A whopping 5,824 A1 grades were awarded to Leaving Cert students for 2013, with one student scoring nine A1s in their exams. Yet as clever as the class of 2013 might be, they didn't reach the heights managed by the class of 2012.

The 2013 tally of A1s is 5.2 per cent down on 2012, when 6,144 A1s were given, according to statistics released last night by the State Examinations Commission.

The numbers of students achieving multiple A1 grades always fascinates and at least some of them will come forward today to be interviewed and photographed for posterity. There will be plenty of options.

Ten students pulled in eight A1s in their Leaving Certs, and a surprising 60 managed seven A1s.

Calculating points
A student's best six subjects are used to calculate their CAO points totals. This year there will be no fewer than 152 students with a magic 600 points, the highest tally possible, even with the inclusion of bonus points for maths. Again, this is below the tally for 2012, when 166 students got 600 points.

There were 346 students who got five A1s, and 704 who got four A1s. The numbers then top the one thousand mark with 1,268 getting three A1s and 2,439 getting two A1s. All of these tallies were for higher level subjects.

Having multiple A1s is certainly a help in securing your first preference option when the first round CAO offers are published next Monday. The traditional assumption is that one should immediately pursue high points professions. However, guidance counsellors argue that the student should choose what they hope to pursue as a career rather than simply using up all their points.