What effect will Maths Bonus Points have 2012?

ThatGuy93

Just looking for peoples opinions on what effect the higher level maths bonus points will have on the CAO this year. With 49,408 Third Level Education places available through the CAO this year and just under 24,000 of these being university places. 8,000 students are expected to sit the higher level maths exam this year. Do people think the hype over large points rises due to higher level maths bonus points will actually come to fruition?

Canard

Honestly I think itll just affect mathsy courses, and even at that it'll even out. It might mildly affect other courses - I do HL maths and plan to do languages in college, which would be a bit unusual I guess - but sure its 8000 people so widely dispersed that I cant imagine it being too important :P

Chuchoter

Next year it will cause a bigger difference. The points were only introduced this year when people taking the exam were already in 6th year, by which point most had already dropped down so as Patchy says, very few widely dispersed. Next year people will probably try harder to stay in HL and then you'll see bigger differences.

RoundBox11

I don't really understand the reasoning behind these extra points.

I sat my leaving cert a few years ago and did Higher level and at the time i thought it would be great, but now that i'm out of school it seems that the emphasis on maths in school is a bit exaggerated. Don't get me wrong i think maths is very important and i think more students should take higher level subjects across the board. But i think in the terms of benefiting people in the long run it doesnt make sense to me. Surely having the ability to study higher level english/french etc would be more beneficial.

Also if i was to generalize a bit, id say most people competing for the courses with the highest points take higher level maths anyway, so the extra points doesnt give anyone an advantage.

Say in cases where a student might be very intelligent and hard working but not good at maths, they may not get the necessary points for their course because they studied ordinary level maths and didnt get the points bonus, which pushed the points requirements up because most other students competing for the same course took higher level, got the points bonus and therefore pushed up the requirements.

A lot of students will take higher level maths even though they arent able for it and because of this their other grades will suffer because they are putting in too much time into one subject and neglecting others.

I think it would make more sense to offer a points bonus to students who take 6 higher level subjects or something like that.

The leaving cert points system is rediculously stupid already without adding these points bonuses.

MegGustaa

Chuchoter wrote: »

Next year it will cause a bigger difference. The points were only introduced this year when people taking the exam were already in 6th year, by which point most had already dropped down so as Patchy says, very few widely dispersed. Next year people will probably try harder to stay in HL and then you'll see bigger differences.

We knew about them when the current LC class were in 5th Year! I'm in 5th now and distinctly remember people in my TY maths class sticking there for the bonus points

I think it's going to have a bigger effect on entrance to courses which don't require HL Maths. The ones that do will certainly go up in points, but everyone going for those courses has HL Maths anyway.

The problem is that now you'll have people with a maximum of 625 points going for courses that people who don't have or need HL Maths also want. Personally, I don't think it's fair that if you're going for English Studies or Law and do OL Maths that you'll be competing against people who get more points with a D3 in HL Maths than you will with an A1 in OL. Especially when Maths might have absolutely nothing to do with the course.

The bonus points aren't going to solve the problems we have with Maths. The biggest problem we have isn't the number taking HL, it's the number of those people who go on to do the courses that require HL Maths in University. From what I can see, all the bonus points are doing are keeping the weaker HL Maths students - who 99% of the time do not like Maths and will not pursue anything Maths related in Uni - in HL Classes when they would be better suited to OL (and would do really well in OL) and are perhaps risking a fail in Maths.

The 4 Year trial basis for the bonus points (2012-2016) has me convinced that they're just trying to mask the decline in numbers taking HL that would otherwise result from making students pick up Project Maths at LC level (most people I know hate it). 2016 is the first LC year that will see students who did Project Maths for JC (2, or 4 Strands, depending on whether or not they will have done TY) sitting LC Maths. I'm sure far more people in my year would have dropped to OL Maths by now if the bonus points weren't in place, simply because we're not used to this method of assessment. But that wouldn't look good for Project Maths, would it?

K_1

Chuchoter wrote: »

Next year it will cause a bigger difference. The points were only introduced this year when people taking the exam were already in 6th year, by which point most had already dropped down so as Patchy says, very few widely dispersed. Next year people will probably try harder to stay in HL and then you'll see bigger differences.

Its been known since september of fifth year, thats how we ended up with 55 of 110 doing honours maths in our school.

Chuchoter

Ok, we only had it confirmed to us by our teacher this year but checked the paper and you guys are right! In my year its made no difference, still only one class HL and 4 OL.