HPAT

Overview

HPAT (Health Professions Admission Test) - Ireland is an aptitude test required of every school-leaver and mature applicant seeking a place on an undergraduate (direct-entry-from-school) medicine programme at an Irish university. It is designed and administered by ACER (the Australian Council for Educational Research) on behalf of the Irish medical schools and the Central Applications Office (CAO). HPAT does not replace the Leaving Certificate; it is an additional test layered onto the normal CAO points process (see the separate Leaving Certificate content for how CAO points themselves are calculated). A candidate's HPAT score is combined with their Leaving Certificate score to produce the single ranking score used for medicine offers.

Who can apply

Anyone applying through the CAO for an undergraduate medicine place that admits students directly from school must sit HPAT in the year they want to start. This covers two groups: Leaving Certificate students sitting their Leaving Cert in the same year as the HPAT test, and mature applicants (23 or older on 1 January of the year of entry) applying via the CAO's mature-entry route for medicine. Both groups must sit HPAT in the year of entry; a HPAT score from an earlier year cannot be reused for a later application. Each medical school also sets its own minimum Leaving Certificate subject and grade requirements (for example a minimum grade in Chemistry and in Physics or Biology, alongside core subjects), which apply on top of, not instead of, the HPAT requirement.

Exam pattern

HPAT - Ireland is a computer-based, multiple-choice test of about 2.5 hours, split into three timed sections. It is not a test of school subject knowledge; it assesses reasoning skills that are not taught as a specific syllabus.

Each question offers four or five answer options, and all three sections must be completed in a single sitting.

Marking and results

Section 1 and Section 2 raw scores are each weighted 40% of the overall HPAT score, and Section 3 is weighted 20%. Scores are also scaled against the wider candidate cohort before being combined, so a candidate's final HPAT score is not simply their raw number of correct answers.

The HPAT score is then combined with the Leaving Certificate score to produce a single ranking score for medicine offers. For 2026 entry, the combined scale runs up to 865 points: a maximum of 565 from an adjusted Leaving Certificate score (the first 550 Leaving Certificate points count in full, and points above 550 are scaled down, 5 Leaving Certificate points converting to 1 extra point) plus a maximum of 300 from HPAT. From 2027 entry, the Irish medical schools and the CAO have announced a changed formula: Leaving Certificate points above 550 will count in full rather than being scaled down (giving a maximum adjusted Leaving Certificate score of 625), while the maximum contribution from HPAT is reduced to 150. This raises the maximum combined score from 865 to 775 from 2027 and reduces HPAT's relative weight in the combined score. Candidates must also meet each medical school's own minimum Leaving Certificate point and subject requirements to be eligible, regardless of HPAT score.

Results are issued directly to candidates by ACER, normally some weeks after the test window, and in time for CAO's medicine round-one offers once Leaving Certificate results are also out.

Important dates

HPAT is typically sat over a multi-day window in mid-to-late February, before the Leaving Certificate written exams. For the 2026 test cycle, ACER ran the test over 13-22 February 2026 (a four-day core window, with extra days reserved for candidates needing a rescheduled sitting due to technical issues), with standard registration closing on 16 January 2026. Candidates must usually have their CAO application and CAO number in place before completing HPAT registration. Exact dates shift each year; check the current year's calendar on the official HPAT Ireland site rather than relying on a prior year's dates.

Fees

For the 2026 test cycle, the standard HPAT registration fee was €164. A late registration window carried an additional €75 fee, and an exceptional late registration window (available only to candidates who had already submitted their CAO application) carried an additional €110 fee. A further €22 fee applied to applicants to the University of Limerick's occupational therapy and speech and language therapy programmes, who sit an extra Written English component. Fees are set by ACER and reviewed each year.

How to apply

Candidates register for HPAT directly through ACER's HPAT Ireland online registration portal, separately from their CAO application. A CAO number is normally required before registration can be completed, so candidates apply to the CAO first and then register for HPAT using that number. Registration is online, paid by card, and candidates choose a test window and location (or an online-proctored sitting) during registration. There is no separate application to "sit" HPAT beyond this registration and fee payment.

After the exam

Once HPAT results and Leaving Certificate results are both available, the CAO combines them using the current year's formula (see Marking and results) to produce each medicine applicant's final ranking score. Medicine offers are then made through the normal CAO offer rounds, in score order, against the number of places available at each medical school. A HPAT score is valid only for entry in the year it was sat; a candidate reapplying in a later year must sit HPAT again.

Preparation tips

• Practise under timed conditions: each HPAT section has a tight number of minutes per question, and pacing is often the main difficulty rather than the reasoning itself.

• Work through official and reputable third-party practice questions for all three sections, since HPAT tests general reasoning skills that are not covered in the normal Leaving Certificate syllabus.

• For Interpersonal Understanding, practise reading scenarios carefully for the most reasonable inference rather than the most extreme one; questions reward balanced judgement.

• Check your own HPAT weighting and CAO points scenario for the year you are applying in, since the formula combining Leaving Certificate and HPAT scores has changed between recent years.

FAQs