Gr 11 Practical examinations

COMMENT from CAT teacher in Gauteng about Gr 11 Practical Paper from Study Opportunities:
I think the paper was: “doable”, Balanced, Different to the norm – this is a good aspect.
I also think it is a good thing that they have been exposed to a paper set by someone else and not by me. Every teacher has their own unique way of setting a paper and pupils get used to that way. They are then only exposed to a different way of setting in the matric exam and can then flounder.
It was in my opinion maybe about 30 minutes too long depending on the child. I am not worried about my pupils who have not been working during the year not finishing – they need a wake up call and would have still not finished even with extra time. But my top pupils should be able to finish and they battled hence my decision to give them an extra 20 minutes. As this is an internal exam, I think we as experienced educators should be able to use our discretion about increasing the time given during an internal exam. I have not marked any of my weaker pupils’ papers yet so I cannot comment on their results as yet. Maybe they are going to have been more affected by the length.
In my opinion, there was nothing “unseen” or extremely difficult and it was not unreasonable. The database form was more complicated than I had done in class with my pupils but my top pupils managed it well. It is something I will have to work on next year as I seem to never do enough work on forms. My pupils also seem to generally battle with Access in grade11 but with more exposure in grade 12 improve.
There was also quite a lot of reading which they have to get used to as it seems that this is the trend with most subjects in the new syllabus and a weakness of our “modern” pupils.
In my opinion it was a matric standard paper that grade 11’s had to write and they have not yet had as much exam practice as a matric child has had. My matric pupils found both the prelim practical exam and the final practical exam long, but my top pupils finished comfortably.
My top child has got a steady 91% per term this year. For her June prac she got 94% and for this exam 85%. When I asked her afterwards how she found the exam, she said she could do everything but she felt very rushed for time and hence made silly mistakes. When I marked her paper, I realised that she was correct as she made mistakes on sections she knows well and would not normally make mistakes on. She has never been rushed for time before as she always works quickly and efficiently and knows the applications very well. She did not have time to go back and check her work either.
My top 2 kids had just finished question 6 when they had 5 minutes left. I therefore gave them an extra 20 minutes. Once I have marked them all, I am going to look at their year marks and if I feel they are too low, I may moderate the prac slightly. However, an end of year exam mark is normally lower than during the year as it is set on a much larger section of work. When all the years’ tasks and PAT are added together, I am sure it will even out. I also don’t want to have my pupils arriving in matric with inflated grade 11 marks but at the same time would not want them to be demoralised.
The paper marks well (I have only marked 2) – the marking grid is great. I think that we should have the solutions printed out to see what certain documents should look like: for example the table in question 5. Just check the ticks as in one or two questions the number of ticks does not match the overall mark.
Question 6, the type of question I normally dislike marking as it usually takes so long, marks beautifully thanks to the way the memo is designed.
I also think for the second year of grade 11’s and a new syllabus, Study Opportunities has done very well to set a paper of such a good standard. I for one am very grateful not to have had to set CAT papers for my school but could rather spend my time on marking the PATs. Everyone knows how long it takes to set an exam paper.
CAT should not be seen as an “easy” option for the pupils and it should challenge the bright pupils who choose to take CAT rather than IT or other subjects. It is such a pity CAT is not yet recognized as a subject for university entrance as it is such a useful subject to study.