How does the points system work?

frobisher

I'm trying to work out what the results of an exam would be in points had they been for the leaving. Can anyone tell me the sytsem for working this out?

opelmanta

been a while since i did the leavin but id say there should be info on www.cao.ie or www.skoool.ie

ZorbaTehZ

Students are marked out of their best scoring 6 subjects. 100 points is for the best grade which is an A1 at honours level - therefore 600 points is the maximum score. This table gives the points system.

Xhristy

This post has been deleted.

cson

Honours System;

A1 = 100pts = 90-100%
A2 = 90pts = 85 - 89%
B1 = 85pts = 80 - 84%
B2 = 80pts = 75 - 79%
B3 = 75pts = 70 - 74%
C1 = 70pts = 65 - 69%
C2 = 65pts = 60 - 64%
C3 = 60pts = 55 - 59%
D1 = 55pts = 50 - 54%
D2 = 50pts = 45 - 49%
D3 = 45pts = 40 - 44%

Afaik you pass Hons Maths with 38%

Creamy Goodness

cson wrote: »

Afaik you pass Hons Maths with 38%

never heard that one? where you hear/read that?

PurpleFistMixer

Sounds like a vicious myth to me.

1huge1

Xhristy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No thats wrong, if you get 75% thats a B2 ya but its 80 points
50%=D1 55points etc etc

ZorbaTehZ

I always thought the 38% thing applied to all subjects, honours and pass?

cson

Cremo wrote: »

never heard that one? where you hear/read that?

My teacher who is an examiner informed me and at a Maths revision course with George Humphrey and Brendan Gildea (Two major major Maths teachers) they particularly emphasised the point.

Raphael

frobisher wrote: »

How does the points system work?

Badly

MathsManiac

cson wrote: »

Honours System;

A1 = 100pts = 90-100%
A2 = 90pts = 85 - 89%
B1 = 85pts = 80 - 84%
B2 = 80pts = 75 - 79%
B3 = 75pts = 70 - 74%
C1 = 70pts = 65 - 69%
C2 = 65pts = 60 - 64%
C3 = 60pts = 55 - 59%
D1 = 55pts = 50 - 54%
D2 = 50pts = 45 - 49%
D3 = 45pts = 40 - 44%

To be pedantic, the upper limits to these intervals are a bit shy. A2 doesn't stop at 89%; it goes up to but not including 90%. That is, 90% is the lower limit of A1 and anything below that is A2. No rounding takes place. Same with all the others.

(And, as already pointed out, the threshold for D3 is 38%.)

Somewhat bizarrely, there are no points for an E or F at any level, (although E in some subjects satisfies entry requirements for quite a few courses).

Seloth

You know the way they take your highest points,well do Irish,Maths and English have to be used?

PurpleFistMixer

No, so long as you've passed matriculation with them (ie passed them or got whatever you need for the course.)

rainbowtrout

MathsManiac wrote: »

To be pedantic, the upper limits to these intervals are a bit shy. A2 doesn't stop at 89%; it goes up to but not including 90%. That is, 90% is the lower limit of A1 and anything below that is A2. No rounding takes place. Same with all the others.

(And, as already pointed out, the threshold for D3 is 38%.)

Somewhat bizarrely, there are no points for an E or F at any level, (although E in some subjects satisfies entry requirements for quite a few courses).

Well I don't see why a person should be getting points for something they've failed. It wouldn't exactly encourage some students to work. I don't know of many courses where an E satisfies entry requirements, it may be more the case that a subject is not needed for entry requirements.

And I wouldn't take the whole 38% is a pass thing as gospel either. 38% is an E in anyones book and while examiners might be instructed to go back through exams to find a few marks to bring a student up to 40% for a D3, it certainly doesn't mean 38 will get you a pass, I've seen plenty of students fail with that kind of mark, from correcting papers the last number of years. It might only happen in a subject where there is a particularly high failure rate in a given year for whatever reasons.

MathsManiac

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Well I don't see why a person should be getting points for something they've failed.

Who says that an E is a fail? There is no such official designation on the part of the Department or the Exams Commission.

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I don't know of many courses where an E satisfies entry requirements, it may be more the case that a subject is not needed for entry requirements.

You don't know of them and yet strangely they exist. For example, a Higher E in maths is sufficient for lots of the courses that do have a maths requirement on this list from the institute of guidance counsellors: http://www.igc.ie/download/1/07%20Directory%20Update%20File.xls (and this isn't a full list, methinks).

rainbowtrout wrote: »

And I wouldn't take the whole 38% is a pass thing as gospel either. 38% is an E in anyones book and while examiners might be instructed to go back through exams to find a few marks to bring a student up to 40% for a D3, it certainly doesn't mean 38 will get you a pass, I've seen plenty of students fail with that kind of mark, from correcting papers the last number of years. It might only happen in a subject where there is a particularly high failure rate in a given year for whatever reasons.

Examiners indeed record marks between 38% and 40% as an E during their work, but such candidates nonetheless are issued with a D3, as is obvious to anyone with such a mark who has viewed their scripts in September.

rainbowtrout

MathsManiac wrote: »

Who says that an E is a fail? There is no such official designation on the part of the Department or the Exams Commission.

I think we're going off topic here, but it's a bit more about the phrasing of it here. 40% is generally considered to be a passing grade, so by default that makes an E a fail.

MathsManiac wrote: »

You don't know of them and yet strangely they exist. For example, a Higher E in maths is sufficient for lots of the courses that do have a maths requirement on this list from the institute of guidance counsellors: http://www.igc.ie/download/1/07%20Directory%20Update%20File.xls (and this isn't a full list, methinks).

Again, I said I didn't know of many, I am quite aware of courses that do not require maths or will accept an E in maths, but they are it has to be said only a fraction of the courses that are out there

MathsManiac wrote: »

Examiners indeed record marks between 38% and 40% as an E during their work, but such candidates nonetheless are issued with a D3, as is obvious to anyone with such a mark who has viewed their scripts in September.

And again not all scripts are marked up, I too have seen scripts that have scored 38 are not awarded a D3, one of them was a former student of mine who scored 38 in higher maths, and still did not get it on appeal... anyway going off topic.

MathsManiac

rainbowtrout wrote: »

And again not all scripts are marked up, I too have seen scripts that have scored 38 are not awarded a D3, one of them was a former student of mine who scored 38 in higher maths, and still did not get it on appeal... anyway going off topic.

They are not "marked up". The lower boundary score for a D3 in a 600 mark paper like maths is 228 marks. If you had a student who got 228 or more (but less than 270) and was not issued a D3 then a clerical error was made transferring the mark from the script to the marking sheet or from the marking sheet to the computer.