Leaving Certificate Accounting Predictions 2026
Always exercise caution with any predictions and don’t take too many risks. Updated November 2025
S1 (120 marks)
Students answer Q1A/Q1B or any two of Q2, Q3 and Q4.
General Advice
I would recommend choosing Q1 which is marked out of 120. It is easy to pick up marks and questions tend to be very similar from year to year. If you practice consistently, say do one Q1 per week, you can pick up speed and even sometimes have time to spare to use on other, more time consuming questions.
To prepare for this I would start doing one question 1 every week under examination conditions (timing yourself and without the help of your notes), then using marking schemes to grade yourself and find out where you are dropping marks.
Tip: It can be helpful to set out 90 minutes each week to get this done and corrected, you will feel the confidence grow each time.
By working on timing here you can give yourself more time to commit to tricker questions later in the paper.
Q1
Answer A or B
Any 2 of sole trader, company and manufacturing accounts will appear.
Therefore, students only must study two for at least one of their studied accounts to appear.
Recommended Time Spent
54 minutes
Prediction
As you can see Company Final Accounts have come up all of the last 3 years. This would lean us towards focusing on Sole Trader and Company Final Accounts with Manufacturing Account with a particular focus on manufacturing as we have only seen it come up once in the last 6 questions (3 years).
However, completing company final accounts questions as a part of your study plan will allow you to cover all bases while giving you more practice on parts that will show up in Company Final Accounts with Manufacturing Accounts questions.
2025 – Sole Trader OR Company Final Accounts
2024 – Company Final Accounts OR Company final with Manufacturing Accounts
2023 – Sole trader OR Company Final Accounts
S2 (200 marks)
Students answer two of three questions (Q5, Q6 and Q7)
General Advice
Question 5 is a guaranteed ratios and interpretation question. There are very few exams where you can be that prepared and certain so by constantly working on this question you can walk into the exam with confidence.
Question 6 and 7 have more broad possibilities but we will investigate how we can narrow this down based on what has come up on past papers.
Q5
Advice for Q5:
Memorise the 20 ratio formulas, these are worth 50 marks (12.5% of the full paper). You can have these learned off and ready to go for exam day, it is just about inputting the number on front of you then. In the exam make sure to write out the formula of the ratio you are asked before rushing to do the calculations. Also make sure to write down the formula with the numbers inputted before using your calculator, this will allow the examiner to see how you got to your number and award partial marks if you make a mistake.
Tip: One of the easiest ways to work on memorisation is through the use of flashcards whether this is written out flashcards (name of ratio on one side, ratio formula on the other) or through online flashcard apps such as ANKI.
For part B of Question 5 it can be good to try learning off some pointers under each heading you see on the previous exam questions. These pointers can then be weaved into your answer depending on what the question wants an emphasis on.
In 2025 you were asked to indicate if ordinary shareholders would be satisfied with performance.
In 2024 students had to discuss loans and give advice to a bank manager.
In 2023 students had to discuss debentures.
In 2022 students were asked to advise a bank manager on giving a loan similarly to 2024.
Prediction
In 2026 you are likely to get asked to discuss if debenture holders would be satisfied. Look at the 2023 paper to see how this question could be asked.
Bank Manager also has come up every second year for the last couple (and did not come up in 2025), so keep that in mind during your focused study too. This can be a tough section to score high marks on as it requires a lot of written detail and an understanding of the ratios. It may be beneficial to attempt these sections and get them corrected by your teacher.
For part C, questions can be repetitive, so it is worthwhile to learn the theory of the following concepts to maximise your marks:
- Ratio Analysis, specifically its limitations
- Distinguishing between Liquidity (short-term debts) and Solvency (all debts
- Understanding what the Liquidity ratio and what it indicates in relation to business management and how to improve liquidity position.
- Distinguishing between Ordinary and Preference Shares
- Gearing, the implications of a High Gearing VS a Low Gearing and how to improve it (i.e reduce)
- Stock Turnover & how it contributes to profit formation
- Gross Profit Percentage Calculation & how to improve
- Users of Financial Information
- Overtrading and how it is indicated by financial statements
Q6 or Q7
There is a wide array of questions that could appear here. Though, some accounts are worth devoting more time to.
2025: Incomplete Records AND Tabular Statement
2024: Cash Flow Statement AND Correction of errors and Suspense Account
2023: Published Accounts AND Service Firm
2022: Incomplete Records AND Club Accounts
2021: Published Accounts AND Cash Flow statement
2020: Correction of error and Suspense Account AND Service Firm
2019: Club Accounts AND Cash Flow Statement
Prediction
A club account has only come up twice since 2019 (2022, 2019), so this is likely to come up after its 3 year hiatus.
Published accounts and Service Firm have also both not been included since 2023 so it is likely one of these will come up with the club account.
S3 (80 marks)
General Advice
Pick ONE of question 8/9:
Generally Q8 can be a bit easier to manage than question 9.
Q8
By focusing on question 8 you can also eliminate the need to study budgets (except for the flexible budget which can be a part of question 8.
2025: Marginal Costing
2024: Flexible Budgets and Stock Valuation
2023: Marginal Costing and Absorption
2022: Job Costing
2021: Stock Valuation, Product Costing, Under and Over Absorption
2020: Marginal and Absorption Costing
2019: Overhead Apportionment and Job costing
Prediction
Stock valuation, Product Costing, Under and Over Absorption has not come up since 2021.
Job costing has not come up since 2022. (Also look at how this can come up with overhead appointment as they have not come up together since 2019)
These are the areas I would be focusing my studies on in section 3.
The biggest part of all of this is to do questions. When you get comfortable doing them then start putting yourself under exam conditions, no notes, no phones and time yourself.
Track record
Leaving Certificate Accounting Predictions 2025
Q1
Prediction
Manufacturing and Sole Trader (with a focus on sole trader)
Company accounts have come up for three consecutive years (2022, 2023 and 2024), as well as in the 2022 deferred paper, hence they are less likely to appear. HOWEVER, the company account is the foundation of the manufacturing account, so therefore, leaving it out won’t save much time.
In 2024, both company and manufacturing came up.
]Q6 or Q7
There is a wide array of questions that could appear here. Though, some accounts are worth devoting more time to.
Prediction
Tabular – usually appears every second, odd year , i.e. 2019, 2021 and 2023, meaning it is likely to come up in some form on the 2025 paper, either in section 1 or 2, hence it is worth studying.
In 2023, it came up in Section 1.
Incomplete Records (type 2) hasn’t appeared in section 2 since 2022.
S3 (80 marks)
Q8
Prediction
Leaving Certificate Accounting Predictions 2023
(Accounting predictions were not made in 2024)
Please note that the choice of questions has been expanded with the more recents amendments available on the SEC website.
In Section 1 candidates will be required to answer either Question 1 or any two of the remaining questions in the Section. In 2023, there will be an additional alternative Question 1 (Sole/Company/Manufacturing) to provide additional choice within Question 1. There will be three questions, as usual, in Section 2. In 2023, Question 5 will be based on Interpretation of Accounts. In 2023, there will be no change to Section 3; there will be two questions as usual and candidates will be required to answer one question.
Section 1
Students planning on answering q1:
In the exam you will have a choice of two questions labeled q1A and q1B.(Not labeled q1 and q2.)
Given that there are three possible question types – Manufacturing, sole trader and company, you would be safe learning off two of these. Although this may mean you will not have a choice in the exam so make sure these two are learned off well.
Prediction:
The most likely to come up is a Sole trader based on previous trends and having not come up last year.
Manufacturing account is the least likely to appear given it had never come up two years in a row before 2021 and it appeared the last two years.
2021 saw sole trader come up with some company workings in it ,so the best bet would be to learn off company and sole trader and you are practically guaranteed to be covered.
These two are similar and in recent years they have shared workings so knowing both is a huge advantage. This strategy would involve leaving out the manufacturing account and even if it did appear you are safe knowing you can choose the other option.
Given the above facts it is most logical to focus on sole trader and the company account.
Students planning on answering q2,3 or 4:
If you are not answering q1 then you must answer two of these three questions.
Unlike Q1 there are many options that can come up for this part and given you must answer two thirds of what comes up, there is much less room for banking on certain ones.
Prediction:
One of Club/service/farm accounts would be the most likely to come up. Given these are similar, only one can come up in this section at a time and learning each one is easy once you know one of them.
There is also a reasonable chance one of control, published or incomplete records comes up.
The other option that may come up is then depreciation/revalue.
Tabular is unlikely to come up given it is a hot favourite to come up in section 2.
Likewise suspense is unlikely to come up as it is another favourite for section 2 and came up last year in this section.
I would also class cashflow as unlikely to appear given it came up last year in this section and in section 2 in 2021.
If you leave out Tabular and suspense and know all the other options it would mean a less than 5% chance that two you know don’t come up. Given that these two are also way less likely to come up than others , in reality the odds are much less than 5% of not knowing two of the options. So that would be the best advice.
Section 2
Students planning on answering q5:
As per the changes to the exam, Ratios/Interpretation of accounts is guaranteed to be Q5.
However it is much harder to get 90+% in this question than in q6 or q7. Therefore it is advisable that you do all past exam questions back as far as you can.
It is key that you look at the marking schemes and see what is required to get the marks for each type of question.
You must take note of who you are advising and which ratios are suitable e.g. debenture holders or shareholders.
q6 or q7:
Prediction:
The most likely to come up is suspense based on past patterns. It came up every second year from 2014 to 2020 (in this section) and having not appeared last year or 2021, it’s certainly due in 2022.
Tabular statement is also highly likely to appear as it has not appeared since 2017 in section 2.
The least likely to appear are club/service/farm and incomplete given they both appeared last year. Incomplete hasn’t appeared twice in a row since 2001 and club/service/farm is a favourite for section 1.
Other options are then published and cashflow. It is possible cashflow may appear although it has never appeared three times in five years. Published isn’t the most likely to come up but having not appeared in any section in 2022 it’s possible it could come up in section 2 in 2023.
The best advice would be to not study one of club/service/farm and incomplete and learn the rest with an extra focus on suspense and tabular.
Section 3
In this section students will answer either Q8 or Q9.
Question 8 is either Product/Absorption/Job/Marginal Costing
Question 9 is either a production budget/cash budget/flexible budget/cash and production budget.
You should already have chosen which question you are answering before the exam.
Students planning on answering q8:
Prediction:
Unfortunately for this question a combination of some or all of the topics can up. Last year it was absorption that came up. Given marginal costing was the only topic not to be included in last year’s or 2021’s question, it is likely to appear in some form in 2023.
Absorption may be the least likely to appear given it has come up the last four years.
The best advice would be to know all topics that could appear as this is not a predictable question.
Students planning on answering q9:
Technically there are four potential options for q9 – cash budget, production budget, production and cash budget combination, and flexible budget.
Prediction:
The most likely to appear would be the production and cash budget combination (similar to 2020). It hasn’t come up the last two years while flexible and production has.
The least likely to come up is a production budget only given it appeared last year but it is possible it could appear again as its a popular option and appears frequently
It is also worth noting that the cash budget ( on its own) hasn’t appeared since 2012 and it would seem that the examiner has stopped asking this and replaced it with a combination of production budget and cash budget questions (production/cash budget) as seen in the likes of 2020 and 2016.
Therefore the best advice would be to know production and cash budget combination very well, also study flexible questions, and although it is unlikely to appear, have a glance over production.
Extra advice:
The key to accountancy success is practice, practice and more practice
It is also vital to practice under time constraints.
For Q9 keep your work as neat as possible.
For Q1 do not panic if it doesn’t balance. You can still get over 90% of the marks.
Keep your work well-structured.
Best of luck with the exam.
