CAO: Points fall again for level 8 ag courses

Level 8 agricultural courses in colleges throughout Ireland experienced a further drop in points this year as the first round of CAO offers was revealed on Thursday 15 August.

Agricultural science in University College Dublin (UCD) dropped from 444 last year to 425 this year. Environmental science increased slightly from 396 to 403 in this year’s first-round offers. Dairy business in UCD dropped below 400 points.

Agricultural science in Waterford IT (WIT) also saw its points fall below 400 to 378. Meanwhile Dundalk IT’s (DKIT)agriculture course saw its points stay just above 300.

Points were up slightly for Level 8 agriculture courses at IT Tralee (ITT), with its agriculture engineering course up to 311. However, there were also a fall in points for IT Carlow, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), Letterkenny IT (LKIT)and Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT)for their level eight agriculture courses.

First-round entry points to Level 8 agricultural science at University College Cork (UCC) was 473, while Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) was 399 for agri-biosciences.

For Level 7 agriculture courses points in the first round stayed mostly on par with last year. They were down slightly at CIT, LKIT and WI).

Horticulture

Points for Level 8 horticulture courses dropped at UCD this year but were up for Blanchardstown IT. Level 7 horticulture course points jumped to 260 for WIT but dropped at Blanchardstown by 10 points to 179.

Veterinary

Veterinary medicine at UCD was 567 this year, up from 555 last year. Meanwhile veterinary nursing dropped four points to 441. Veterinary bioscience stayed at 326 for ITT, this is also a level eight course. Meanwhile for Athlone IT there was a slight increase in points.

Level 7 veterinary courses saw a slight increase in first round entry points.

Food and Health Science

Points for Level 8 food and health science courses dropped slightly this year after a sharp rise in 2018. At UCD, points for human nutrition dropped below 500, while food science came down to 451. Similarly at UCC nutritional science points dropped below 500.

Level 7 food and health science courses fared better with some points steadily increasing.

CAO offers

The Central Applications Office (CAO) issued 74,657 round one offers to 51,513 CAO applicants. These offers consist of 43,851 Level 8 course offers and 30,806 Level 6/7 course offers.

Offers must be accepted by 5.15pm on Friday 23 August. If an applicant has not received an offer they will receive a Statement of Application email.

“Applicants are reminded that if they receive a lower preference offer they can accept this offer and it will not prevent them from receiving an offer of a course higher up on their courses list in a later offer round if a place becomes available and they are deemed eligible,” Eileen Keleghan, CAO communications officer said.

It is possible that applicants may receive two offers at the same time: one from the Level 8 list and one from the Level 6/7 list. Applicants must choose between these lists and can only accept one offer.

Round-two offers will be available to view on the CAO website from 10am on Wednesday 28 August. There is no postal offer notice in round two. The reply date by which round two offers must be accepted is Friday 30 August at 5.15pm. Offers are then issued on a weekly basis up to late-September for all remaining places.

Applicants who do not receive an offer may wish to check the ‘Available Places’ facility which is also available to new applicants on the completion of the online application form and the payment of a €45 fee. For more information on the CAO offer and acceptance process or the available places facility, applicants should go to www.cao.ie or consult the CAO handbook.

In total, 58,500 students sat the Leaving Certificate, up 2.4% on the year before. Of this, 7,745 students sat agricultural science with nearly 85% of students opting to sit the higher-level paper.

Of the 6,605 students who sat higher-level agricultural science, 317 (4.8%) achieved the highest possible grade of H1, which has replaced an A1 at higher level.

Results

Since 2017, Leaving Certificate students are graded from one to eight, with one equalling 90% to 100%, two equalling 80% to 90% and so on.

The level taken in the exam, higher, ordinary or foundation will be beside each grade of one to eight.

A grade of H4 was the most common result in the higher-level exam, with nearly 17% of candidates achieving this result. It was closely followed by H5, with 16.5% of students receiving this grade. Almost a third of students received a grade H3 or greater.

An O5 grade was the most common at ordinary level, with 26% of students receiving this mark. It was closely followed by an O6 at 22%.