thinking of applying for medicine in ireland

hi!
do applications for medicine in ireland start later than the uk? because i've seen threads saying ireland does not look at predicted grades. but i'll be taking my a levels next year in may/june and will only get my results maybe a month or two after?

also, for my predicted grades i got A*A*A (chem, maths, bio respectively) and was wondering if anyone can explain how the CAO point system works? also how is HPAT different from UCAT (for UK applicants)? is it harder? and will it be okay if i just practice with UCAT questions since i already have resources for UCAT questions?

also is it true that ireland universities don't look at personal statements? i've been trying to look at the universities website to find the entry requirements for international students but its so hard for me to find anything

Reply 1

sevencats

Original post by lyeenah

hi!
do applications for medicine in ireland start later than the uk? because i've seen threads saying ireland does not look at predicted grades. but i'll be taking my a levels next year in may/june and will only get my results maybe a month or two after?
also, for my predicted grades i got A*A*A (chem, maths, bio respectively) and was wondering if anyone can explain how the CAO point system works? also how is HPAT different from UCAT (for UK applicants)? is it harder? and will it be okay if i just practice with UCAT questions since i already have resources for UCAT questions?
also is it true that ireland universities don't look at personal statements? i've been trying to look at the universities website to find the entry requirements for international students but its so hard for me to find anything

hi !! I'm from Ireland and the CAO applications close on the 1st of February. We sit our leaving cert in early June so similar to A levels and round 1 offers come out in late August - just after we receive our exam results. We don't get conditional offers so our universities don't see a point in needing predicted grades - they wait for results.

CAO point system is quite harsh to UK applicants - here's a conversion table: https://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=scoring&s=gce

for medicine your HPAT score gets combined with the score you get from your A-Levels and the point cutoffs for medicine tend to be in the 725-740 range, depending on how well that year's cohort of students did (and of course how many are applying to medicine). HPAT is very similar to the UCAT; its 2 1/2 hours long but only has 3 sections. here's the official information booklet for more info: https://hpat-ireland.acer.org/files/HPAT-Ireland-Information-Booklet.pdf

I think people find it more challenging because there are fewer resources out there for the HPAT than there is for the UCAT. I reckon you'll be fine with just UCAT prep questions as both tests are similar.

It's also true we don't have personal statements. We don't have interviews either.