JANUARY 2017 EXAMINATIONS

REGISTRATION
Some 16,568 candidates were registered for the January 2017 examinations compared to 18,532 candidates for the previous year. The January 2017 figures represented an 11 per cent declined on the 2016 candidate entries. Guyana’s entries represented the largest decline of 17 per cent, followed by Trinidad and Tobago with 15 per cent and Jamaica with an eight per cent reduction in entries. There was a 34 per cent increase from St Kitts and Nevis and one per cent rise from Barbados. Overall, Trinidad and Tobago comprised over 62 per cent of the January 2017 entries.

The subject entries in January 2017 were 34,570 versus 40,090 subject entries for the January 2016 examination cycle. This figure represented a 14 per cent decline relative to the 2016. Only Chemistry, which increased by 24 per cent, and Physics which increased by 29 per cent, showed increases in 2017. The most significant levels of decline were experienced in English A which declined by 19 per cent, and Human and Social Biology by 22 per cent.

E-TESTING
The year under review opened with the introduction of electronic testing (e-testing) of the CSEC® suite of subjects. In the January 2017 Examinations, CXC successfully delivered 12 Multiple Choice examinations. Seven territories participated in e-testing, taking from one to eleven subjects in various combinations. The territorial distribution is shown in Table 1 below.

The e-testing was conducted with few challenges which required intervention beyond the level of the centre or the Local Registrar. Most of the issues reported related to login or loss of power at the centres. From the preliminary analysis, the performance of the candidates who wrote the examinations using the electronic method was equivalent to the traditional testing mode. This being the first e-testing session at this level, an exit survey was offered with 30 per cent of the candidate population responding. Of the respondents, 96 per cent of the candidates expressed a favourable assessment of the new modality, and recommended that it be extended to other subjects in the May-June examinations.

MARKING OPERATIONS
Preparations for the online marking of the January 2017 examinations began in September 2016. Marker trends were examined and top markers were identified. These formed the primary source of the marking personnel for January exams. A total of 1,058 Markers were contracted for the marking exercise. Helpdesk service was initiated on 17 January and continued to 18 February. Between 16 January and 10 February, 89 calls and 1,056 e-mails and other written correspondences were received by the Helpdesk.

MISCONDUCT
There were two cases of misconduct during the January 2017 examinations. One case related to the use of cell phone and the other to the unauthorised use of calculator. In both cases, results were cancelled in keeping with the usual penalties.

RESULTS
Preliminary results were released on schedule in February 2017. Subsequent to the issue of preliminary results, requests were received for the review of 51 CSEC® scripts. The review process resulted in a grade change for one CSEC® candidate. The detailed statistics and comparative analysis are available in the statistics section of the report.

May-June 2017 Examination Administration
Table 2 shows a summary of the registration data for the May-June 2017 session for CAPE®, CSEC® and CCSLC®

Electronic Testing
The May-June Sitting ran from 5 May to 15 June 2017. This session offered an expansion of the e-testing option for Multiple Choice (MC) papers with 30 CSEC® and 32 CAPE® subjects. There was also six CCSLC® Subjects tested in four Territories. Table 3 shows the distribution of candidates across the territories for the May-June 2017 session.

While there were very positive reports from most territories, a few reported infrastructural challenges but were still prepared to advance the process. They all reported improved operational efficiency and security over the paper-based administration.

Marking Operations
The marking activity ran later than planned this year. The Mathematics, Sciences and Technology subjects were generally completed ahead of time having advanced more quickly from Standardization through to Marking. The latter four were being marked online for the first time. As questions in these components were completed, Markers were invited to continue other questions for which they qualified and were standardized.

All SBA samples were submitted electronically for the May-June sitting. Each sample should have been accompanied by the Teacher’s Cover Pages and mark schemes. This requirement proved challenging for several Centres and forced resubmissions and reloading of files in the ORS late into the session.

The marking of the moderating paper (P090) in several subjects was delayed due to issues with transmission of data files from the CXC storage to the RM repository. Issues included:

1. File naming convention violations.
2. File format violation.
3. Upload to the wrong test code by teachers.
4. Corrupt data transmissions requiring reloading.

The efficient marking of English B Paper 2 continued this year with the use of e-Bookmarking; Literatures in English Units 1 and 2, Paper 2 were also included in this process.

The challenges with Script Level Additional Objects (SLAOs) and Packet Level Additional Objects (PLAOs), while reduced, still require significant manual intervention.

CSEC® Music Paper 020; CAPE® Green Engineering and CAPE® Financial Services Studies were reconfigured late into the cycle. While this was completed without additional costs, it resulted in later than planned commencement and completion of marking.

School-Based Assessment
Local Registrars and Permanent Secretaries were notified via email dated 1 March 2017 of the Council’s rules and regulations with respect to the submission of the candidates’ SBA scores and samples. The submission of SBAs online, commenced in 2016 on an optional basis, but in 2017, it was compulsory that all SBAs be submitted electronically unless being moderated onsite by externally trained moderators. In 2017, seven CAPE® subjects were moderated onsite.

This year, several centres opted to submit Group SBAs, a direction the Council formally promoted from 2016. They were 95,072 (95.87%) of the 99,169 registered candidates who submitted their SBA scores, compared to 99.58% in 2016. It was noted that there was a decrease by approximately 6.77% of SBA registration in 2017 over 2016. For 2017, the teachers reported that 3,977 (4.01%) of candidates did not submit their SBAs. The table (Table 4) below shows slight difference (0.33%) of non-submissions, 4.01% in 2017 compared to 4.34% in 2016. Notwithstanding, in 2017, 148 (0.15%) a higher percentage compared to 106 (0.10%) in 2016 were missing their SBA score. Investigations revealed that 537 (0.56%) candidates were reported ungraded “No SBA Sample Received” an increase over 2016 of (0.30%) at the release of preliminary results. Table 4 compares the submissions of SBA records and samples over a five-year period.

At the CSEC® level as well, all Local Registrars were reminded via e-mail communication of the deadlines for the submission of the records and samples. They were also reminded that SBA samples or scores would not be accepted after the absolute deadline of 31 July 2017. Local Registrars were informed that candidates for whom SBA scores or SBA samples that were not received, would be reported “Ungraded: no SBA received”.
This year, many of the centres taking CSEC® subjects utilized the option of group work for the SBA and candidates worked in groups consisting of at least two persons and submitted one SBA project.

On-site moderation was implemented for Integrated Science and Technical Drawing in 2017. Agricultural Science, Biology, Chemistry, Industrial Technology, Music and Physics continued to be moderated on-site.

Random Sampling was again conducted in the following subjects: Caribbean History, Principles of Accounts, Principles of Business and Technical Drawing. Centres were only required to submit samples for these subjects if requested specifically by CXC. The complete lists of the samples requested were forwarded to each Local Registrar.

Candidate entries decreased in 2017 and 317,117 SBA records were expected compared with 317,903 in 2016. The percentage of SBA data records submitted decreased in 2017 when compared with 2016. Of the 317,117 CSEC® SBA records expected, 299,695 were submitted (94.51%) compared with 94.76% in 2016. Some 17,721 SBA records had not been received by CXC, of this number, teachers’ reports suggest that 17,403 had not been submitted by candidates. This accounted for 5.49% of the candidate population. Information had not been received for 318 candidates (0.10%) at the release of Preliminary Results. Table 5 shows comparative data over the last five years.

Candidates whose records or samples were not received, in accordance with Procedure 13.4.3 of the Council’s Regulations for the Conduct of the Council’s Examinations – Definitions, Regulations and Procedures, were reported: “ungraded: no SBA received”.

Hardship Cases
Candidates reporting disruption or dislocation from the weather system that affected the northern Caribbean dominated the hardship cases this year as shown in Table 6.

MISCONDUCT
The cases of misconduct were again dominated by cell phone violations but the number has been reduced significantly to only 16 for the May-June session. After reviewing the candidates’ statements, in accordance with regulation 7.1, results were cancelled in the affected subject.

RESULTS
The 2017 May-June results and comparative analysis are in the respective statistics sections of this report.