Q. What is CSEC?

A: CSEC refers to the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and the CSEC examinations are aimed at students who have reached the 16+ age of secondary level education.

Q. What subjects are being offered at the CSEC level?

A. Click here for a List of Subjects.  They may also be obtained from CXC Local Registrar.

Q: What is a Resit candidate?

A. A Resit Candidate is any candidate who at the time of registering for an examination, opts to reuse his/her SBA score.  Regulations, governing the reuse of the CSEC SBA stipulate that the candidate must have achieved an SBA score of 50% or more of the moderated score.

Q: Who is considered a Private candidate?

A:  Someone who is not in a full-time educational institution like a school.  A private candidate is registered at a part-time centre or an educational institution not recognised by the Council as a full-time educational institution.  For the purposes of registering for examinations, the main difference between a private candidate and a full-time candidate is that a private candidate has the option of registering for the Alternative Paper to SBA, if it is offered for the particular subject.  Candidates at full-time educational institutions are not permitted to register for the Alternative Paper.

Q: What exam papers do I need to complete when studying by myself?

A. Private candidates are required to write the compulsory papers but will have the option of not completing the school based assessment (SBA). Such a candidate may opt to write the alternative to the SBA paper. This paper assesses the same skills as those assessed by the SBA.

Q. How many subjects can a student write at one sitting?

A. Students can sit as many subjects as they wish at a single sitting.

Q: What qualifications are required before I can attempt CSEC?

A: There is no qualification requirement to pursue CSEC examinations.

Q:   I am not attending any school or a part-time educational institution but want to register for the CSEC examinations.  May I do so via the Online Registration System on the Council’s website?

A:  No. All registration must be done through an approved examination centre.  Contact your CXC Local Registrar who would be able to provide a list of approved examination centres.

Q: How many marks do I need to obtain a Grade I pass?

A: It is not the policy of the Council to publicise the different grade boundaries.  Suffice to say that the marks for Grade I may vary from one subject area to another but for all subjects, a Grade I denotes outstanding performance.

Q:  Why do some candidates appear to have better Profile Grades but a lower overall Subject Grade when compared to other candidates.

A: CSEC results are reported as an overall grade (Roman numerals I to VI) and three Profile grades (letters A to F). Each overall grade indicates that the candidate has earned a score that lies somewhere along the band of scores associated with that grade. The same is true for each Profile grade.

So, we may have two candidates whose results look like this:

Maria may have earned her Grade I with a Profile 1 score that was far above the cut-off score for an A, her Profile 2 and 3 scores that were far  above the cut-off scores for a B and C respectively.  Joe, on the other hand, may have a score just above or at the cut-off score for an A on Profile 1, and may be just above the cut scores for a B on Profile 2 and 3.

Thus, when the profile scores are added for Maria to give the overall score that score places Maria in the Grade I band.  On the other hand when the profile scores are added for Joe the overall score is less than the minimum score required for a Grade I.  The overall scores reflect different overall Grades because of different patterns of performance with respect to the Profiles.