More than 3,100 Leaving Cert grades increased

More than 3,100 Leaving Certificate grades were upgraded by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

The number includes 31 students whose upgrade will come as a surprise, because they did not lodge any appeal.

7,268 candidates appealed Leaving Certificate results this year against 14,287 individual grades.

The number of candidates lodging appeals this year was higher than last year, at 12.8% of candidates compared to 10.5% in 2023.

A total of 3,123 individual subject grades have been increased as a result of the appeals.

It equates to just over one out of every five grades checked. This is slightly lower than the rate last year.

The SEC uses the appeals process as a further quality assurance check and it is as a result of this process that an additional 31 candidates who did not lodge any appeal will receive the unexpected news today of a subject upgrade.

The SEC said the changes in grades arising from these quality assurance measures would be notified to the candidates' schools and that all upgrades have already been transmitted to the CAO.

Marks on the Candidate Self-Service Portal will be revised to reflect the changes at 11am.

In the processing of appeals, the marking of each candidate’s work is fully reviewed question by question using the original marking scheme.

The review is carried out by a different examiner to the one who originally marked the work.

The appeals process this year also had to allow for the reapplication of the post marking adjustment to marks following appeal marking.

The SEC said that when candidates access their appeal results they will see whether their examination mark changed on appeal and, if so, their new post mark-adjustment mark as well as their final grade.