Digital Media, offered in May/June 2014 as the first 100 per cent paper-less examination by the
Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has returned excellent results in its first sitting.
One hundred per cent of the candidates taking Digital Media Units 1 and 2 achieved acceptable grades
which are Grades I-V at CAPE.
Of the 68 candidates who registered for Unit 1 of Digital Media in its first sitting, 19 per cent of the
candidates for Unit 1 achieved Grade I; 21 per cent of candidates achieved Grade II; 49 per cent
achieved Grade III and nine per cent achieved Grade IV.
Nine candidates registered for Digital Media Unit 2. One achieved Grade I; two achieved Grade II and six
achieved Grade III.
CXC Digital Media was introduced to schools in September 2013.
Performance Remains Consistent
Overall performance in CAPE remained consistent with 2013. Ninety percent of entries achieved Grades
I-V which are the acceptable grades, the same as in 2013. Performance remained the same on 16 Units,
improved on 14 Units and declined on 16 Units.
Mathematics and Sciences
There were mixed performances in the Mathematics and Sciences cluster of subjects. Both Units of
Applied Mathematics returned identical performance as last year – 89 per cent of entries achieved
Grades I-V. In both Units of Applied Mathematics, 27 per cent of entries achieved Grade 1.
For Pure Mathematics Unit 1, performance declined slightly, from 72 per cent in 2013 to 69 per cent this
year, while for Pure Mathematics Unit 2, performance improved marginally from 82 per cent in 2013 to
85 per cent this year.
Both Units of Biology saw a dip in performance this year. Eighty-six per cent of entries achieved
acceptable grades in Unit 1 this year compared with 90 per cent in 2013. For Unit 2, ninety-one per cent
of entries achieved Grades I-V compared with 97 per cent in 2013.
Performance on both Units of Chemistry improved when compared with 2013. There was a slight
improvement on Unit 1 with 85 per cent of entries achieving acceptable grades compared with 84 per
cent in 2013; while for Unit 2, there was a three per cent improvement in performance this year. Ninety-
five percent of entries achieved acceptable grades, compared with 92 per cent in 2013. Both Units of
Chemistry recorded a high percentage of Grade Is. Twenty-four per cent of entries achieved Grade I in
Unit 1 and 39 per cent of entries achieved similar grades in Unit 2.
There was a three-per cent improvement on performance in Physics Unit 2 this year – 95 per cent of
entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 92 per cent in 2013. Performance remained steady
on Physics Unit 1 with 93 per cent of entries achieving similar grades in both years.
Humanities
Performance in the humanities cluster of subjects remained mostly steady when compared with
performance last year. French Unit 1 saw a slight improvement with 97 per cent achieving Grades I-V
compared with 96 per cent last year. For French Unit 2 there was a three-percent decline, from 99 per
cent in 2013 to 96 per cent this year.
Both Units of Spanish performed almost identical in both years. Spanish Unit 1, ninety-two per cent of
entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 93 in 2013. Similarly 92 per cent of entries for Unit 2
achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 94 per cent in 2013.
Sociology Units 1 and 2 saw slight decline in performance; 85 per cent in Unit 1 compared with 86 per
cent last year and 93 per cent in Unit 2 this year compared with 95 per cent last year.
Law Unit 1, had a one-per cent decline, from 85 per cent of acceptable grades last year to 84 per cent
this year; while for Law Unit 2, there was a one-per cent improvement – 82 per cent this year compared
with 81 per cent last year.
Performance on Literatures in English for both Units in both 2013 and 2014 were identical. In both years
94 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades for Unit 1 and 96 per cent achieved similar grades for
Unit 2.
History Unit 1 recorded a slight improvement in performance when compared with 2013. Seventy-nine
per cent of entries achieved Grades I-V this year compared with 76 per cent in 2013. Unit 2 saw a
decline of six per cent – 70 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 76 per cent in
2013.
Business
Performance in the business cluster of subjects remained fairly consistent with that of 2013 in most
Units. Ninety-five per cent of entries for Accounting Unit 1 achieved acceptable grades compared with
96 per cent in 2013. For Accounting Unit 2, seventy-nine per cent achieved compared with 82 per cent
last year.
Management of Business Units 1 and 2 saw a one percentage point variation in the performance on
both Units in the two years. Eighty-six per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades in Management of
Business Unit 1 compared with 87 per cent in 2013; while for Unit 2, ninety-seven per cent achieved
acceptable grades this year, one per cent improvement over 2013.
Similarly for Economics Unit 1, there was a one-per cent variation with 82 per cent of entries achieving
Grades I-V in 2014 and 83 per cent in 2013. For Economics Unit 2, eighty-five per cent of entries Grades
I-V this year compared with 88 per cent in 2013.
Technical and Vocational
In the technical and vocational cluster of subjects, performance was consistent with the exception of
Geometrical and Mechanical Engineering Drawing Unit 1 which saw a marked decline in performance
this year. Sixty-nine per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 85 per cent last year.
Seventy-nine per cent of entries for Geometrical and Mechanical Engineering Drawing Unit 2 achieved
acceptable grades compared with 83 per cent in 2013.
Both Units of Art and Design remained consistent with 100 per cent of entries achieving acceptable
grades in both Units in both years.
Food and Nutrition Unit 2 returned similar results with 99 per cent of entries achieving acceptable
grades. In Unit 2, ninety-seven per cent achieved acceptable grades in 2014 compared with 99 per cent
in 2013.
Seventy-four per cent of entries for Electrical and Electronic Technology Unit 1 achieved acceptable
grades compared with 75 per cent in 2013; and for Unit 2, seventy-nine per cent achieved acceptable
grades compared with 83 per cent in 2013. No candidate achieved Grade I in this Unit.
Core Subjects
The two core subjects, Communication Studies and Caribbean Studies continue to perform consistently
with previous years. This year 96 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades in Communication
Studies 96 compared with 97 per cent in 2013, and for Caribbean Studies 93 per cent of entries achieved
acceptable grades compared with 94 per cent in 2013.
Growth
The number of candidates entered for CAPE this year was 29,379 compared with 28,228 in 2013, an
increase of 1,151 candidates.
Communication Studies continue to lead the subject entries with 15,625 entries this year compared with
14,926 last year. It is followed by Caribbean Studies with 11,941 entries this year, compared with 11,220
in 2013. Sociology Unit 1 with 5,996 entries, Biology Unit 1 with 5681 and Chemistry Unit 1 with 5,447
entries round out the top five largest Unit entries.
Sixty-two per cent of the candidates were females and 38 per cent males.
Just over 42 per cent of the candidates were in the 18-year age group, while 33 per cent were over 19
years and 22 per cent were in the 17-year age group.
For additional information, please contact Cleveland Sam at telephone number (246) 227-1892 or via e-
mail atcsam@cxc.org.