-improvements recorded in three subjects
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) says the number of students who sat the 2010 CSEC January exams more than doubled last year’s total with improvements re-corded in three subject areas.
In a press release, CXC said subject areas also increased significantly with 76,899 subject entries received this year compared with 43,873 in 2009. A total of 26,093 students sat exams in January 2009. The increase was due mainly to a change in policy in Trinidad and Tobago where government took a decision to pay the fees of all private candidates to write CXC exams. Performance declined in nine of 12 subject areas offered in January while improvements were made in the other three subjects when compared with the January performance last year.
“While overall performance percentage declined by three percent, the actual number of candidates achieving acceptable grades at the higher end of the scale increased in several of the subjects,” the release said. It also said last year 55% of the subject entries achieved acceptable grades – Grades I-III, and this year 51% achieved acceptable grades. The three subjects with improved performance are Chemistry, Human and Social Biology and Information Technology. For Chemistry 41% of the entries received acceptable grades compared with 37% in 2009. Despite the improvement, the Examining Committee said Organic Chemistry remains a major weakness on the Chemistry paper.
According to the release there was a nine per cent improvement in Human and Social Biology with 54% of the entries achieving Grades I-III compared with 45% in 2009. However, the Examining Committee also found that performance in this subject had declined significantly compared with previous years. It identified four topics which candidates were particularly weak in: Fruit and Seed Dispersal, Plant and Animal Cell Structure, Adaptations to the environment and physical factors of the environment. Further, the Committee said while candidates may know some of the material, “they could not effectively utilize their knowledge.”
Information Technology which declined last year rebounded this year with a seven per cent improvement. Sixty-four per cent of the entries achieved Grades I-III compared with 57% last year. Improved performance was recorded in questions dealing with Database Management but the Examining Committee for Information Technology listed five areas of weak performance: Binary Mathema-tics, User Interfaces, Pro-blem-Solving and Program-ming, Spreadsheet and Database Management.
Spanish returned the best overall performance, even though there was a decline when compared with 2009. Seventy per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades this year, compared with 75% last year.
Nevertheless, the Examining Committees reported a general lack of preparedness of candidates. The Principles of Accounts Committee said candidates were “not adequately prepared” and suggested they “utilize the resources available including the POA Study guide and past examination papers.” The latter was also recommended by the Social Studies Examining Committee.
Mathematics, with 22,354 entries, saw a decline in performance this year, though the Committee noted that candidates showed good proficiency in Computation, Set theory, Consumer Arithmetic and Investigations but “performed poorly on Relations, Func-tions and Graphs, Trigonome-try and Geometry, Vector and Matrices and Measurement.”
English A had the largest number of candidates registered – 23,062. There was a marginal decline in performance; 55% of entries achieved Grades I – III, compared with 59% in 2009. The Examining Committee has recommended that “efforts to improve the skills of teachers in the teaching of English must be ongoing.”
