The 'old' and the 'new' end-of-primary Mathematics examination papers : a comparative study

Abstract

The last session of the Junior Lyceum examinations was held in 2010. That was the last time when Year 6 students sat for an end-of-primary examination, which embraced the idea of selectivity. Rather than having the function of allocating students into Junior Lyceums or Area Secondary schools, the new benchmark examinations at the end-of-primary cycle are meant to serve as diagnostic tools. The main objective of this study, which essentially is a qualitative piece of research, is to compare the mathematics examination papers of the now defunct Junior Lyceum examinations and the newly launched benchmark examinations. Apart from using the TIMSS coding system to analyse these two sets of papers, data was collected also through semi-structured interviews of five Year 6 primary teachers. The main finding of this research is that, apart from the introduction of the mental mathematics paper in the benchmark exercise, there has been no drastic change in 11+ mathematics examination papers. Questions that assess the reasoning cognitive domain (as defined in the TIMSS coding system) have remained the least used test items and students still struggle to give valid reasons when asked to justify their thinking. The present study thus concludes that there is still much more to do before the change in the 11+ assessment system translates itself into notable pedagogical changes at classroom level.