A published points figure is not a target set by a college. It is a record of where the last offer landed. The number printed beside a course in August is the points score of the final applicant who was offered a place in that round, nothing more. Next year the number will be different, because the applicants will be different.

This piece explains how a student’s points are counted, how a cut-off comes to be, why cut-offs move, and what the symbols next to them mean. The rules are from the CAO Handbook 2027 and the CAO’s own note on how offers are issued.

The Common Points Scale

Every Leaving Cert grade converts to a points value on a single scale. Higher Level grades run from H1 to H8, Ordinary Level from O1 to O8. The scale used for 2027 entry is below.

Two other sets of grades count. The Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme link modules score 66 for a Distinction, 46 for a Merit and 28 for a Pass. Foundation Level Maths scores 20 for F1 and 12 for F2; other Foundation Level subjects do not carry points. Note that a H5 is worth the same as an O1, and a H7 the same as an O3, which is why a student struggling at Higher Level in one subject is not always better off dropping down.

[EMBED: cao-points-calculator]

The maths bonus, and the “bonus first, then best six” rule

Higher Level Maths carries an extra 25 points for any grade from H6 upwards. A H6 in maths is therefore worth 71, a H1 is worth 125. A H7 gets no bonus and stays at 37.

The order of operations matters. The bonus is added to the maths score first, and only then are the best six subjects chosen. So maths with its bonus competes for a place in the six against every other subject. In most cases that means a Higher Level maths grade of H6 or better will be in the six, even where it is the student’s weakest subject on paper.

Points are counted from a single sitting of the Leaving Cert; grades from two different years cannot be combined. Only the best six subjects count, and nothing above six adds anything. The handbook gives a worked example that comes to 394 points. The illustration below applies the same rule to a seven-subject result and lands on the same total.

The method is the same whatever the subjects: add the bonus, rank the seven scores, take the top six. The maths score of 81 is counted ahead of both H3s because the bonus has already been applied; the O5 drops out because it is the seventh-ranked score. The handbook’s own example reaches 394 the same way.

Points are only the second half of the test. A student must first meet the minimum entry requirements for the college and the specific requirements for the course, such as a H4 in a science subject or a particular grade in Irish. An applicant who falls short on a requirement is not considered at all, no matter how high the points.

What a published cut-off actually is

Each college tells the CAO how many places it has on each course. The CAO then lists every eligible applicant who has that course on their form, from the highest points down, and works through the list offering places. It stops when the places are gone. The points of the last applicant offered a place is the published cut-off.

Three things set that figure, and the college controls only one of them. The first is the number of places. The second is how many eligible applicants listed the course at a preference high enough to be offered it, which depends on the choices thousands of other students made. The third is the points those applicants happened to score. The cut-off is the output, not an input. Nobody sat in a room and decided that a course would require 521 points.

That is why last year’s points are not a pass mark. They tell you where the line fell among last year’s applicants. A student with exactly last year’s points has no guarantee at all. A student twenty points short may well be offered the course if demand softens. The figures are a guide to the level of competition, and no more.

Why points move from year to year

Points rise when more applicants want a course than the year before, or when the same number of applicants arrive with higher grades, or when the college reduces the number of places. Points fall when the opposite happens. The three factors interact and none of them is known until the results are in and the Change of Mind lists are closed.

A course can also jump for reasons that have nothing to do with the course. A new course elsewhere with a similar title can pull applicants away. A change in the grade profile across the whole cohort, where a larger share of students gets H1s and H2s in a given year, pushes cut-offs up across the board without a single extra applicant. And because order of preference drives the offers, a course that many students list as a fallback can see its points move sharply when those students get their first choice instead.

Random selection and the asterisk

Several applicants often sit on exactly the same points at the cut-off, and there are not enough places for all of them. The CAO resolves this with random selection. Each applicant is assigned a random number for every course on their application. When places run out part-way through a group of applicants on identical points, the place goes to the applicant with the highest random number in that group.

Where this has happened, the published points figure carries an asterisk. “521*” means that not everyone on 521 points was offered a place; some on 521 were and some were not, decided by the random number. It does not mean that the course required more than 521. The random numbers are generated per course, so an applicant unlucky on one course is not automatically unlucky on the next.

The hash symbol: test, interview, portfolio

A hash sign after a points figure, “#”, means the points shown are not purely Leaving Cert points. The course assesses applicants on something more, such as a portfolio, an audition, an interview or an admissions test, and the published figure is the combined score of the last applicant offered a place. A Leaving Cert points total on its own cannot be compared with it. These are typically the restricted courses that had to be on the form by 1 February.

AQA: all qualified applicants

Where “AQA” appears instead of a number, the college had enough places for every applicant who met the entry requirements. There was no cut-off because nobody who qualified was turned away. It does not mean the course has no requirements; it means the requirements, rather than points, did the sorting. An AQA course one year can carry a points figure the next if demand rises.

Why Round Two points can fall

Round One fills each course to its quota. Not everyone accepts. Some applicants take an offer from their other list, some defer, some go abroad, some simply do not reply by the deadline. The places they leave behind are offered again in Round Two to the next applicants on the list, who by definition have lower points than the Round One cut-off. So the Round Two figure for a course is either the same as Round One or lower; it cannot be higher.

Round Two offers only go to applicants for courses above the one they were already offered on the same list, which is another reason order of preference matters. A course at preference 9 cannot come back in Round Two for someone offered preference 5 in Round One, even if the Round Two points for it drop below theirs.

Appeals and upgrades

If a Leaving Cert appeal through the State Examinations Commission raises a grade, the CAO recalculates the applicant’s points and their position on the order of merit for each course changes. Where the new position would have earned an offer and places remain, an offer is issued. Where the course is already full, the college may make a deferred offer for the following year. The CAO processes the paperwork, but the decision on whether and how to make the offer rests with the college.

Upgrades do not disturb other applicants. Nobody loses an offer already made because someone else’s appeal succeeded.

Reading the points tables

Taken together, the symbols and the mechanics give a way of reading the August tables that is more useful than the headline number. A figure with no symbol is the points of the last applicant offered a place in that round. An asterisk says the line fell inside a group on equal points. A hash says a test or portfolio is part of the score. AQA says every qualified applicant got in. And any of them can change by the following year, because the applicants will.