General Comments
The Chief Examiner reported that the paper compared favourably with those of the previous years. The report also stated that all the questions were within the scope of the syllabus and adequately covered a wide area of the syllabus. The theoretical as well as the practical application of Mathematics were emphasized and no question was ambiguous.
The marking scheme was liberal, clear, generous and the marks were well distributed. According to the report, the general performance of the candidates did not differ from those of the previous years even though there appear to be an improvement in candidates' responses to questions involving graphs.
Weakness/Remedies
The report stated that apart from not adhering to instructions and accuracies required, candidates' weaknesses were observed in the following areas:
-1)Probability
2)Geometry
3)Sets
4)Algebraic graph -
Majority of the candidates did not understand what was meant by "mutually exclusive events". Candidates exhibited poor knowledge of circle theorems and Geometrical construction. Many candidates could not obtain the elements of the set C = [x: 3 <xes} while others neither used curly brackets { } when listing the elements of a set nor were they able to differentiate between an empty set (0 or {}) or the null set as a subset of a given set ( { 0 }). many candidates were unable to draw the tangent at a given point to determine the gradient of the curve at that point.
(5) Many candidates were unable to put down on paper drawings that would help them in solving questions where they are required.
4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
The suggested remedies as stated in the report included:
(1) Candidates should be made to study effectively mathematical concepts and principles and apply them accurately.
(2) Candidates should be encouraged to solve more problems and be exposed to procedures for geometrical construction as well as proofs of geometrical problems.
(3) Teachers should be encouraged to make use of instructional materials during teaching so that some abstract concepts can be made concrete.
(4) Teachers as well as candidates should endeavour to cover all aspects of the syllabus while preparing for the examination.
(5) Candidates should be exposed to past WASSCE questions.
Strength
Candidates' performance was commended in the following areas:
(1) Graphs - drawing and reading from quadratic graphs and Ogives.
(2) Geometric progression
(3) Variation
(4) Application of the sine and cosine rules in bearing
(5) Mensuration of three dimensional shapes such as right circular cones.
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