College.

fontdor

OK So I wanna hopefully do Pharmacy in RCSI. I Am in 5th year atm. Anyways. I just checked their site and it says you need a HB3 In Chemistry,Biology or Physics anyone of them. Minimum points I Need is 530 Points. I don't get it no matter what I do I Can't reach these points at all. I am doing 4 Ordinary Subjects and 3 Higher Level ones. Chemistry,Biology and English Higher level. How do the pointing schemes work? Do they double your points or something?

Glee_GG

Unfortunatly if you get 3 A1s at Higher Level and 3 A1s at ordinary level your going to get 480 points which isn't enough. Unless you take up some more subjects at Higher Level I don't think its going to be possible for you to do Pharmacy.

fontdor

Glee_GG wrote: »

Unfortunatly if you get 3 A1s at Higher Level and 3 A1s at ordinary level your going to get 480 points which isn't enough. Unless you take up some more subjects at Higher Level I don't think its going to be possible for you to do Pharmacy.

Why do you think it won't be possible for me to do pharmacy?

kate.m

fontdor wrote: »

Why do you think it won't be possible for me to do pharmacy?

Because your maximum possible points with 3 higher level and 3 lower level is 480? And as you said minimum for pharmacy in rcsi is 530?

Take up another hl subject maybe?

QueenOfLeon

The most you can get is 60 points for an A1 at ordinary level, so to reach points as high as 530 you would really need to do 5 Honours subjects.

What subjects are you doing at pass level, out of interest? It is still possible to take them at higher level if you are willing to put in the work, and getting anything from a C2 upwards at higher level gives you more points than an A1 at ordinary level.

The best subject to take at higher level this year is maths as you get an extra 25 points for each maths grade you get above a D3. It is a time consuming subject though.

fontdor

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

The most you can get is 60 points for an A1 at ordinary level, so to reach points as high as 530 you would really need to do 5 Honours subjects.

What subjects are you doing at pass level, out of interest? It is still possible to take them at higher level if you are willing to put in the work, and getting anything from a C2 upwards at higher level gives you more points than an A1 at ordinary level.

The best subject to take at higher level this year is maths as you get an extra 25 points for each maths grade you get above a D3. It is a time consuming subject though.

Thank you for your reply. Well I Am doing The following subjects at Ordinary Level: Maths,Business,French and Irish. By the way I was On a website right now called HPAT it says they give you extra points If I haven't misunderstood or misread. How does this exactly work?

QueenOfLeon

fontdor wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. Well I Am doing The following subjects at Ordinary Level: Maths,Business,French and Irish. By the way I was On a website right now called HPAT it says they give you extra points If I haven't misunderstood or misread. How does this exactly work?

The HPAT only applies to medicine. It is not relevant at all to pharmacy.

There are some schemes that provide entry to college on lower points if the student has a disability or is from a disadvantaged background. You can read about the HEAR and DARE schemes on this link. They may not apply to you but they are the only ones I can think of.

I think your best bet though would be to consider maybe moving one of your subjects up to Higher Level and possibly doing another higher level outside of school?

partyatmygaff

Realistically, to get 530 points you'll need to be doing at least 5/6 higher level subjects. Even five is cutting it a bit thin. Three HL subjects definitely isn't enough to get 530 points.

The HPAT is a test for Medicine. It has nothing to do with Pharmacy.

fontdor

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Realistically, to get 530 points you'll need to be doing at least 5/6 higher level subjects. Even five is cutting it a bit thin. Three HL subjects definitely isn't enough to get 530 points.

The HPAT is a test for Medicine. It has nothing to do with Pharmacy.

Thank You BTW What does the user above mean by saying

possibly doing another higher level outside of school?

partyatmygaff

They mean do an extra subject like Business outside of school. HL Business is a pretty easy subject to teach yourself. I did it last year, it's literally just reading the book and using logic and English to write answers.

fontdor

partyatmygaff wrote: »

They mean do an extra subject like Business outside of school. HL Business is a pretty easy subject to teach yourself. I did it last year, it's literally just reading the book and using logic and English to write answers.

What exactly do you mean by ''Outside of school''?

partyatmygaff

As in, get the book, have a look at past exam papers and teach yourself the subject or go to Saturday classes e.t.c. in one of the grind schools.

QueenOfLeon

fontdor wrote: »

What exactly do you mean by ''Outside of school''?

As in, do the subject outside of school hours. You could either learn it yourself or get grinds in the evenings or at weekends. You could still sit the exam in your school but you wouldn't be attending classes in it at school.

F9Devil

Absolutely do HL Business, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't.
And for HL pick up something like geography, accounting, ag science, DCG etc

fontdor

But the thing is That I am already doing Ordinary level Business

partyatmygaff

Bump it to HL then. If you can manage HL English you can manage HL Business.

F9Devil

fontdor wrote: »

But the thing is That I am already doing Ordinary level Business

In most subjects the difficulty difference between ordinary and higher level is tiny. The difference being, I'd reckon, a few chapters here and there.

Just take the plunge, switch to higher level business and pick up a new subject.

I'm sitting the LC this year, having done 5th year twice and sampled a number of subjects.. if it helps, if I had to do the the LC course again I would have picked up Accounting and Agricultural Science.

fontdor

F9Devil wrote: »

In most subjects the difficulty difference between ordinary and higher level is tiny. The difference being, I'd reckon, a few chapters here and there.

Just take the plunge, switch to higher level business and pick up a new subject.

I'm sitting the LC this year, having done 5th year twice and sampled a number of subjects.. if it helps, if I had to do the the LC course again I would have picked up Accounting and Agricultural Science.

Thank you but If I bump to Higher Level Business how can I pick another Subject? Is it possible?

PictureFrame

Ok, to get 530 points with 5 higher level subjects you would need the following grades:

HL- A1
HL- A1
HL- A1
HL- A2
HL- A2
OL- A2

This is the absolute minimum you can achieve to get 530 points with 5 Honours subjects. I'm not going to judge you as I don't know you or your aptitudes but these grades are fairly difficult to get. If you want to do Pharmacy your going to have to do 5 Higher Level subjects without a doubt.

You'll have to take up HL Business and achieve an A in it, you'll have to take up another new subject or bump up one of your OL Subjects to Higher and achieve an A grade in it also.

I'm not going to tell you what to do but this seems ridiculously difficult to do! Do you not have any other idea of any courses with less points?

You could also repeat 5th year and ensure you are studying your 5 HL Subjects from the beginning!

Best of luck with whatever you choose to do, my advice, take up Honours Business, it's not really that hard! Good luck!

Just Like Heaven

+ 530 points still probably won't get you into RCSI pharmacy anyway. There's no point in saying you can't move up to 6 honours or whatever.

You need 6 honours.

finality

The points last year were 535. It's pretty likely they'll go up to 560ish this year with the 25 bonus points for honours maths.

There are other routes, there's graduate entry and I think you can do a pharmacy technician course and then apply with that, but you need a B in both higher level biology and chemistry for that option.

partyatmygaff

There's graduate entry in TCD/RCSI alright but I don't think Pharmacy technicians have can directly progress on to Pharmacy in any college.

All a Pharmacy tech qualification would probably do is strengthen a mature student's application.

For Graduate entry to Pharmacy you'll need a 2.1 in a Bachelor's degree or a Masters/P.hD. If the course wasn't Chemistry-related you also need a HL C in LC Chemistry.

finality

partyatmygaff wrote: »

There's graduate entry in TCD/RCSI alright but I don't think Pharmacy technicians have can directly progress on to Pharmacy in any college.

All a Pharmacy tech qualification would probably do is strengthen a mature student's application.

For Graduate entry to Pharmacy you'll need a 2.1 in a Bachelor's degree or a Masters/P.hD. If the course wasn't Chemistry-related you also need a HL C in LC Chemistry.

It said on the RCSI website that a pharmacy technician course with a B in both leaving cert biology and chemistry was an entry route, but I wouldn't know anything about it personally.

fontdor

Honestly All I want to do Is to get into College Or University. I Will do anything to get in even if it means I have to study 24/7. I was just confused about the points that's all. Thank you all for your help.

Queenalocin

finality wrote: »

It said on the RCSI website that a pharmacy technician course with a B in both leaving cert biology and chemistry was an entry route, but I wouldn't know anything about it personally.

You will have to pay fees if you go down this route into pharmacy. Having the pharmacy technician course does make life easier for the practical pharmacy based subjects and means that you don't need the high points that first time entry into pharmacy requires. The pharmacy technician courses are 2 years long and many graduates spend the year after finishing doing leaving cert biology and chemistry at night. This gives them a chance to be really sure that pharmacy is what they want, and also improves their chances of getting into a pharmacy course via UCAS also.

I think that if pharmacy is something you really want to do, then put the pharmacy technician courses on your CAO as a back door route. They are only 2 years and you will have a qualification at the end which will enhance your employability as a pharmacy student and also when looking for your MPharm placement at the end of the degree.