Abstract:
STANDARD OF PAPER
The standard of the paper was considered good and commensurate with the level and
expectation. Regarding the distribution of questions, it was consistent with the
syllabus in terms of coverage and there was an improvement in skewness in favour of
quantitative aspect compared to the qualitative or essay aspect noticed in the last
sitting. The quantitative aspect covered 70% whilst the theory or essay aspect covered
30%. This was a shift from the last sittings where it was quantitative (78%) and theory
(22%) but below past trends of about 60% to 65% quantitative and 35% to 40% essay
or theory.
The questions generally appeared clear and unambiguous for candidates to
understand and answer. There were no noted sub-standard questions in the paper
except few instances of overloaded background information that required a lot of
reading and concentration to pick the relevant portions needed to answer the
questions.
The allocation of marks was generally good and where there was need to relook at the
allocation of marks in the scheme it was done. The marking scheme was relooked at
and aligned to the question paper. Where alternative answers were necessary it was
recognised and provided.
Description:
PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES
The performance of the candidates showed significant improvement with the overall
pass rate improving to 23% compared to the 13% in the previous sitting. This could
partially be attributed to the improvement in confidence level on negative impact of
the COVID 19 on candidate’s preparation and nervousness towards safety. Better
preparations might have also accounted for this development.
The possible reasons for some poor performance which have been highlighted in prior
reports still persist and include the following:
Poor preparation and complacency
Poor time management and question answering approach.
Poor and incoherent thoughts exhibited in answering questions
Uncoordinated and incoherent answers to theory or essay questions
Inability to identify and apply the right formulas provided to the right questions
