Build a List That Can't Strand You
Each August a handful of applicants log in and find no offer on either list. The pattern behind that outcome repeats: eight courses bunched within 20 points of each other, a year when cut-offs rose, and nothing underneath to catch the fall. You can rule it out in one afternoon with the right architecture, and April, before the Change of Mind window opens in May, is a good time to do the work.
The engine climbs, it does not punish
Your Level 8 list and your Level 7/6 list are two independent columns of ten choices each. In each round the CAO offers you the highest course on each list that your points reach. That offer kills your chances at the courses below it on the same list, while the courses above it stay live for later rounds. This drives the whole strategy: a long shot at position one costs you nothing. If you miss it, the engine moves down. If a place opens later, you can still move up. The full mechanics are in our guide to the offers waterfall.
Zone one: dreams at the top
Put the courses you want most at positions one to three, whatever last year's chart said about them. UCD Engineering, DN150, closed at 578 in 2025. If your estimate sits at 510, listing it first does no harm to anything beneath it. The same course dropped after Round 1 in four of the past six years, by about 10 points and 11 at the most, so a near miss in August is not the end either. Rank by genuine desire, top to bottom, and let the engine handle the rest.
Zone two: the 30-point cushion
"Realistic" needs a number, and ours is 30. A course belongs in your middle zone when your estimated points sit at least 30 above its 2025 cut-off. Cut-offs drift from year to year, and a cushion of 30 or more survives a typical rise. Under 30, you are exposed. The pandemic years showed how far the floor can move: inflated grading pushed the median Level 8 cut-off from about 370 in 2020 to about 410 in 2021, and it took until 2025 to ease back to 377. Fill positions four to seven with courses where you hold the cushion and would still be glad to accept.
Zone three: the anchor
Somewhere in positions eight to ten, place at least one course sitting 60 or more points below your estimate, in a subject you could spend four years on without resentment. That second condition matters as much as the first. An anchor you would refuse is decoration. In 2025 the CAO offered 1,376 courses and 25 of them admitted all qualified applicants, so the field is wide enough to hold something you would respect. Open the calculator, enter your mock grades, and use the courses-within-reach view to see which courses clear your estimate with room to spare, along with the safety margin on each one.
| Positions | Zone | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Dreams | Whatever you want most, regardless of last year's cut-off |
| 4 to 7 | Realistic | Your estimate sits 30 or more points above the 2025 cut-off |
| 8 to 10 | Anchor | At least one course 60 or more points below your estimate that you would attend |
The second column too many people leave blank
The Level 7/6 list runs in parallel and has no effect on your Level 8 column. A filled second list gives you ten more chances at courses that lead into the same careers, often through an add-on year. The Level 7 route into a Level 8 degree takes a year longer and carries far less competition at the entry gate. A blank second column throws away a free layer of protection.
One afternoon, then peace
Sit down with your mock results, build the three zones, and fill both columns. A sound list reads like a slope: courses you would celebrate, courses you would welcome, and a floor you could stand on. Once the slope exists, you can spend May and June on the exams instead of the what-ifs, and you can refine the order during Change of Mind with a calm head. August rewards the people who did this work in April.