Some 60,000 students have received their Leaving Certificate results today, with the average student achieving around 300 CAO points.
The number achieving eight A1 grades has increased from one to four students and an extra 500 students achieved at least two A1s, compared to last year.
But such exceptional performance is unrealistic for most. New CAO figures indicate that the average Leaving Cert student has acheived about 300 points today.This score will probably not be enough to secure a place on a university arts course.
Well over 500 points are required for courses like law and medicine. Fifty-two per cent of students will achieve 300 points or higher, while 48 per cent will open their envelopes to see scores of 299 and less.
An analysis of Leaving Cert scores by the CAO has shown that these figures have changed very little since 1999.