SUMMARY:
=>CAN YOU PIN POINT KCPE/KCSE YEARS described from the empirical rundown?
=>KCPE and KCSE Grading Systems; how is it done at KCPE, and at KCSE level, and answered separately for each to avoid cofusion?
=>Grades could be posited in a dichotomous paradigm where in;
ASOLUTE: Score Grading: Here, the raw scores translate directly to the Grade, e.g. 80 and higher A, 75 to 79, below 30 Debe Tupu E.
GRAPHING: Student scores are graphed, such that, a more accurate capability check is realized compared with “absolute grading” that instead uses raw scores. With the graphing system, you get to know your home turf insofar as performance.
MOCK EXAMS:
Do all Nairobi Schools, agnostic of context private/public, do the same MOCK EXAM?
If that is the case, then how in the world does it follow that my buddy who attended Thika Road Christian School private vs me Kanjo score 30 points more than I did in Mock, as did a girl who scored very close to that; whilst me and my other buddy in another Kanjo maybe 2 more than me, yes in KCSE my Kanjo friend scored 1 more point than I did, while private school peers scored 4 and 5 points behind me in the KCSE exams barely two months after the Mocks?
ANOMALIES OBSERVED:
KCPE: Bogus math question identified;
Sample Scores::
ENGLISH 99%; and this despite the fact I remember some apprehensiveness with some of the English questions. What method was used here?
MATHEMATICS: 89%; In my case I had reservations on only two questions; the bogus one, assumed to be a point lost, plus one other question. Minimal grade would not shoot under 94, unless I was “fat filling bubbles on the answer sheet”
Bogus Maths Question: An otherwise text book maths question had not a clear answer. Bone of contention
Juma went to the store and bought << 4 widgets at 10 shillings >> <-This is question
Interpretation can be 1 of 2:
-First: It can be assumed the Full price entirely was 10 shillings total at each piece commanding 10/4, or 2.50 per widget. 10 shillings overall price.
-Second: It can be assumed that the shs.10 price was for 1` widget for a total of 10X4=Sh. 40 .
40 shillings overall price.
BOTH were options; does anyone claim ascendancy to disambiguate granted the provided informtion?
KCSE
=>MATHS:31% National Average RAW SCORE,
A graph paper that appeared to fit, apparently fell short by half a box; thus the graph had to be torally erased then redrawn scaled down!
In my high school, about 25 to 30 A plains could be found for the Maths exam; whilst in our case there were 6!
=>POWER MECHANICS: Erroneous PM administered that entailed up to 50 percent higher than normal work and screwing many; I remember vividly this tall fella we did PM being so disappointed that the PM had knocked him out of his otherwise B+ average. It indeed screwed me, for a subject I always got an A, or A-worst case: KCSE PM: B erased club 92, and sure couple guys ahead were in that club for a flawless alternative subject, compared to PM’ers
KCSE SCORES: Overall, one might wonder why the KCSE seems to cause surprises not so few times. Some might be “lethargy to test” but more appealingly, for example as was the case in my high school, class teachers ascended with students through the 4 years of high school. A fundamental attribution error result by virtue of; Joe Blows ni DEBE TUPU kwa hivyo D; Mary Smith is very sharp kwa hivyo by default 81.
The actual KCSE exam erases that bias!
RHETORIC QUESTION: Why do many top KCPE performers find themselves outside top 5% at KCSE level? Private School syndrome? Various younger in mental age at KCPE, might have caught up by KCSE?
END SUMMARY :
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READ ON FOR THE SADOMASOCHISTIC CLUB:the first part summarizes it all
I have always with how things function, and for any specific topic under discussion, the goal is to realize the noumena, the essence; other than phenomena, specific example. The education system in Kenya is no different.
Many months ago I had raised the question about grading systems for KCPE and KCSE, because, from what I had observed, and depending on whatever subjects one might be taking a look at any one point in time, there appeared to exist not so few an occurrence of incongruence, and on occasion almost at par with mutual exclusivity.
My main question insofar as grading KCPE and KCSE , boils down to; just how do the grading, given raw scores
KCPE:
The year I sat for the exam, I observed very confusing scores, vis a vis my estimation of, say, subject A or B.
One of the oddities, to momentarily digress from the crux of the problem, and spend a minute to take a brief look at the Mock Examinations:
My understanding was that all the schools within any one district did the same Mock /Trial KCPE examination at the end of term 2 for the candidature bunch in standard 8 at the time. would therefore all schools in Nairobi do the same Mock exams, private or not? I had the impression, that with Nairobi as a district, One of my childhood friends, a tall pointee, by the name Christopher Kigen, some tall and extremely sharp fella, I believe who is now a key Java House manager of sorts, attended Thika Road Christian Schools, while sisi tulikuwa kwa zile za “kanjo”. There were 2 fierce competitors with a very smart girl, who I believe might have been a kid to the head teacher, and went by Ruth Kiagiri or something; can’t precisely remember. Anyway, Christopher and that girl had clustered grades, I think with Christopher right ahead, and I scored precisely 30 points less than he did, and he was somewhere extremely close the pinnacle in Nairobi(again this is assuming commonality in the Mock Exam administered for all of Nairobi, and I stand to be corrected by anyone with more ascendancy to what I just speculated about). I had another literally neck to neck competitor, where we all did the exact exams, and, no sh1t, we used to scarcely ever have overall scores where the difference exceeded 3! And it proved prescient; he scored about 2 points or so to exceed mine in the Mock, and sure enough his KCPE score exceeded mine by 1! Basically we were excellent match ups to any one exam.
I Lo and behold, my close competitor
Victors had 1 to exceed my score, and I had 4 to exceed Christopher Kigen, and I believe he topped TRC School, and the Kiagiri girl was 5 points behind mine, and 1 lesser than Christopher. If by any stroke of chance, we did the same Mock exam, how in the world would somebody who had my arse handed on a platter in the Mock examination, at 30 points ahead, only for me to turn around and beat him in the KCPE, barely two months later; and no, it wasn’t cold feet, because the Kiagiri girl ended up with just about an identical fate. Christopher Kigen went to Starehe, Victor went to Mang’u, and by promulgation, I , de facto, had to head to Changez, following the fact my Dad was one of the very FIRST THREE native Kenyans to teach there; and this during the tenure of the first African Principal, by the name Kamnge or something close to that;where he taught Maths and Physics, before the “then small family of 4 total” went to the US for about a decade, and where I was born just as he completed his PhD., only for the wazungu to straight up deny him the earned Professorship, despite the fact, he had meritoriously lecture for years, thus we were forced to about face back to motherland; indeed, civil era bigotry still persisted well past the Hippie 60s; and in tandem the civil rights era .I guess he had such a huge impact, his erstwhile student from 5 decades prior, he came to the Nairobi service after reading the obituary, keeping in mind, they were in touch at all beyond his years as a teacher.
KCPE: Conundrums
=>I scored 89 Maths and 99 English; and this despite the fact I remembered some uncertainties in the English exam; whilst in Maths, two of us had tied at 89! There was one bogus question that I will subsequently detail, plus I think one other one; save for those two, short of "fat bubble entries’, no way it was less than 94. In Primary I more or less tell my score to within a hair, based questions that proved Houdini. What would cause that anomalous combination in Maths and English? Anyone know?
KCPE Bogus Question: There was a question about grocery where Joe Blows bought among other items, 4 condoms @ sh. 10(all are fictitious but the 4 was there). This could be interpreted as either; a total of 4 items at 2.50 a piece-sh 1o total; or, 4 items at sh. 10 a pop; both scenarios were present in the answers; pray hold me excused, can anyone incontrovertibly disambiguate this? Please share if you can. In Form 4 I happened upon a Daily Nation newspaper, and an article pertaining to our KCPE batch caught my eye, and I duly read. Lo and Behold…"Yadi yadi what yasa …when students were presented a Maths question in the recent KCPE examination blah blah NO DEFINITVE ANSWER; I sighed with relief I hadn’t fell into dementia.
KCSE EXAM:
My Index number 115842001-it was randomized in the stead of the formal 4XXXX Index system. by (not exactly performance driven, but rather class membership, and my class, and somebody posited so there was coincidental Index 001 both KCPE/KCSE)
Believe it or not, in yet another article, this time pertaining to KCSE: Here comes , good one to see if you can pinpoint year; Geog Paper 2 was largely leaked, necessitating a bandaid; the grades were slammed whenever the answers were “too textbook” beyond the natural ones; the trap was set; people flunk’d left and right after consuming of the poisoned chalice, and thanks to the kind of thing I am doing right now, my answers were proprietary!!
KCSE MATHS:
Average raw score nationwide; 31 %.
One of the math exams royally screwed almost everyone, letting leeway only to the flight of penning. There was a graph to be drawn, and we were taught to use as much of the available space as permissible; and the vast majority duly followed the advisement. There was one small problem though; there were 16 boxes, and the coordinate entries overshot; sadism galore! The graphs had to be completely erased and redrawn, thus robbing entrants badly needed time!!
Typically, 25 to 30 A plains were to be had in Maths; ours 6! Only the fleet of pen survived. This introduces a desperately begging question; "if graphing were used to grade, how was there such a drastic drop in numbers of A plain Maths students?: Is it to be speculated .
POWER MECHANICS:
Average raw score countrywide; 51
Keep in mind the Power Mechanics students were on average in the top 25% or so.
Power Mechanics mainly described the elements that constitute a functional automobile.
Many were left scratching their heads on why the scores were so low. The theory was presented very unfairly; so much work had to be done, and granted the fact I generally ACED PM, I found myself getting into section B which consisted of 4 essay style questions, and each worth 15%, and I had 15 minutes to work with!!! That was some BS; its kinda like a KCSE Math paper is administered, with the sudden caveat introduced right at the eleventh hour, such that, you have to attempt all "eight"essay questions and throw another 15 minutes essay to answer. Suddenly you realize your pace of testing will get y0u to 70% instead of they typical 100%. In the practicals, which consistent of 10 stations, such that you got 10 minutes per station to work some automobile related system. I was taking a cautious approach, and this in order to counteract the disaster that the theory had triggered. In the midst of an incorrigible moment of tunnel vision, I made a blunder that left 3 to 4 station tenuously affixed; high probability of missing a bunch of points is what I mean. I realized this kinda late, and we couldn’t run back to other stages, assuming that you worked fast and earned bonus time that could be used to handle gaps in previous station, because ALL THE STATIONS WERE MANNED!!! The resultant PM score was B, the lowest, and for that matter, if it was like the exams we had been doing for 4 years, it would have been almost certainly, that is how I got screwed out of club 92 plus.So much of stuff stuff hahaha.