Irish Education System

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So the way that Ireland sorts out who get's into college is a mixture of the leaving cert and the CAO (central applications office).

You sit a number of subjects in the leaving cert, usually 7. These are graded in the method of A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3.... with each covering 5%, except the A1 which is 100% to 90%.

When you get your results back, your six best ones are picked out. Each are given a certain number of points. A1=100, A2=90, B1=85, B2=80, etc. These are added together and whatever you have are know as "your points". These can range from 600 to 0 and it is this that allows you to get into college courses.

Now, there are also points assigned to each course depending on how popular they are and how many seats are available. This will change from year to year depending on how many people in that specific year want it. For example, last year a Bachelor in Education from Mary Immaculate College which qualifies you to teach in a primary school, the points were 475 whereas they were 460 the year before.

It is important to keep in mind, once again, that these points have nothing to do with how hard the course is, only the availability of places.

So then, when you get your own results, you have a general idea of whether or not you will get into your course, but you won't know for certain until the next when the points for the courses are released and you get your official invitations to join the course.

After that, there is a second round as the points may be affected by people not getting their first choice or opting against going to college. This will not change them a whole lot though.

One plus about the Irish education system that I forgot to mention is that there are currently no fees for universities! There are registration fees, ya, but no major ones right now. That is set to change soon enough though, seeing as how deep in debt our country is........

Hope I didn't confuse you completely :)

And congratulations if you read to the bottom of this monstrous pile of words :p