CAO points Calculation
Introduction
The Leaving Cert has a total of 41 courses for candidates to choose from, including two compulsory courses: English and mathematics.
Except for individual subjects, students are allowed to select any number of courses as long as the class times and contents do not conflict. However, the final results are only determined by the six best subjects.
Most courses will be divided into two levels of difficulty: Ordinary Level and Higher Level. The highest college entrance examination score, also known as the CAO points, for each course is 100 points, for a total of 600 points. If the student’s score reaches 40 points or above in Higher Level Mathematics, the student will get an additional 25 points. Therefore, the full score of the Leving Cert is 625 points.
CAO points calculation
Most courses will be divided into two different levels with entirely different criteria: Ordinary Level and Higher Level (Honours Level). The final score of a candidate will be calculated as a percentage for all levels. For example, if the full score of a subject is 400 and the cdidatean gets 300 points, the final score will be calculated as 300/400 or 75 %. The score is then assigned to the relevant level based on the marks achieved by the candidate. A final score of 90–100 in the Higher Level exam will receive H1; the final score of 80–89 in the Higher Level exam will receive H2, etc. A final score of 90–100 in the Ordinary Level exam will receive O1; the final score of 80–89 in the Ordinary Level exam will receive O2, etc.
According to the table below, candidates' CAO points are calculated as:
Assume that Candidate A obtains the final score of 72% in the physical examination of higher level, counted as H3, then the examinee will get a CAO score of 77 points. Candidate B takes the ordinary physics test and obtains a final score of 90%, counted as O1, then the examinee will get a CAO score of 56 points. Candidate B also takes the mathematics test of higher difficulty and obtains 64%, calculated as H4. However, because his final score exceeds 40 points, which is in line with the mathematics subject bonus points, his mathematics CAO score will be 66+25=91 points.
Nevertheless, some courses use compound scores. For example, 30% of the final grade of Computer Science is determined by a project.