Sciences lead improved CSEC performance in 2018

There was improved performance on all three natural science subjects at the May/June 2018 sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and an overall improvement in the percentage of entries achieving acceptable grades – Grades I – III.

This year, 70 percent of CSEC entries obtained acceptable grades compared with 66 percent in 2017.

Sciences

Performance on all three natural science subjects improved in 2018 compared with 2017. For Biology, 72 percent of entries accomplished acceptable grades, this compared with 67 percent in 2017. Similarly, for Chemistry there was a five-percentage-point improvement with 60 percent gaining satisfactory grades compared with 55 percent in 2017; while for Physics 68 percent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 60 percent in 2017.

Sixty-four percent of entries for Human and Social Biology achieved acceptable grades this year, compared with 53 percent in 2017.

Both Agricultural Science Double Award and Single Award continue to perform above the regional average, even though there was a decline this year. For Agricultural Science Double Award, 95 percent of entries attained acceptable grades compared with 97 percent in 2017, while for Agricultural Single Award, 85 percent attained acceptable grades compared with 92 percent last year.

Mathematics and English

There was improved performance in the two English and Mathematics subjects offered at CSEC. For English A, 71 percent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 67 percent in 2017, while for English B, 78 percent of entries achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 58 percent in 2017.

Performance on Mathematics improved to 48 percent of acceptable grades, up from 44 percent in 2017, while for Additional Mathematics, there was a two-percentage-point improvement, with 70 percent of entries achieving acceptable grades compared with 68 percent in 2017.

Business Cognate

Performance on subjects in the business cognate was mixed. Office Administration and Electronic Document Preparation and Management returned the same results in 2017 with 83 percent and 96 percent of entries achieving acceptable grades respectively. Eighty-five percent of entries for Principles of Business achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 89 percent in 2017, while 68 percent of entries achieved similar grades for Principles of Accounts compared with 75 percent in 2017. Seventy-one percent of entries for Economics achieved acceptable grades compared with 79 percent in 2017.

Foreign Languages

Of the three foreign languages offered at CXC, performance improved on two and declined on one. Seventy-one percent of entries for French achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 70 percent in 2017. For Spanish 69 percent of entries gained Grades I-III compared with 67 percent in 2017. Of the 69 percent, just over 22 percent achieved Grade I. Portuguese, offered for the second time this year, saw 71 percent of entries achieving acceptable grades compared with 83 percent in 2017 when it was offered for the first time.

Technical and Vocational Subjects

There were improved performances on most of the Technical Vocational subjects particularly Industrial Technology and its options. For Industrial Technology – Electrical, 80 percent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 74 percent in 2017. For Industrial Technology – Mechanical, 83 percent of entries gained acceptable grades compared with 76 percent last year, while for Industrial Technology – Building, there was a four-percentage-point improvement, 85 percent this year compared with 81 percent last year.

Eighty-four percent of entries for Technical Drawing achieved acceptable grades, compared with 77 percent in 2017. In the other subjects, performance was above the overall average; however, there was a two-percentage-point decline in performance. For Textiles Clothing and Fashion 77 percent of entries gained acceptable grades this year compared with 75 percent last year. For both Food, Nutrition and Health and Family and Resource Management, performance was above the average but declined by two percent in both subjects. Eighty-nine percent of entries for Food, Nutrition and Healthy achieved acceptable grades compared with 91 percent last year, while eight-five percent of entries again acceptable grades for Family and Resource Management this year compared with 87 percent last year.

Entries

This year 125, 754 candidates wrote 33 subjects offered at CSEC, compared with 127, 380 in May/June last year. Subject entries stand at 572, 400 entries compared with 577, 983 entries last year.

Mathematics continues to be the largest CSEC subject with 88, 524 candidates, followed by English A with 81, 702 candidates, Social Studies with 45, 811, Principles of Business 34, 947, and Information Technology 25, 630 entries complete the top five largest subjects.