What Is the Leaving Cert? The Irish Exam Explained

The Leaving Certificate is the state examination Irish students take at the end of secondary school, usually at 17 or 18. Its written papers are held in June and marked centrally by a state agency. The grades it produces decide who gets which place in Irish universities and colleges. In everyday speech it is the Leaving Cert.

Who runs it

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) is the body responsible. It gives its own role as "the development, assessment, accreditation and certification of the second-level examinations of the Irish state". Second-level means secondary school. The SEC describes itself as "a non-departmental public body under the aegis of the Department of Education" (examinations.ie).

Courses and subject content come from a separate body, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). It writes the specification for each subject, the official document setting out what is taught and how it is assessed, and publishes those on curriculumonline.ie.

Written papers are common to the whole country. Every candidate taking a subject at a given level sits the same paper at the same hour, in every school. The SEC appoints the examiners who mark those papers, and a student's own teachers are not among them.

Where the Leaving Cert sits in the Irish school system

Irish schooling runs in two stages before college. Children attend primary school from about age 4 or 5 to about 12, then move to post-primary school, also called secondary school. Ages here come from Citizens Information, the Irish government's public information service, and they are approximate.

Post-primary school has two cycles.

• Junior Cycle, roughly ages 12 to 15. It ends in the Junior Cycle examinations, a separate state exam that does not count towards college entry.
• Senior Cycle, roughly ages 15 to 18. It ends in the Leaving Certificate.

Year groups are numbered first year through sixth year. First, second and third year make up the Junior Cycle. Fifth year and sixth year are the two Leaving Certificate years.

Fourth year is Transition Year, which Citizens Information calls "an optional one-year programme between Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle". It is counted as part of a three-year Senior Cycle and it carries no state exam. Schools build their own Transition Year around work experience, projects and sampling subjects, within official guidelines. Every post-primary school may offer it and, per Citizens Information, most do.

So a student reaches the Leaving Cert five or six years after starting post-primary school, depending on whether they take Transition Year.

School itself is compulsory for a shorter span. Citizens Information states that a parent must have a child educated "from the age of 6 to 16, or until they complete 3 years of post-primary (secondary) education". Students stay on past that point to take the Leaving Cert.

The three programmes

"During the final 2 years of Senior Cycle, students take one of 3 programmes, each leading to a State examination", according to Citizens Information.

Leaving Certificate Established is the academic programme, and Citizens Information says most Senior Cycle students choose it. It is what the phrase "the Leaving Cert" refers to on its own. Students pick a set of subjects and study them for two years. Assessment is mostly written papers in June, with oral exams in the languages, practical exams in subjects such as art and music, and coursework in others.

Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) is the established Leaving Cert with a work-focused extra. An LCVP student takes five established subjects including Irish, plus two link modules on enterprise education and preparation for work. The link modules are assessed by a written exam worth 40% of the marks and a portfolio of coursework worth 60%. The student gets the same certificate as everyone else, with an added statement of the link module result as pass, merit or distinction (LCVP).

Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) is a separate two-year programme "which prepares students for adult and working life", per Citizens Information. It is built from four half-year blocks called sessions, and credits are banked in each one. There are final exams in English and communication, two vocational specialisms, mathematical applications, a language, and social education.

The LCA award is graded on total credits. Pass is 60 to 69%, merit is 70 to 84% and distinction is 85 to 100%. A candidate below 60% is given a record of experience, a document listing what they completed, and no graded certificate.

LCA students, Citizens Information notes, "cannot gain direct entry through the Central Applications Office (CAO) system to universities or institutes of technology". One documented route onward is a Post-Leaving Certificate course, a one or two year further education course. These run in the colleges of the Education and Training Boards, the regional bodies for further education in Ireland, and can in turn lead to a higher education place.

Subjects and levels

Students choose their own subjects from the list their school offers. Citizens Information says they "take 5 or more subjects (usually 7) for examination, one of which must be Irish".

Irish here means the Irish language, a core subject in Irish schools from primary school onwards. Students who moved to Ireland after a certain age, and students with certain learning difficulties, can apply for an exemption from Irish.

Every subject is examined at two levels, and two subjects add a third.

• Higher Level, the more demanding paper, graded H1 to H8.
• Ordinary Level, graded O1 to O8.
• Foundation Level, offered in Irish and Mathematics only. Citizens Information describes it as "geared to the needs of students who might have difficulty with subjects at Ordinary or Higher Level".

Level is chosen per subject, so a student can take Higher Level in one subject and Ordinary Level in the next. Our post on choosing Leaving Cert subjects works through that choice, and should I drop to Ordinary Level covers the level decision on its own.

The exams carry a fee. In 2026 it is €116 for each school-based candidate, meaning a student entered through their own school. An external candidate, someone entering privately rather than through a school, can pay more depending on how many exams they take.

How the grading works

The scale has eight grades in every subject. Grade 1 is the highest and grade 8 the lowest. The range from 100% down to 30% is cut into seven bands, each 10 percentage points wide, and everything under 30% is a grade 8. A letter in front names the level, H for Higher and O for Ordinary.

A mark of 90% or more is a grade 1, written H1 on a Higher Level paper and O1 on an Ordinary Level paper. The full band table and the exact boundaries are in our post on Leaving Cert grades explained.

The exams can also be answered in Irish, and any candidate at any school who does so earns bonus marks. In subjects such as geography and chemistry the bonus is 10% of the marks obtained, for a candidate scoring under 75%. In subjects such as maths and accounting it is 5%. English, Irish and foreign language papers are excluded, and answering part of a paper in English forfeits the bonus.

How results turn into college places

Undergraduate applications in Ireland go through a single organisation, the Central Applications Office (CAO). A student lists course preferences in order of choice. The CAO converts their Leaving Cert grades to a points score on one scale that all the institutions accept. Offers then go out in rounds, working down a list of applicants sorted by points.

Only the six best subject results from a single Leaving Certificate sitting count. A seventh subject is worth points only if it beats one of the other six. A H1 is worth 100 points, and Higher Level Mathematics at grade H6 or better adds 25 on top, which puts the maximum score at 625. The points value of every grade and the mechanics of the offer rounds are in how CAO points work.

Points are only part of it. Each course also sets minimum entry requirements, meaning specific grades in specific subjects, and a high total does not compensate for missing one. The points figure published for a course is the score of the last applicant offered a place that year, so it moves with demand.

The exam calendar

The written exams run for about three weeks in June. In 2026 they started on Wednesday 3 June and finished on Tuesday 23 June, with morning papers at 9.30am and afternoon papers at 2pm.

Some of the marks are earned earlier in the year. The 2026 orals in Irish and the foreign languages ran from Saturday 28 March to Thursday 2 April. The 2026 art practical ran from Tuesday 21 to Thursday 23 April. Results come out in late August, and the first round of CAO offers follows within days. The year-by-year detail, including what the SEC has and has not published for 2027, is in when is the Leaving Cert.

A candidate who disagrees with a grade can view their marked script and appeal it, for a fee that is refunded if the grade goes up. Our results, script viewing and appeals guide covers that window.

The English past papers and Maths past papers pages list the papers at both levels, each one beside its official marking scheme.

How the Leaving Cert compares to qualifications elsewhere

Ireland places its qualifications on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), a ten-level scale run by Quality and Qualifications Ireland. Level 1 is the entry level and Level 10 is a doctorate.

The Leaving Certificate appears at NFQ Level 4 and NFQ Level 5. Those two levels map to Level 3 and Level 4 of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the scale used to translate qualifications between EU countries. Ireland "verified the compatibility of its NFQ to the Bologna Framework in 2006 and to the EQF in 2008" (Quality and Qualifications Ireland).

No Irish authority publishes a table equating a Leaving Cert grade to a British A level grade or to any other country's school-leaving result. Recognition is decided in the receiving country. The same Quality and Qualifications Ireland leaflet states that "each country has the responsibility to recognise foreign qualifications within its own jurisdiction". It points to ENIC-NARIC, the European Network of Information Centres and National Academic Recognition Information Centres, which links the recognition body in each country.

So the practical answer depends on where you are asking. For a formal statement of what an Irish Leaving Certificate is worth in a given country, ask that country's recognition centre. For a university place, read that university's own entry requirements, which are normally published in Leaving Cert grades for Irish applicants.

What is changing

Senior Cycle is being redeveloped on a phased basis that started in September 2025. Existing subject specifications are being rewritten and new subjects are being added.

The change students notice is the Additional Assessment Component (AAC). This is a piece of assessed work worth at least 40% of the marks in a subject. It takes the form of a research project, an experiment or a practical investigation, so it is not a written exam. The SEC marks it externally.

The first subjects with revised specifications, for fifth years who started in 2025, are Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Business, Arabic, Ancient Greek and Latin. Citizens Information says more revised subjects are expected for 2026/27. The Department of Education keeps the running detail on its Senior Cycle Redevelopment hub.

FAQ

Is the Leaving Cert equivalent to A levels? No Irish authority publishes an equivalence between the two. Both are school-leaving qualifications used for university entry at home. On the Irish framework the Leaving Certificate is at NFQ Levels 4 and 5, which correspond to EQF Levels 3 and 4. A binding answer for one country comes from that country's ENIC-NARIC recognition centre.

What NFQ level is the Leaving Cert? Levels 4 and 5 of the National Framework of Qualifications.

How does the Irish school system work? Primary school runs from about age 4 or 5 to 12. Post-primary school follows, with three Junior Cycle years, an optional Transition Year, and two Leaving Certificate years. Higher education comes after that.

What age do you do the Leaving Cert? Most students are 17 or 18 in sixth year, the exam year.

Is the Leaving Cert compulsory? No. Education is compulsory only from age 6 to 16, or until a student completes three years of post-primary education. Students choose to stay on for the Leaving Cert.

Can my child skip Transition Year? Where a school runs it, Transition Year is optional and admission criteria vary from school to school. A student who skips it goes straight from third year into fifth year.

What is the difference between the Leaving Cert Applied and the established Leaving Cert? The LCA is built from modules and continuous assessment across four sessions, and it is graded pass, merit or distinction rather than subject by subject. It gives no direct CAO entry to a university or institute of technology. The established Leaving Certificate is the subject-based academic programme, and it does.

Does LCVP count for college points? Yes. The two link modules are scored in place of a sixth Leaving Certificate subject, and LCVP students otherwise apply through the CAO like anyone else.

How much does the Leaving Cert cost? €116 in 2026 for a candidate entered through a school. External candidates can pay more depending on how many exams they take.

What happens if I move to Ireland partway through secondary school? Leaving Certificate subjects are chosen with the school, so that is the first conversation to have. Students who move to Ireland after a certain age can apply for an exemption from Irish, and the criteria are on Citizens Information.

Where can I see a real Leaving Cert exam paper? The State Examinations Commission publishes the papers and marking schemes free of charge. Our post on free Leaving Cert past papers lists the sources and what each one gives you.

A real paper shows you the format, the wording of the questions and the marks attached to each one. The ExamAI past paper finder puts each paper beside its official marking scheme, across every subject, free.