Leaving Cert Results: Your Guide to Script Viewing and Appeals

Leaving Cert results come out on Friday, 21 August 2026. After the results themselves, the next decisions are practical: whether to view your scripts, whether to appeal, and how the CAO rounds work. This is a walk through the dates confirmed so far, with a note on the pieces the State Examinations Commission has not published yet.

A note on terms. Viewing your script means looking at your own marked exam paper to see how it was graded. An appeal is asking the State Examinations Commission (the SEC, which runs the exams) to have that paper re-marked. The CAO is the Central Applications Office, which handles college offers.

Seeing your results

Your results are published on the Candidate Self-Service Portal on Friday, 21 August 2026, the date confirmed by the SEC. That is the first place you see your grade in each subject.

Viewing your scripts

Applications to view your marked scripts open on Tuesday, 25 August 2026, through the SEC Student Portal. Your component marks, the marks for the individual sections of each paper, become visible on the same date, so you can see where marks were won and lost before deciding whether to view or appeal.

The exact viewing sessions, meaning the specific dates and times you actually see the scripts, in person at your school or online, have not been published yet. We will add them here once the SEC confirms the full schedule. Viewing your scripts is free.

Appealing a result

If viewing a script suggests a marking or addition error, you can appeal. Appeals are lodged online through the SEC Student Portal, and must be submitted within roughly a week of results.

The exact appeal window and this year's fee have not been confirmed yet. In 2024 the fee was €40 per subject, refunded in full if the appeal succeeded; the 2026 amount will be confirmed closer to results. Appeal results are due on Friday, 25 September 2026.

How to review a script

When you look at a script, you are checking two different things: arithmetic and marking.

1. Check the addition first. Make sure the marks were totted up correctly. This is the most common and simplest error to catch.
2. Bring someone who knows the subject. Teachers are often at in-person viewings. If yours is there, use them.
3. Bring the marking scheme so you can see how each part was meant to be awarded. Every marking scheme sits alongside the papers on the past-paper pages, which link straight to examinations.ie.
4. Use all the time you are given. A rushed viewing is where you miss things.
5. Know where the grade boundaries are. If you are sitting right on the edge of the next grade, a few marks matter more, and an appeal is more likely to be worth the fee. The CAO points and grading document shows the bands.

The CAO rounds

Results day is not the last chance at an offer.

• CAO Round One offers come out on Wednesday, 26 August 2026 at 2pm.
• More offers follow in later rounds as places are declined and freed up. The 'available places' facility, which lists courses still taking applications, opens on the CAO website in the days after results.

Whatever the result

The Leaving Cert is one step, and there is more than one route from here: later CAO rounds, PLC courses (Post Leaving Certificate courses, one-year further-education courses that can lead on to college), repeating, or a different path entirely. If the results are not what you wanted, give yourself a day, then talk it through with a teacher or guidance counsellor before deciding anything.

Start on next year's papers

If you are heading into sixth year, the ExamAI past-paper finder has every paper and marking scheme in one place, so you can start working through them well before results season comes round again.