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Para. 198 (iv-vi) – ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAY – JUNE 2016 EXAMINATIONS

22. Organise training sessions for all Chief and Assistant Chief Examiners and Moderators
prior to the assumption of their respective roles in order to give full effect to the quality
assurance processes established by the Council for the construction of quality papers.

23. FAC heard that sessions were held already and would continue during the first quarter
of 2017.

24. As a follow-up from the action points, FAC enquired about the following;
(i) the qualifications of markers and the process of assignment to multiple
subjects in the same cognate area;
(ii) misplaced images - where additional attachments were scanned with scripts
and the extent to which these images can be matched with the original script;
and
(iii) the 19 per cent decline in performance in CSEC Mathematics in 2016; and
whether there were any issues, for example, problems in the paper- setting
process, which may account for the variation in the candidate performance.

25. FAC heard that the paper-setting process was being improved so that paper
development would be more consistent. New systems were being put in place, such as a
new item bank structure which would allow items to be edited and pre-tested long before
being included in a test. Test plans would also be developed to ensure that the table of
specifications, testing items and profiles are consistent from year to year. It is targeted that
by 2018-2019, a major difference should be seen in testing items.

26. FAC heard that marking within cognate groups referred to situations where one

marker assesses more than one subject in the same cognate group. For example, an Assistant
Examiner marks Sociology, and is then assigned to mark Social Studies. It was noted that the
marker is required to match the responses against the standard set by CXC unsing the mark
schemes and the quality of the marking is maintained by the quality assurance seeds.

27. FAC heard that there were instances where two scripts could become concatenated.
FAC was informed that the scanning system was programmed to determine the number of
pages for each booklet and therefore, if two scripts were joined during scanning, the Service
Desk team would be alerted so that corrective action could be taken. This may include the
rescanning and indexing of one or both scripts. The Service Desk would then perform a final
check to ensure that the concatenation issue was resolved. FAC was informed that these
cases were few and were treated with urgency.

ITEM 5 (i) – ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAY-JUNE 2016 EXAMINATIONS: REPORT ON
FOLLOW-UP ACTION IN CASES OF IRREGULARITY

28. FAC received FAC (2) 2017 – Report on Follow-Up Action in Cases of Irregularity in the
May-June 2016 examinations – a summary of the cases and action taken in accordance with
the decisions of the FAC. FAC members were asked to note and ratify the action taken as
shown below in Tables 1 and 2:

5