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Points at TCD 2011: Are they going up?

  • 12-04-2011 10:44am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2


    I'm taking the Leaving Cert. this year and I'm aiming for History and Politics at TCD which is a pretty hefty 515 points. Now I'm confidently predicted to get higher than that but if the points do a jump like History last year, I'm screwed. So will the points go up? And not just for my course but across the board?

    Fees going up in the UK, Brits will be flooding the place for cheaper uni and with everyone retraining cause of the aul recession, what's going to happen?!


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 451 ✭✭AndrewJD


    I don't know, but I'm sure somebody on Boards has a crystal ball, and will be able to answer your question with great confidence.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,201 ✭✭✭languagenerd


    backseatdriver: Do you know how the points system works??? Nobody sets points, it's not like the college sit down every year and say "We'll make that 550 this year for the craic"! The points that are given in the CAO handbook and the newspapers are the points achieved by the lowest-scoring person to get in to that course.

    Example: Say a certain course has 20 places. When the LC results come out, everyone who applied for that course are put in order. The points that are printed everywhere is just whatever points Person Number 20 on that list got. So if History is 515 this year, that means that the last person to get a place last year had 515 points.

    So no-one can answer your question, I'm afraid. It just depends on the points of the people who apply!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,292 ✭✭✭goingnowhere


    Its important to understand how the points and admissions systems works

    1. The College set its own rules, must have certain subjects and certain grades. So if you have 600 points but did pass maths no engineering for you

    2. While the points level is set based on demand this is not always the case. The College can actually set a threshold requiring a minimum points level regardless of demand. In basic terms if demand is low for a course you could really be scrapping the barrel to fill places and there is a direct relationship between low points and drop outs. So in a small number of courses have empty seats which can then be swapped in some way to another course taking more there. Departments actually do trade student quota's

    This is very very rare as most courses are massively oversubscribed. I've been on the far side of the system and its simply shocking in some fields the drop out rate you see despite making the points cut off so I can see why this is sometimes done.

    The nearer the points level to 600 the less likely you are to see any crazy movement as % the number of possible students reduces very quickly. Its very very hard to predict

    The advice is simple, put your CAO options down in your order of preference ignoring points levels. Study hard and good things will happen


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,488 ✭✭✭Denerick


    There is no way of predicting it. Plenty of people do science and engineering courses because they are relatively low points. Maths and computer science courses also tend to be low points. They probably have one of the highest dropout rates as young people drift onto these courses without knowing what an exothermal reaction is and assuming its going to be an easy course (Because, like, the points are like so low like)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    Denerick wrote: »
    There is no way of predicting it. Plenty of people do science and engineering courses because they are relatively low points. Maths and computer science courses also tend to be low points. They probably have one of the highest dropout rates as young people drift onto these courses without knowing what an exothermal reaction is and assuming its going to be an easy course (Because, like, the points are like so low like)

    460 isn't *THAT* low. The main reason for the high dropout rate as far as I can tell is that people go in without a clue of what they want to do rather than because they can't keep up. First year of science is exceptionally easy to scrape through with about 4 or 5 hours of effort. :)

    Points will likely rise slightly across the board in line with the usual grade inflation but most courses have a limit as to how high they'll rise, I don't see many courses over 500 going up by more than 10-15 points simply because there's not far they can go.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 945 ✭✭✭gearoidof


    460 is pretty low.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,979 ✭✭✭Jammyc


    gearoidof wrote: »
    460 is pretty low.
    With regard to what?

    Overall, I'd consider 460 in the normal range of those who go to university based on leaving cert points.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,488 ✭✭✭Denerick


    Jammyc wrote: »
    With regard to what?

    Overall, I'd consider 460 in the normal range of those who go to university based on leaving cert points.

    Arts courses in UCD are low 300s. And you can normally do science and engineering at any university at around 400 points. Thats 5 B1s. Its good but not mind blowing. My point was about people choosing courses based on the points as opposed to what they want to do. Put your no.1 at no.1, regardless of whether its 200 or 500 points.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 182 ✭✭Ahoyhoy


    Like everyone else has said, no-one can really predict if they're going to rise but its a good idea to aim for around ten points above last year. The huge jump last year was because of all the unemployed people going back to education but I don't think that will happen as much this year. So if there's going to be a jump I reckon it would only be five points or so but if you're looking at a 515 requirement for 10/11 you should probably aim for 525 for 11/12. I aimed for the minimum on my course but it jumped by ten points, luckily I had overshot my aim by 25 points but I'll never forget how I felt when I saw the jump. It really took me by surprise, I can only imagine it was much worse for the people who had been aiming for the old requirement and missed out on the course altogether.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 829 ✭✭✭zam


    Great course.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,889 ✭✭✭evercloserunion


    gearoidof wrote: »
    460 is pretty low.
    I don't have stats to hand but I've heard that the average score is in the 300-400 range. 460, being well above that, cannot be considered "pretty low".

    Of course, within the context of Denerick's point they might well be considered "relatively low" when compared to things like law and medicine.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,357 ✭✭✭snappieT


    The most important thing: Do not pick your CAO courses on the basis on what points you expect them to have and what points you expect to achieve. The CAO is designed to be a demand-based system. There's no point putting Medicine down #1 "just in case" if that genuinely isn't what you really want to do. If required points go down or you do especially well, you'll get an offer of Medicine, and you can't say "no, I'd rather take #2". I've seen cases where this (or similar) has happened, usually not putting a course down because the student thought they'd never hit those points, but it turns out they did. Nothing you can do if it wasn't the highest eligible preference on your CAO from.

    TLDR: Stop worrying about points, put down what you really want to do, in order.


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