So how did this year's leaving cert students fair in terms of grades this year?
The number of A1s achieved this year was slightly down on last year with 6,279 receiving A1s as compared to 6,654 last year - a drop of 375.

Figures from the State Examinations Commission show 11 subjects where there were drops of more than 1% in the number of students securing A1 grades. Four subjects which saw an increase of 1% or more hitting A1 grades are physics and chemistry papers, engineering, arabic and agricultural economics.

In higher level Maths, 5.5% of the 15,198 students who sat the paper, obtained an A1 grade which is a slight increase on last year. The failure rate in higher-level also dropped slightly from 4.6% as compared to 5% last year. However the fairlure rate in ordinarly-level Maths went from 5.8% last year to 9.2% this year.

Irish did well with 86% of students receiving an honours grade ( a little lower than last year). English remained static with 3.2% receiving A1s.

While there have been increases in the number of students taking physics (20%) and chemistry (11%), the percentage hitting top grades in these subjects was down 2% for physics and 2.3% for chemistry. There was also of 4% in the percentage of A1s in Accounting.

While no student received nine A1s this year, six students received a magnificent eight As, 3 from Dublin, 2 from Mayo and 1 from Cork.
The  students and schools who received eight A1s were: