MSAP UCD 2015

I love angels

Hi everyone,


I did this test on Saturday and I would just like to know how everyone else who sat this test on Saturday found it?

Thank you

AndThatsAFact

Taught it was a hard test to do, what did you make of it?

I love angels

I thought it was hard especially the multiple choice questions, the essays weren't too bad though. I sat the test in the Dublin Blackrock exam centre, where did you sit your test?

AndThatsAFact

multiple choice was hard alright didn't expect it to be that bad ! essays were grand I taught , sat mine in UL

Pos087

I found essay part ok. Wouldn't be surprised if I got 0 out of 35 in multipal choice. Done exam in ucc. What was that poem all about???

SameHorse

I sat it too - in Galway. Got through the essays OK, which is to say I filled the pages provided. Can't really say how they'll mark my essays - I'm not sure how sophisticated my point of view was.

The multiple choice was also OK ... the questions on Juevinile Court vs Criminal Court were tricky. Gave my best effort to deduce the right answers but didn't come away from that group of questions feeling as certain as I was about other answers. The cartoon of the businessman walking past the beggar was also tricky. The piece on laughter was mostly fine, but I think I might have gotten a question wrong ...the one that asks if he's expanding on a point, providing a dialectic that employs thesis/antithesis/synthesis, starting with one view and finishing with another...and some other option I forget.


can anyone remember the answers they gave for these ones ?

MSAP Blackrock 2015

Found it all very tough to be honest. Nothing easy about that exam. I'm hoping to get accepted into UCD arts, not sure how the application process works.

Does anyone know how many mature applicant places there are for it?

Are students accepted on the MSAP results alone?

SameHorse

"Found it all very tough to be honest. Nothing easy about that exam. "

Do you remember the questions I mentioned ? and the answers you gave ?


"I'm hoping to get accepted into UCD arts, not sure how the application process works.

Does anyone know how many mature applicant places there are for it?

Are students accepted on the MSAP results alone? "

from my research into MSAP (reading various threads here on boards.ie for the most part), it depends on the college or university. Some people think the admins rely on the individual score, some say the percentile (i.e how you rated against everyone else), some said they thought the percentile wasn't even passed on to the colleges/universities. Some suggested some colleges/universities take admissions based on scores/application alone, and some indicate interviews also play a big role. If memory serves me correctly, I think for UCD arts they will decide based on your application & msap score alone - no interview. Again, that is just me trying to remember what was second hand information posted on the interwebz by someone who simply thinks this to be the case, or had that experience personally...but who knows if that's how they take admissions entirely. Some folk might just be clearly good enough to accept on the strength of their score/application alone, some might warrant an interview - especially when the places start to dwindle and you have multiple people with identical scores vying for the same seat...

you could look up the MSAP thread with the subject 'MSAP!!!!' or something along those lines. it was the biggest MSAP thread I found on here, but was about 3 yrs old or so.

AndThatsAFact

I don't know to be honest , but im looking at my second choice on cao having sat that test

elleelle19

I found the multiple choice much harder than I expected based on the test papers.

SameHorse

AndThatsAFact wrote: »

I don't know to be honest , but im looking at my second choice on cao having sat that test

what are your first and second choices ?

SameHorse

elleelle19 wrote: »

I found the multiple choice much harder than I expected based on the test papers.

ya, well, the court/criminal court thing I found difficult...primarily because it referred to states within a country. and when we think of such a scenario, we think of the united states of america I'm sure. so our ideas of the judicial system in the usa is shaped and skewed by years of tv, movies, and news stories. the question seemed to demand that we act on assumption or presumption to deduce the answer ... there didn't seem to be any other way to come to an answer other thn that. at least for me, I found myself trying to strike a balance between not being presumptious and only relying on the info provided to come to a conclusion...and using 'common sense'

beyond that set of questions though, i think the rest of the multiple choice questions were in line with the sample questions, in terms of difficulty.

SameHorse

btw, is anyone having dreams abou the msap ? i've had about 4 dreams about it since I sat the exam, lol.

MSAP Blackrock 2015

Insofar as I am aware, if you don't get selected as a mature applicant, you can still do Arts at UCD through the normal CAO (leaving cert points) route.

Is that true? I have 420 points and am banking on getting through that way.

Mr.Saturn

MSAP Blackrock 2015 wrote: »

Insofar as I am aware, if you don't get selected as a mature applicant, you can still do Arts at UCD through the normal CAO (leaving cert points) route.

Is that true? I have 420 points and am banking on getting through that way.

Yup, you can. With 420, you're likely way, way, way over the threshold. I think it's hovered around the low-mid 300s for yonks.

AKeenan348

i thought the exam was really hard. I sat it in Blackrock for UCD admission. To make things even worse, they made us wait almost an hour for the paper. f 85 is the cut off point, does that mean anything 85 or under is discounted? Good luck to everyone waiting on results.

MSAP Blackrock 2015

Did anybody get their results yet?

I sat mine in UCD Blackrock, I'm wondering what the percentile is based on. Is it just UCD Blackrock or all participants that sat the MSAP exam in Ireland?

I scored 90 in the percentile range.

MSAP Blackrock 2015

AKeenan348 wrote: »

i thought the exam was really hard. I sat it in Blackrock for UCD admission. To make things even worse, they made us wait almost an hour for the paper. f 85 is the cut off point, does that mean anything 85 or under is discounted? Good luck to everyone waiting on results.

The organization on the day was pretty chaotic. Did people really go outside for a cigarette when they announced we would start in 5 minutes? Did they really let them back in when they took more than 5 minutes?

SameHorse

AKeenan348 wrote: »

To make things even worse, they made us wait almost an hour for the paper.

as far as I know, every university started the exam at the same time ... to avoid cheating I guess.

the time we were told to arrive was never supposed to be the time the exam was supposed to start, we were told to expect at least a 45 minute wait as far as I recall... ?

SameHorse

MSAP Blackrock 2015 wrote: »

Did anybody get their results yet?

I sat mine in UCD Blackrock, I'm wondering what the percentile is based on. Is it just UCD Blackrock or all participants that sat the MSAP exam in Ireland?

I scored 90 in the percentile range.

ya, I got my results.
The percentile is based on everyone who sat the MSAP in Ireland this year, so that includes Galway, Cork ... etc

Scored 94 in the percentile range, not too bad. hoping for interviews next...

AndThatsAFact

how do I know if I done good or not

SameHorse

AndThatsAFact wrote: »

how do I know if I did good or not

what's your score ?

AndThatsAFact

30, not good is it?? that's the percentile for 2 of the modules

SameHorse

depends on what you applied for mate.

I read a lot of MSAP threads here on boards.ie, I think 30 might be just enough to get in for some courses...but I can't be sure. 30 rings a bell for some reason.

AndThatsAFact

how do I find out what is the cut off point for each course?

SameHorse

AndThatsAFact wrote: »

how do I find out what is the cut off point for each course?

you'd want to contact the relevant mature students office at the college/uni you're applying to ... or contact the faculty directly. are there any open days coming up ? there's an open day coming up for my uni of choice this weekend, so i'll be asking questions about msap scoring...

AndThatsAFact

doubt Its the score I needed thanks anyway, Ill have to try and find another course. .

SameHorse

AndThatsAFact wrote: »

doubt Its the score I needed thanks anyway, Ill have to try and find another course. .

well, if it's not enough to get you through... you could consider other ways of getting in .... like applying for the Access Course (for higher education, mature students). Closing date to apply is - if i'm not mistaken - may 15th.

you can get into 3rd level courses on the strength of how you get on in that course. it's done in the evenings. it's not considered full-time by the social welfare though, so you'd have to stay on jobseekers or some such scheme (if you're unemployed) .... or better yet, if you're able for it, you could do some kind of relevant PLC course or momentum/springboard course during the day and the Access at night.

anyway, MSAP isn't the only way in...so don't give up hope.

gsita

how do you find out if your msap results are good enough for the course you applied for?

RollieFingers

The results are confusing.

Scored 116 in the scaled score and 84 in the percentile, unsure as to whether that's good or not

SameHorse

RollieFingers wrote: »

The results are confusing.

Scored 116 in the scaled score and 84 in the percentile, unsure as to whether that's good or not

depends on what you're applying for...

my understanding is:
courses will have a minimum threshold that you'll need to achieve in the scaled score, and then beyond that (in order to whittle down the numbers I guess) they'll use the percentiles - assuming they've got many more mature applicants than there are seats (for mature students).


some people in threads about previous years' MSAP tests claimed that some courses rely only on the scaled score... but I wasn't convinced by that suggestion and it was literally only one person who claimed that amongst hundreds of posts and pages on the subject...


I'm also curious if they've got access to our essays/question sheets ?
besides the scores that might also help, if it came down to a few people vying for the same seat...

ianol12

Confusing results. Overall scaled score of 103. That seems ok, because isn't that out of 130 or 150.

Got 57 in the overall percentile.

Really unsure as to whether they are good marks or not.

What I do now is that, getting 57 percentile means something like in the top 43% of the people who sat it in the country.


This exam is shocking. Not only are the multiple choice questions ambiguous, the results are even more of a mystery.

I remember one of the multiple choice questions about anarchy.


It basically asked that based on the text, is anarchy a matter of non conformity or non obligation.
They seem very similar to me.


Guess I''m getting anxious about getting a place. But at the same time confused. At least afetr the leaving and junior cert results, you know where you stand during the exam and when you get your results.

Would like to hear how everyone else got in their results.
.

elleelle19

Really disappointed with my score for written English module. Overall percentile wasn't too bad.

Have emailed the college to ask the cut-off for my course. Hopefully I'll scrape through.

ianol12

elleelle19 wrote: »

Really disappointed with my score for written English module. Overall percentile wasn't too bad.

Have emailed the college to ask the cut-off for my course. Hopefully I'll scrape through.

What was your overall score. Don't count the percentile. On your Cao Application it only takes the overall score.
I made a post recently about how the msap is scored.
For some stupid reason, I cant post links to threads. Anyway the thread is in my profile because I created it, if you want to find it.

SameHorse

am I the only one who isn't struggling to figure this out ?

maybe that should have been one of the questions ... explain the scoring system...

ianol12

SameHorse wrote: »

am I the only one who isn't struggling to figure this out ?

maybe that should have been one of the questions ... explain the scoring system...

Ha ha it should be an msap question. Section 4. Question 1 of 1. To pass the msap in one question and get automatic entry to a physics course.
Explain the msap scoring system?

AKeenan348

MSAP Blackrock 2015 wrote: »

The organization on the day was pretty chaotic. Did people really go outside for a cigarette when they announced we would start in 5 minutes? Did they really let them back in when they took more than 5 minutes?

Yeah, really badly organised. Overly strict as well. I bought a new packet of pencils for test, and wasn't allowed to take packaging in. And she kept talking over me too. Really annoying. They let people in and out pretty much up to the start.

AKeenan348

I was told the cut off point for most courses is 85. The mature students officer in UCD admissions told me they don't look at the percentile of the results. At least for the joint honours. You have to get a 85 points on all modules sat. Could be different for different courses. Check with Admissions for your course. If you need the direct line, let me know, and i'll private message you.

Babog2015

I'm in!!! UCD contacted me and advised me my application was successful!!
Anybody else get an update??

SameHorse

Babog2015 wrote: »

I'm in!!! UCD contacted me and advised me my application was successful!!
Anybody else get an update??

would help if you stated what course you applied for. It was my understanding, and I believe the CAO state this, that the mature offers aren't made until early July.

So, would be great to know what course you applied to.


edit: I see from another thread that it can happen that people can get the good news in June, but don't formally accept the offer until July ? Slightly confusing why the would tell people they're in the course during a period of time that people can still use the 'change of mind' form ...

Babog2015

My case is similar to the other threads you refer to.
I've been notified that I have been successful and that I will receive an official offer July 3 thoroughly CAO!

I have applied for Arts in UCD.

I'm assuming the offer comes out before change of mind to allow the applicant to edit their Cao if the college if its not their 1st choice, again that's just my assumption, I'm not 100% certain why it happens in that order.

SameHorse

ok, cheers.
I guess for Arts where there's a lot (comparitively) of seats for mature applicants they can tell sooner who's got a seat ? I know for my first choice there's only one seat reserved for the highest scoring mature applicant.... so either I didn't get it, or they're waiting until the 'change of mind' period is over, or it's just not their policy to notify sooner than the CAO offer ?

anyway, yet another layer of mild confusion to the whole process : )

I'll try to stay optimistic.

elleelle19

Anyone else get an offer from UCD yet?
Starting to have anxious dreams about offer letters attacking me 😳

Kovu

elleelle19 wrote: »

Anyone else get an offer from UCD yet?
Starting to have anxious dreams about offer letters attacking me 😳

I got one last week for Bsc Ag Sci. In fairness to them, they told me in the interview that it was just an informal chat to see how suitable I was for the course. I was told I'd know in July but could ring in the first week of June to see if an offer was likely. No need as I got a letter last week congratulating me!