Significant staffing cuts contributed to the large number of mistakes in this year’s Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate exam papers, the State Examinations Commission has said.

There are still nine courses filled by colleges through the CAO that require at least 570 Leaving Certificate points to get into this morning.

Computing and business degrees are seen as hot tickets for the class of 2013, if rises in CAO points are anything to go by.

The Leaving Certificate points for most courses have fallen or stayed unchanged as almost 50,000 people are offered a third-level place this morning.