But, with that attitude, he would have aced the Health Professions Admissions Test (HPAT). The HPAT — pronounced H-pat — was introduced in 2009 after the Fottrell report recommended that medical school entry should not be based purely on academic grades. Admission to medical courses is determined by combining a candidate’s HPAT and Leaving Certificate results. Firstly, the unfair practice of downgrading a student’s Leaving Certificate points will be removed. Research on this topic has found a student’s HPAT score did not correlate with validated measures of “physician empathy”.

Source: Irish Examiner February 19, 2026 13:00 UTC