CAO apologises for posting med applicants’ test scores online

THE Central Applications Office (CAO) has apologised after posting aptitude test scores for medicine applicants a month early.

The data was posted to applicants’ accounts on the CAO website last Friday but was removed after a few hours. However, some of the 3,010 people who sat the Health Professions Admission Test (HPAT) in February were left confused and angry as they are unsure if the scores were their real results or not.

This is the third year the HPAT is being used to select candidates for entry to undergraduate medicine courses, with the scores combined with Leaving Certificate results to rank applicants. Last year, average- scoring students got between 150-170 out of 300 in the three sections measuring logical reasoning and problem solving skills, non-verbal reasoning and ability to understand people’s thoughts and behaviour.