Exam (elaborations) MA 2

The Candidates Item Response Analysis (CIRA) report for ACSEE 2017 provides feedback to educational stakeholders on how the candidates performed in the examination items. The report was based on the analysis of the data and the candidates’ responses. Particularly, the report analyzed the candidates’ performances in all examined topics for Advanced Mathematics. The Advanced Mathematics examination had two papers: Paper 1, 142/1 Advanced Mathematics 1 which had ten (10) compulsory questions where each question carried ten (10) marks. Paper 2, 142/2 Advanced Mathematics 2, consisted of four (4) compulsory questions in section A where each question carried fifteen (15) marks. Four (4) were optional questions. In section B the candidates were requested to choose any two questions. In section B, each question carried twenty (20) marks. A total of 10,610 candidates sat for the Advanced Mathematics examination in 2017 out of which 74.78 percent passed. However, in 2016 the number of candidates who sat for the Examination was 12,798 out of which 76.35 percent passed. The data therefore shows a decrease of the pass rate by 1.6 percent. The analysis of each question is presented in the next section. The focus was on the question requirements, analysis of the data and analysis of the candidates’ responses. Figures are used in this report to show the performance using candidates’ percentages and score categories 0 – 3, 3.5 – 5.5 and 6.0 – 10 in each question. Extracts showing good or weak performance are included to illustrate specific response of candidates to an item. The percent of the candidates’ performance in each question are grouped as good, average or weak for the performance that lies in the interval 60 – 100, 35 – 59 and 0 – 34 respectively. The topics that had good, average and weak performance and the factors that caused the good or the poor performance were shown. Finally, the recommendations for improving candidates’ performance are given