Students face aptitude test to enter medical schools

LEAVING Certificate students with their hearts set on studying medicine will sit the state’s first aptitude test on February 14 next — St Valentine’s Day.

The Health Professions Admissions Test Ireland (HPAT-Ireland) will measure skills in logical reasoning, problem solving and non-verbal reasoning.

The two-and-a-half hour, paper-based test will also assess students’ ability to understand and think about people.

Students applying to the state’s five medical schools need to sit the admissions test because entry to medical education is no longer based solely on Leaving Certificate results.

Candidates who sit the test and get 480 points or more in the Leaving Certificate will be eligible for consideration for places in the medical schools.

The test costs about €95 and will take place at centres in Cork, Dublin Galway, the north-west and south-east. Students can register for the test from mid-November.

The new requirement will see the results of the Leaving Certificate and the admission test combined for a maximum mark of 860.

The maximum Leaving Certificate score will be 560 points, while the admission test will have a maximum score of 300.

Under the new arrangements, Leaving Certificate points up to 550 will be given full credit, with each additional five points over the threshold only given one additional point.

Some students believe the new test is a lot fairer for those who do not go to “grind school” to get the “perfect” Leaving result.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said the Government sought the reforms to relieve the intense pressure caused by extremely high Leaving Certificate points.

Director of undergraduate teaching and learning at Trinity College Dublin’s school of medicine Prof Shaun McCann said the new selection criteria could see more men entering medical school.

More women than men have been entering medical school as a result of achieving better results in the Leaving Certificate examination.

“Maybe we will see a difference in the gender divide,” said Prof McCann.

Trinity’s school of medicine receives 1,000 applications every year for fewer than 100 places.

The new HPAT-Ireland test will be administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research.