The number of students taking the Leaving Cert is on an upward trajectory and will remain so for the next 12 years, so points will go up in general every year unless more places are funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), as the cut-off points for entry to courses are governed by supply and demand.

Securing the high academic achievers through the CAO application process is a highly competitive game for colleges, and lots of marketing tricks are used. High achievers lead to high academic performance by colleges, improving their placings in international rankings and thus their attractiveness to fee-paying international students. Success or failure in the contest for applications ultimately determines colleges’ perceived success or failure.

To attract the brightest students, colleges have in recent years divided their core disciplines into small numbers of places on a larger number of course code offerings.

A discipline such as engineering, for example, with 200 places on offer, could offer all the places under a generic course entry, which might result in the last qualifier having 460 points. Alternatively, the college could subdivide the programme into ten course codes across the engineering disciplines, with an average of 20 places offered under each course code. The entry points for all 10 programmes would then be higher than if offered as a single entry code.

The purpose of the exercise is to attract students who might not apply to a course requiring 460 points if they perceived themselves to be 500-plus points achievers.

Last August The Irish Times published the number of places filled under every CAO course code in 2013. This showed colleges offered hundreds of course codes with fewer than five places, ensuring that those programmes' points requirements were 550-plus points.

Don’t allow marketing gimmicks by colleges to determine your course choices.

Demographic

profile The points for similar courses,

with the same academic standing, can vary greatly depending on the size of the college and the demographic profile in the surrounding area. For example, the entry points for an arts degree can range from 300 to 365 across different universities.

In recent years Maynooth University, offering 950 places, has had the highest points requirements at 365. UCD has 1,260 places, so that course is inevitably further down the points table when it fills its last place.

NUI Galway, which has a far lower population density than the Dublin region and thus a lower number of applicants, has seen students secure places on 300 points in recent years.

Do the different points score requirements indicate any difference in academic standards or in the opportunities available to graduates? The answer is an emphatic no.

What the entry points tell you is what the marketing departments of colleges want you to think, because they want to determine the pattern of your application.

They also tell you something about the supply and demand for places. Last year, for example, applications for computer science courses increased substantially but the entry points remained unchanged. This was because the HEA funded a substantial increase in the number of computer science places on offer. The extra places cancelled out the increase in the number of students seeking places, leaving the entry points unchanged.

Viewing points as currency

For anyone applying for a college place, the biggest mistake you can make is to see your points as a currency that must be cashed in.

For example, if you expect to get more than 500 points you might apply only for courses over that score. That is what the colleges’ marketing departments want you to do but it may not be in your best interests and you may be ignoring a course in the 400-500 range which is perfect for you, but you won’t consider it because it would “waste” points.

Always apply for the course that best serves your needs and the entry requirements you meet.

Don’t underestimate your possible Leaving Cert result by ignoring your dream course for which you don’t expect to get the points.

On the other hand, don’t ignore your lower-points course choice options to allow for a bad day in one or more of your papers in June.

You have 20 options across levels eight, seven, and six. Use as many as you need to cover all possible outcomes in your exam results.