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advantages of the cao system

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  • 10-12-2008 7:02pm
    #1
    GERMAN ROCKS
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,796 ✭✭✭


    can anyone give me a few advantages of the cao points system for a debate


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    #2
    PurpleFistMixer
    Registered Users Posts: 5,851 ✭✭✭PurpleFistMixer


    Eh... it's anonymous, it's competitive (is that good? I dunno), it's standardised (no sending off individual applications to universities)... do your own homework. : )


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    #3
    Fad
    Registered Users Posts: 7,231 ✭✭✭Fad


    GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »
    can anyone give me a few advantages of the cao points system for a debate

    That depends, are you writing an essay of some sort, or are you preparing us for a rant?


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    #4
    GERMAN ROCKS
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,796 ✭✭✭GERMAN ROCKS


    debate


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    #5
    Fad
    Registered Users Posts: 7,231 ✭✭✭Fad


    GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »
    debate

    For a debate you're participating in, or just to debate it on Boards?


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    #6
    Conor108
    Registered Users Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭Conor108


    Oh just give him some points:D


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    #7
    Fad
    Registered Users Posts: 7,231 ✭✭✭Fad


    Conor108 wrote: »
    Oh just give him some points:D

    No, cos he should either do his own work, OR not bring up really pointless debates.

    The CAO is shíte is almost on par with just how annoying the IOE debate is, it brings out the worst in everyone here!


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    #8
    PurpleFistMixer
    Registered Users Posts: 5,851 ✭✭✭PurpleFistMixer


    The CAO system does have advantages though. I like the anonymity aspect of the LC, and how we all do the same exam. The main problems are
    1) Teaching of the subjects, either too exam-based (English) or the syllabus is plain bad (Irish).
    2) You need to do well in essentially unrelated subjects to get into college courses.

    Otherwise I don't object too much. It's nicely standardised, reasonably well organised, saves us the hassle of having to apply individually to universities, and there's no bias from having your teacher grade your work etc.


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    #9
    JSK 252
    Registered Users Posts: 1,257 ✭✭✭JSK 252


    Every person is treated impartialy and with fairness.

    No one person has a significant advantage over another in the system. ( Well maybe with your random selection number there is an element of luck which favours one person over the other......... the higher the number the better )


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    #10
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 16,720 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Has a fairly decent online facility (most of the time) - if you had to go to each college to apply not all colleges would be able to offer this type of support. Most would, but not all.

    Probably cheaper than splitting it.

    Similar to no-one having an advantage, no 'traditional' student has an disadvantage, as in, no crusty old Dean can keep you out of that college. If you're in, you're in.

    It's fairly simple to understand (if people RTFM).


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    #11
    Drodan
    Registered Users Posts: 461 ✭✭Drodan


    Main advantage, you don't have to be naturally smart, just rattle memorised stuff off.


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    #12
    sock puppet
    Registered Users Posts: 4,586 ✭✭✭sock puppet


    Drodan wrote: »
    Main advantage, you don't have to be naturally smart, just rattle memorised stuff off.

    The cao can't do anything about that. That's the fault, depending on how you see it I suppose, of the leaving cert format. Anyway its better for someone to get into college because they memorised a load of stuff than because their parents went there.


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    #13
    postalservice
    Registered Users Posts: 362 ✭✭postalservice


    sock puppet wrote: »
    Anyway its better for someone to get into college because they memorised a load of stuff than because their parents went there.
    +1

    Even though i don't like when people say the LC is all about rote learning.
    Thats untrue in most subjects.

    But yeah....the way people get into college here is way better than those "who you know" places


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    #14
    MathsManiac
    Registered Users Posts: 1,595 ✭✭✭MathsManiac


    I suggest that to identify the advantages of the CAO system, you'd have to consider what would happen if it weren't there (or what happened before it was there). Pros and cons of the CAO system are quite separate from the pros and cons of the LC. Getting drawn in to the merits of the latter is a red herring.

    If there were no centralised applications process, you would have to apply separately to every third level institution you were interested in going to. There would be no co-ordination between the offers. You might, for example, have to accept an offer from one place before your application to another had been processed. People could accept offers in ten different places and then bail out of nine at the last minute, leaving a flurry of follow-up offers after everyone had started somewhere.

    There might be completely different criteria for each institution. (For example, it's not that long since NUI and TCD had points systems that were completely different from each other.) So, you'd conceivably have to become familiar with lots of different mechanisms for combining results.

    The existence of a centralised applications process makes life much easier for the students and the institutions in managing the whole affair.

    The actual mechanism chosen for turning your set of grades into a number called your CAO points score is another kettle of fish. If you're going to have a centralised procedure, then you could argue that there's some merit in attempting to have consistency between the institutions in the criteria they apply (although it it doesn't necessarily follow). This is another aspect of the debate: do you believe that it is a good thing that, for example, a grade C1 in all subjects is deemed equally valuable? What would happen if it weren't? What benefits to the students and to the education system arise from the fact that these institutions have decided to apply, for the most part, a common agreement on how to assign relative values to the various grades in different subjects in the LC?

    There's plenty to ponder!

    (Here's one to think about: do two D2s really equal an A1?)


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