"To encourage students in a bygone age to study Irish, a bonus system was introduced, where students doing their Leaving Cert through Irish gain a percentage bonus which is added on to their overall result in the particular subject.
Students doing the examination gain a bonus of from three per cent to ten per cent depending on subject.
All subjects get a bonus except Irish, English, Technical Drawing, and Art (other than History and Appreciation of Art).
Take the example of a student studying Honours History who earns 60 per cent which is a C grade. The bonus will increase the marks to 66 per cent, a C+ grade, or a gain of five points in CAO system.
If another student gets 69 per cent C+, the bonus will increase the marks to 75.9 per cent, a B+ grade, or a gain of ten points in CAO system.
Above 75 per cent the bonus decreases linearly, so a student getting a 79 per cent B in History gains only eight per cent of 79 per cent, or 6.3 per cent approximately, resulting in 85 per cent A. That's a gain of ten percentage points.
In fact any student studying a subject which is entitled to a ten per cent bonus will gain at least five points if their marks are between 41 per cent and 90 per cent approximately.
One must remember that most subjects are marked out of 300 marks to 600 marks, so a percentage may be as much as six marks.
Most students take at least seven subjects, which include English and Irish and Maths.
With the right choice of subjects a good average student gains at least 20 points and possibly five points from Maths (bonus five per cent) depending on their score.
Around four per cent of students doing Leaving Certificate are examined through Irish."
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