Your CAO points are the total of your six best Leaving Certificate results from one sitting, scored on a fixed scale. That is the whole system in a sentence. Everything below is the detail that decides whether your number is 480 or 505.
The grade tables
Points are only one part of admission. For courses involving portfolios, auditions or other early assessments, read the restricted-entry CAO courses guide before deciding that your total is enough.
Every grade is worth a set number of points. These come from the CAO points grid.
| Grade | Higher | Ordinary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 56 |
| 2 | 88 | 46 |
| 3 | 77 | 37 |
| 4 | 66 | 28 |
| 5 | 56 | 20 |
| 6 | 46 | 12 |
| 7 | 37 | 0 |
| 8 | 0 | 0 |
Read the two columns against each other for a moment, because the gap is bigger than most people expect.
A H7 is the 30 to 39 per cent grade at higher level. It is worth 37 points. An O3, which is 70 to 79 per cent at ordinary level, is worth the same 37. These grades have equal points, but they do not necessarily meet the same subject entry requirements.
A points comparison alone cannot tell you which level to take. Check your intended courses' required grades and discuss likely results and workload with your teacher or guidance counsellor.
Only six count
Most students sit seven subjects, some sit eight. Six are counted, and they are your best six.
Sitting an extra subject does not raise your ceiling. It gives you an extra chance at a good result, and it means one bad morning does not have to land in your total. That is the real argument for a seventh subject, not extra points.
Six H1s is 600. With the maths bonus the ceiling is 625.
These common-scale rules and the bonus examples below use CAO Handbook 2027, printed pages 30–31. They do not describe every portfolio or test-based admission score.
The maths bonus
Higher level maths at H6 or better earns 25 bonus points. Simple enough. Where it goes is not.
The bonus is added to your maths result, and your best six are chosen afterwards. So a H6 in higher maths is not 46 points competing for a place in your six, it is 71.
That produces three different outcomes, and it is worth knowing which one is yours.
One: maths was already in your best six
The bonus is worth the full 25. Nothing else moves.
Say you have a H2 in maths and five H3s. Maths is 88 plus 25, so 113, and the H3s are 77 each. Total 498. Without the bonus it would be 473. The bonus gave you 25.
Two: the bonus is what pulls maths in
Now it is worth less than 25.
Say you have five H2s, a H5 in maths and a H4 in something else. Without the bonus your six are the five H2s and the H4: 440 plus 66, so 506. With the bonus, maths goes to 81, which beats the H4, so your six become the five H2s and maths: 440 plus 81, so 521.
You gained 15, not 25, because the subject the bonus displaced was already counting for you.
Three: maths misses the six anyway
The bonus is worth nothing.
Six H1s and a H6 in maths. Bonused maths is 71, nowhere near a H1. Your total is 600 and the bonus changed nothing.
Any calculator that just adds 25 to your total is wrong in cases two and three. The points calculator on this site tells you which one applies to you.
LCVP Link Modules
If you did the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme, the Link Modules can take one of your six places.
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Distinction | 66 |
| Merit | 46 |
| Pass | 28 |
A distinction is worth the same as a H4, so for plenty of students it quietly replaces a weaker subject. It does not add a seventh slot, it competes for one of the six.
Points are not passing-subject eligibility. All HEIs award points for LCVP Link Modules, but not all count them as an eligibility subject. CAO Handbook 2027, printed page 31.
Foundation level maths
Foundation maths is scored separately: 20 points at F1, 12 at F2, nothing below that.
The catch is that not every college accepts it for points at all, and many courses require a specific maths grade for entry regardless of points. Check the course before you count on it.
The F1/F2 points table is conditional on institutional acceptance. CAO Handbook 2027, printed pages 30–31.
Combining sittings: points versus eligibility
Points from different sittings cannot be merged. CAO says results may be combined for minimum entry requirements, with an exception for Medicine. Confirm the course's exact conditions. See the entry-requirements guide and CAO offers FAQ.
Common mistakes
Thinking points are a percentage. They are not. There is no partial credit between grades. A 79 per cent and a 70 per cent are both a H3, worth 77. One mark can move you a full band, which is why appeals matter.
Assuming a repeat year merges with the first. It does not. Each sitting is scored on its own and your points come from one of them.
Putting courses in the order you think you will get. The CAO gives you the highest course on your list you qualify for and stops there. Putting a course you want less above one you want more can only cost you. Order the list by what you actually want.
Forgetting minimum entry requirements. Points get you considered. Requirements decide whether you are eligible at all. A course can want a H4 in a specific subject, or a pass in maths, and no amount of points substitutes for it.
What to do with this
Work out your number, then look at what courses took last year, remembering that last year's figure is a result and not a threshold. There is more on why those numbers move in will CAO points drop.
Sources and verification
Checked 7 September 2026 against CAO Handbook 2027, printed pages 30–31, the official points grid and CAO offers FAQ linked above. Worked totals are arithmetic examples, not admission predictions. See the two preference lists and entry requirements before treating your total as an offer.