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Leaving Cert Higher Level Maths Bonus Points | Parent Centre

By Eimear Dinneen - 2 minute read

If your child is in the process of deciding what level to take maths at, you might be wondering how exactly the extra 25 points work. Check out our examples below of how these points will work when your child is calculating their overall points for the CAO.

The bonus point system means that if students pass higher-level maths, they get a bonus 25 points. However, for this to apply, maths must be one of their top six subjects and they must pass it. For example, if a student receives a H3 they get 77 points. With the additional 25 points awarded for higher-level maths, they receive a total of 102 points.

It's important to remember that maths is a very time-consuming subject so students need to be sure they can commit to it to make the bonus points work in their favour, otherwise, a lot of valuable time might be wasted. Below are two different scenarios regarding the bonus points.

Example 1 - Emily

Emily sat the Leaving Cert in 2021 and achieved the following results:

From the grid above, we see that Emily would have only received 56 points in maths without the extra points. Without the extra points, she would have counted English (66 points) in her top 6 instead. However, with the bonus points from higher-level maths, she benefitted from an extra 15 points overall.

Example 2 - Seán

Seán also sat his Leaving Cert in 2021 and received the following results:

We see that Seán had no benefit from the extra 25 points from maths as even with the additional points, maths is not one of his top six scores. This demonstrates how students must decide whether the commitment and workload of higher-level maths is worth it, especially if it's a possibility they will do better in other subjects and not include maths in their top 6 subjects.

We hope these examples help you understand the extra 25 points up for grabs. If you'd like more detail on how the extra points work for higher-level maths, you can check out some more examples and descriptions on the CAO website.

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