Background

In Ireland, the vast majority of university applications go through the CAO (Central Applications Office), which scores a candidate’s Leaving Certificate (equivalent to the US SAT/ACTs and British A Levels) by considering the candidate's best 6 subjects and passing them through the following table.

My school is currently performing a mock examination which aims to imitate the real exam as closely as possible. I am sitting 5 HL (Higher Level) subjects (including maths) and 2 OL (Ordinary Level) subjects. I will be commenting and updating a section of this description with my confidence about the exams as I sit them. I will also announce any results I receive if I do not receive them on the same day as my 7th (or, if it is impossible for me to score more points than with the combination I have at the time, 6th) result.

Resolution Criteria

This market resolves to the amount of points I would have scored based on the results I get back from the mocks. If for whatever reason I do not receive a result by the beginning of Easter break (April 11th), I will resolve as if I got the same result as on my Christmas assessments, which are listed below.

Subjects

• OL English [O3 - 79%]

  • Christmas grade: O2

  • Paper 1: Felt good, wrote about 10 pages and feel confident I got at least 80% on it.

  • Paper 2: Wrote around 12 pages. Prescribed poetry and the comparative study were a bit iffy but other than that it went smoothly. I feel very confident saying I got at least 70% on it.

  • I feel decently confident I could get an O1, and if not I'll near definitely get an O2.

  • Was told the names of the 2 poets my class has studied that will be on Paper 2, but not which specific poems will appear.

• OL Irish [O4 - 64%]

  • Christmas grade: O2

  • Listening comprehension: Went quite poorly, estimating 65-85%.

  • Rest of Paper 1: Didn't go the best. Wrote 2 pages and was primarily winging it. Estimating 50-80% on this section.

  • Paper 2: Reading comprehension went alright but the literature sections went horribly. Very confident this will be the not counted subject.

  • Oral exam: Was pushed forward a day and went in very unprepared. However I'd say the cómhra and poem reading went well enough with the biggest issue being the sráith pictúir.

  • This will likely be the subject excluded from the calculation as I'd say it is by far my worst.

• HL Maths [H1 - 94%]

  • Christmas grade: H1

  • Paper 1: Went very well. We were instructed to avoid one section A question due to not having it done yet and half of another section A was replaced by one provided by my school. Got a bit stuck on some parts but answered every required question + 1 extra from section B. Feel quite confident that i got above a 90%.

  • Paper 2: Went worse but still good. Confident in all answers bar one which I feel is likely a 5 mark one.

  • I am extremely good at maths and am very confident I'll score a H1.

• HL Chemistry [H3 - 72%]

  • Christmas grade: H1

  • Went okay. Did one extra question but only did the exact amount for Qs 4, 10, and 11.

  • I'd say approximately even odds between H1 and H2 depending on the topics we get.

  • The mock is being written by my teacher, instead of the company the school paid.

  • We have been told that there are questions we have not covered yet, but that we have enough covered to answer the 8 required questions.

• HL Physics [H2 - 86%]

  • Christmas grade: H1

  • Could've gone significantly better. Did extra one question in each section but some of my answers were quite sloppy. Good chance of H2/H3 but an H1 is not fully out of the question.

  • Very decent chance that the examiner will tear into me over some mathematical slips or that I get unlucky with topics.

• HL DCG [H1 - 93%]

  • Christmas grade: H1

  • Did all Section A and B questions (giving one extra each) and only one from C (I chose Dynamic Mechanisms), with a guarantee that I made a fairly significant mistake in part (b).

  • Unfortunately cannot give much insight on this subject as the teacher is overly generous when grading.

  • Since this is a subject that to my knowledge does not exist in the states, a brief summary is that it is essentially a middle point between geometry and architecture/engineering. Candidates could for example be asked to construct a perspective view of an object given its plan and elevation.

• HL Applied Maths [H1 - 94¼%]

  • Christmas grade: H1

  • Attempted all 10 questions. Very iffy on one of them, but the rest went well enough.

  • Slightly less confident than core maths but still quite confident.

Extra Notes

• I will not bet on this market.

• I may publicly provide additional info (e.g. other past scores, structure of exam, etc.) on request as long as it's reasonable (e.g. I will not post my exam number).

• Mock exams differ heavily from the Christmas assessments so the Christmas grades should be taken with a grain of salt.

• Mock exams do not have a project component.

• I will be avoiding leaks however I can, and will not provide leaks to others.

  • If I accidentally learn of a leak, I will post a vague description of what i saw. E.g. "Saw leak for which poems are on English Paper 2. Have studied 2".

  • I will not name the company my school is getting the papers from until after I have sat all exams. The company was DEB, but their papers were only used for Irish (excl. oral), English, Maths (some in-school modifications), and DCG.

• Irish exams usually involve a significant amount of choosing which questions you'll actually do. For example, the chemistry paper has a total of 11 questions, of which a candidate must complete any 8 (an additional requirement that at least 2 must be from section A has been removed in 2025 as a COVID accommodation). Within these questions there is sometimes extra choice like question 4 asking for candidates to answer any 8 of 10 short questions. If a candidate has spare time and chooses to complete more questions than required, all are graded and the combination that grants the most marks is counted.