Higher level students ‘should be given more points’

LEAVING Certificate students should be given up to 50 extra points for higher level papers when applying for college, an expert has suggested.

Under the current Central Applications Office (CAO) system, students can earn between 45 and 100 points for grades from an A1 to a D3 at higher level. But the marks merge for those getting high grades in ordinary level papers, with 60 points for an A1, 50 for an A2 and 45 for a B1 and so on.

Eoghan Mac Aogáin, a research affiliate at the Education Research Centre of St Patrick’s College in Dublin, recommends changing the system in an article for the latest volume of the Irish Journal of Education.

He suggested steps are needed to help make more clear distinctions between higher and ordinary level.

“The points table would probably have to be extended to 120 or even 150 points to avoid the ceiling effect at 100 that is already becoming apparent,” Mr Mac Aogáin said.

Mr Mac Aogáin’s research shows the average points scored by Leaving Certificate students in English and music has risen by more than 15 points in the past decade.

Mr Mac Aogáin said that, while just over half of all exams are taken at higher level, the large numbers of maths, Irish and French students taking ordinary level papers are balanced by a large number of subjects in which most students take higher level exams.

He described CAO points as being similar to a currency as they can be added up and ‘exchanged’ for a college place.

He suggested that the proposed change in the points scale would lead to more people taking certain subjects at higher level, aided by the use of common items for higher and ordinary level exams.