CPEA student ‘Prays to God’ when confronted by a difficult question

When Janique Williams met a difficult question on her Social Studies exam yesterday, her first course of action was to “Pray to God!” 

The 11-year-old Petersville Primary School student is just one of 1714 Grade six students who are sitting the CPEA this year. 

The external component of the CXC regulated exam began yesterday, May 12 with Mathematics and Social Studies being administered in several centres across the country. 

The exam concludes today, May 13 with Language Arts and Science. 

“It was good but the Social Studies to me was kind of challenging; certain questions. Some I didn’t understand and I had to read over but I eventually understood, and some of them, we didn’t do,” Williams told SEARCHLIGHT seconds after exiting the St Martin’s Secondary School centre just after midday. 

The young scholar said she spent a significant amount of time, including late nights preparing with her mother for the exam and doing past papers. 

She is confident that she will do very well, having been able to answer all of her questions in the allotted time on day one, and felt ready to sit the second part of the exam today. 

Williams has her heart set on attending the Thomas Saunders Secondary School for the new academic year. 

A few parents and other relatives gathered outside the St Martin’s Secondary School in the hot sun yesterday, eagerly waiting for their children to emerge from the classrooms. 

The youngsters were greeted with smiles, hugs and questions of how the examinations went. 

Among these parents was Murray’s Village resident, Tyra Williams waiting for her daughter, Gabriella Shubbert, who attends the Petersville Primary School. 

“I had to put in a lot of work with her. She was quite prepped…I made sure I let her stay home this week and I did a lot of work with her that she did from Grade five and six and some from Grade 4,” Williams told SEARCHLIGHT.. 

The mother said she was “not at all” nervous about her daughter’s performance as she is a very bright girl. 

“I’m expecting her to do very, very well because she’s very intelligent,” she said. 

When her daughter, Gabriella Shubbert emerged from the exam centre, she told her mother that the exam went well. 

She noted that there were some questions which appeared on the Social Studies paper that everyone might not be familiar with but that it was a good paper overall. 

For Math, when she was met with a difficult question, she said she did her workings, and if she didn’t arrive at the answer on her first try, she would move on and return to the difficult question later. 

She completed both papers in the allotted time and is confident that she will do well. 

When the pair left the exam centre yesterday afternoon, her mother said they intended to have lunch, take a break and then take some time to revise for today’s exams. 

Of the 1714 students sitting the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) this year, 850 are females and 864 are males. 

The external component of the assessment comprises four multiple choice papers in four areas: Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts and Science. 

Each paper consists of 50 items with a duration of one hour and 15 minutes per paper. That component of the assessment accounts for 60 per cent of the final score and the School-Based Assessment (SBA), the internal component, accounts for 40 per cent of the final score.

Results are expected to be released by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) in June.