Examinations Commission (SEC) has taken the first tentative steps towards grasping the thorny nettle that is pandemic-era grade inflation.

To do so, its approach still involves adjusting marks upwards — just not as drastically as in recent years.

Covid left a long shadow on the education system, no more so when it comes to Leaving Cert results. Results boomed in 2020 and 2021, and have been kept at this level every year since.

This year marks the slow return to normal, with the SEC starting to bring the overall results closer in line with 2019.

While normality has resumed in almost every other aspect of life, it is taking a little longer when it comes to tackling grade inflation.

The powers that be have always been anxious to avoid a “cliff-edge” style reversion back to 2019, as any such drastic move would likely prove incredibly unpopular with students, parents, and teachers alike.

Irish

Total 2025: 24,053

Total 2024: 23,649

Irish

Total 2025: 23,661

Total 2024: 21,414

Irish

Total 2025: 2,307

Total 2024: 2,081

English

Total 2025: 46,193

Total 2024: 42,728

English

Total 2025: 13,853

Total 2024: 13,248

Maths

Total 2025: 23,450

Total 2024: 20,330

Maths

Total 2025: 33,364

Total 2024: 32,362

Maths

Total 2025: 3,385

Total 2024: 3,332

History

Total 2025: 9,849

Total 2024: 9,574

History

Total 2025: 2,669

Total 2024: 2,839

Geography

Total 2025: 18,207

Total 2024: 15,687

Geography

Total 2025: 3,396

Total 2024: 2,964

French

Total 2025: 14,124

Total 2024: 13,318

French

Total 2025: 4,016

Total 2024: 4,633

Spanish

Total 2025: 9,348

Total 2024: 7,978

Spanish

Total 2025: 2,315

Total 2024: 2,331

Art

Total 2025: 8,996

Total 2024: 8,451

Art

Total 2025: 1,374

Total 2024: 1,408

Physics

Total 2025: 6,592

Total 2024: 6,009

Physics

Total 2025: 1,154

Total 2024: 1,301

Chemistry

Total 2025: 8,577

Total 2024: 7,939

Chemistry

Total 2025: 1,420

Total 2024: 1,478

Biology

Total 2025: 30,650

Total 2024: 28,461

Biology

Total 2025: 5,283

Total 2024: 4,750

Business

Total 2025: 17,115

Total 2024: 16,565

Business

Total 2025: 3,127

Total 2024: 3,219

College entry here remains still so tightly bound to the Leaving Cert, and sudden moves to dramatically “deflate” grades would be a disadvantage to students when compared to those presenting results from 2020 to 2024.

However, results do need to be brought closer to pre-pandemic norms in order to maintain overall academic standards and the integrity of the overall system.

Entry to many high-points courses in recent years has been determined essentially by a lottery, leading some students who received the best marks in the country to miss out on their first choice.

How do you start deflating grades without causing serious upset or undermining faith in the exam system?

When Norma Foley, then education minister, announced last year that the phased return to normalcy would begin in 2025, she used words such as “modest” and “gradual”.

She pledged that the overall set of results would be no lower than “broadly midway” between 2020 and 2021.

In terms of the results, it was expected that 2025 would be above 2019 levels “by at least 5.5 percentage points on average”. At this point, you may be searching for a pen and paper to do the sums.

That figure for a finish is 5.9% on the aggregate.

As it has every year since 2022, the SEC applied a post-marking adjustment once more to the corrected exam scripts. It was a universal adjustment, applied to all subjects equally. There was no “leapfrogging”, so students each received the same treatment, and no student received less marks as a result.

The post-marking adjustment, a statistical intervention from the SEC, also added more marks to lower results than to higher, and marks remained capped.

For example, if a student received 100/100, the intervention didn’t add anything.

The same process was applied to Leaving Cert Applied students.

The average adjustment equalled 6.8%, applied to all corrected exam scripts. As a result, some 229,275 grades out of a total of 438,000 were boosted upwards. This was roughly 52% of all grades issued to students this year.

Cousins Katie O’Riordan and Sam Allen at Carrigtwohill Community College, Co Cork for the release of the leaving certificate state examination results on Friday. The pair are part of 13 cousins from 3 families attending the school. Picture: Larry Cummins

However, in terms of tackling grade inflation, 68% of grades in 2024 and more than 71% in 2023 were boosted upwards by the post-marking adjustment process.

While the overall figures are starting to edge back towards pre-pandemic norms, the proportions of students receiving the top grades — which attract the most CAO points — remain staggeringly high. A H1, or A1 in old money, is awarded to students who received upwards of 90% at higher level. The grade translates to 100 CAO points.

This year, 11.7% of higher level grades overall were H1s. This is down from 2024, where it stood at 14.3% before the appeals process, but remains astonishingly higher than in 2019, when it stood at 5.9%.

There remains quite some way to go before the exam authorities can return to the bell-curve of pre-2020.

Transparency is important to the SEC, as highlighted by chairwoman Jacinta Stewart.

As she congratulated students, she also encouraged them to avail of the opportunity to access the Candidate Self Service Portal next Tuesday to see more information such as their component marks and the impact of the post-marking adjustment on their grades.

Many students’ attention will now turn to next Wednesday, when the first round of college place offers will be issued through the CAO.

How this year’s reigned-in results following four consecutive years of bumper grades will impact on CAO cut-off points, especially when coupled with demographics, supply, and demand, is another conundrum in and of itself.

Pass the scrap paper.

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