Pointing in the right direction

Students collect their Leaving Cert results today and the CAO will post first-round offers on Monday, so you can expect them in the post Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, The Irish Times will publish a complete listing of the points in a special College Places supplement, when you can check the points for your selected course.

Each year, the cut-off points for the various courses move up and down depending on the demand from students and the supply of places.

It is you, the applicants, who set the cut-off levels as it is the number and quality of applicants (as measured in points) and the number of available places which determine the cut-off points for each course.

So, the cut-off points which will be published on Monday are simply a listing of the points levels of the last student who was offered a place on each course. So, you could have 20 places and 19 applicants with more than 500 points. If the next highest points score among the applicants was 450, then the cut-off would be 450.

All that the points tell you is that all of the students who were offered places had at least that number of points. It is not a measure of the quality of a course.

Last year's points are only a rough guide to what may happen this year but there are a number of courses with limited places which consistently attract high-points applicants.

Last year, the 10 courses which topped the points table were actuarial/financial studies in UCD; medicine in UCD; veterinary medicine in UCD; Law/French in TCD; medicine in TCD; physiotherapy in UCD; Law/ German in TCD; pharmacy in TCD; medicine in UCC and medicine in NUIG.

UCD awarded bonus points for higher-level maths last year but, this year, UL is the only college which will award these bonus points.

DIT also awards bonus points for maths and some science subjects for its electrical/electronic engineering degree course only.

On the plus side, many courses advertised vacant places last year so students had a second opportunity to apply. These were mainly certificate and diploma courses in the institutes of technology. As well as points going up, points for a number of courses fell last year.

This year, the CAO received applications from 65,288 students, an increase of almost 3,000 on last year's level of 62,581. Last year, 32,000 students accepted college places through the CAO.

In all, the Higher Education Authority estimates the number of first-year places last year totalled 34,300 while this year there will be in the region of 35,000 places. So there is roughly one place for every two applicants.

Calculating your points: The chart shows you how the grading structure for the Leaving Certificate relates to CAO points. Points are calculated on the basis of your best six subjects. You cannot add points from a number of Leaving Certificates.

However, you may use combined Leaving Certificate results to satisfy college or faculty requirements. For instance, to secure a place in engineering in TCD, you must have a higher-level C in maths. This can be acquired in any one of a number of Leaving Cert sitting; however, your points must come from your best six subjects.