Student attainment in Mathematics SEC examinations during the 2006-2009 period

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the students' attainment in the SEC Mathematics examination categorised by content area, gender, school type and examination year. The key aim is to discover how students' performance varies between the four content areas of the Mathematics SEC syllabus mainly Number, Algebra, Shapes, Space, and Measures and Data Handling. The marks obtained by each student for each question of the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 examination papers were provided together with other relevant information, particularly gender and the type of school. The sample comprised almost the whole population of fifth formers who registered for the SEC Mathematics examinations. More than 50% of males who registered for Paper IIA were from Church schools whereas more than 50% of females who registered for this paper were from State schools. Around 50% of the absentees across all papers were private candidates, whilst about 30% of students absent from the Core paper were State school students. To analyse the data, all questions in each paper were categorised by their content area. Positive correlations were found between all content areas. Marks in Algebra and Shape, Space and Measures were the most related, whereas marks in Algebra and Data Handling were the least related. Gender differences were found across all content areas in favour of males. Males from Church schools performed best, and females from State schools performed better than their male counterparts. In Independent schools, attainment in Mathematics was comparable between males and females.