Stay calm and ensure you are clear on how to interpret your grades as they relate to your college requirementsTake a few minutes to carefully determine your CAO score. Photograph: Getty Fri Aug 21 2026 - 10:01 • 5 MIN READWhen you log on to the State Examinations Commission (SEC) portal this morning to discover what Leaving Cert grades you have been awarded, you will be full of excitement and anticipation.After years at second level, you are about to discover the fruits of your labour. Stay calm and ensure you are clear about how to interpret the grades in front of you as they relate to college-entry requirements, for the CAO in Ireland, European universities or UCAS courses in Northern Ireland and Britain.If it is CAO points you are counting, you are only likely to do this exercise once in a lifetime, and it is easy to get it wrong and cause yourself and your parents unnecessary anxiety. So, take a few minutes to carefully determine your score. You should have a points chart to hand, and sites such as irishtimes.com/education and careersportal.ie have features to enable you to enter your grades and receive a CAO points calculation.No matter the outcome, it is worth remembering that success comes in many forms. For one student a score of 560 points may be devastating in terms of studying veterinary medicine at UCD; for another, 250 points may represent a huge achievement. Remember, you count the best six scores you have achieved across all subjects.If you did the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) and your score for the module is better than your lowest of the six scores, you can include the LCVP instead. If you got at least a H6 in higher-level maths, you add 25 to the normal points score attached to the grade you achieved.There are some slight variations in how points are calculated by some third-level colleges, and all such variations are clearly outlined in the CAO handbook, which is available online at cao.ie.Will my CAO points score secure me my desired courses?There is a widespread misconception among the public and many students that points are determined by the colleges and that you aim to reach that target over the two years of your Leaving Cert studies. The UCAS system in the UK works on that basis; if you meet the target grades that the college or course director in question set you, then you secure your place.Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the CAO points required to secure the last place offered the previous year was usually a good indicator of whether your hopes would turn into a CAO offer. For the past five years, students taking higher-level papers under the revised arrangements, including grades adjustments, secured far higher marks than the 2019 or previous years’ classes. How this year’s points requirements will play out will not be known until next Wednesday, when the CAO releases its offers.Is the process fair to all college applicants?In truth, no. To escape from the consequences of the enhanced grades necessitated by the way the Leaving Cert classes of 2020 and 2021 were awarded grades, then minister for education Norma Foley was forced to bake in enhanced grades averaging 7 per cent higher in 2022-2024. Deciding to unwind this 7 per cent enhancement over four to five years means that this year’s Leaving Cert graduates will have on average 1.5 per cent less of an enhancement of their originally marked scripts than those secured by students from 2025. This process will now be baked in for 2027, with no post mark adjustment process from 2028 onwards.Minister for Higher Education James Lawless has tried to soften this blow by funding additional places in high-demand courses that traditionally require very high points, predominantly in the medical and paramedical courses.But there will be students who receive their Leaving Cert results this year who will miss out on a CAO offer in a course to an applicant who secured the same initial grades as them, following the marking of scripts process, but who are carrying a 7 per cent enhancement as opposed to their 4.5 per cent one.There are alternatives to the CAO worth considering?Ireland has a growing system of further education and training, consisting of an extensive range of post-Leaving Cert (PLC) courses along with enhanced and expanding apprenticeship programmes where ongoing training and part-time study are built into the job. These routes from school to further education provide many opportunities for the tens of thousands of young learners who wish to develop their abilities and skills in a way that is best suited to them. Indeed, many courses lead to a third-level qualification.For a significant cohort of those leaving secondary schools each year, the option of studying for a QQI level-five or six award at the local FE college or starting an apprenticeship, which mixes working in employment alongside study, is by far the most appropriate choice, even if a CAO place happens to be available to them.Further education courses are provided in Education and Training Board colleges throughout the country. Courses are designed to consolidate the learning of those who excel in disciplines ranging from IT and science to business and art.Up to 20 per cent of places in courses with the highest CAO points are reserved for graduates of further education courses each year and see applicants securing places and thriving in those courses, even though 12 months previously they might have been hundreds of CAO points short of the required entry score.Other further education courses are designed to prepare students to enter directly into high-quality employment, in vocational/employment-focused courses such as pre-Garda/pre-paramedic, childcare, hairdressing, animal healthcare and so on immediately on completion of their one or two-year programmes.More information on CAO-linked PLC/further education courses is available on careersportal.ie, while details of every PLC/further education course in the country are available through the qualifax.ie website.Tertiary degree offeringsIn 2023, the then minister and now Tánaiste Simon Harris launched a new initiative in which applicants could apply for one of a wide range of degree programmes that are still available up to September, in which students will start year one and, in some cases, year two of their degree in their local further education college, and then move on to a university to complete the qualification.The key difference to the previous further education model is that progression is guaranteed from day one, once exams are successfully completed along the way. Applications are still open for these 30-plus programmes. Details at nto.ie.IN THIS SECTION