UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE
SEC
SPANISH
May 2009
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
MATRICULATION AND SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE
EXAMINATIONS BOARD
SEC Examiners’ Report – May 2009
SEC SPANISH
MAY 2009 SESSION
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
Distribution of Grades
Grade
1
No.
of 21
Candidates
Percentage
11.7
2
22
12.3
No.of
Candidates
Percentage
No.
Of 21
Candidates
Percentage
7.7
3
4
5
Paper l and 2A
43
41
29
24
22.9
16.2
Paper l and 2B
9
25
22
43
8.1
15.8
9.7
Totals
50
18.3
Total
6
7
U
Abs
-
-
19
4
179
10.6
2.2
100
12
16
20
11
93
26.9
12.9
17.2
21.5
11.8
100
54
12
16
39
15
272
19.9
4.4
5.9
14.3
5.5
100
GENERAL COMMENTS:
The format of this session was similar to the previous year with small changes corresponding to
the revised 2009 SEC Syllabus, namely the Cloze Test Exercise where a word bank was given.
Also this same Cloze exercise had 15 marks allotted to it. The Oral Conversation exercise marks
were reduced to a total of 5. The common core, that is, Paper l carried 50% of the total marks
divided into two sections consisting of Part (a) Listening Comprehension and Conversation and
Part (b) consisting of Multiple choice Grammar exercise, Cloze Exercise and Cultural Component
Questions. Paper II A and II B carrying 50% consisted of 3 exercises- Reading Comprehension,
Essay and a Guided Dialogue. As is the general rule, candidates opting for Paper IIA could
obtain grades ranging from 1 to 5, whilst the IIB candidates’ results ranged from top grade 4 to
lowest 7. The unclassified grade of U was assigned to candidates who, in the opinion of the
examiners, did not reach the required minimum grade level of the aggregate of the two papers.
The number of candidates who registered for both papers was 272. There were 179 candidates
for the IIA Paper and 93 for the IIB Paper. Overall there were 58 candidates less than last year.
The performance percentages are very similar to last year’s grade distribution with the exception
of the failing percentage with those students opting for the IIB Paper, where this year 21.5 %
failed to obtain a pass grade compared to the 15.5 % of failing IIB papers last year.
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SEC Examiners’ Report – May 2009
REPORT ON CANDIDATES’ PERFORMANCE AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Paper 1:
Part 1
Exercise 1- Listening Comprehension. 10%
Overall the candidates demonstrated competence in their listening and understanding skills and
most achieved high marks in this exercise.
Exercise 2 - Conversation 5%
The overall percentage of the number of candidates who achieved a high or pass score in this
section correlated with the final grade.
Part 2
Exercise 1 - Multiple Choice Grammar 10%
A common error in Q.6 indicated that many students are still unfamiliar with the agreement of
number, gender and adjective.
Exercise 2 - Cloze Test exercise 15%
Candidates performed extremely well in this Cloze Test Section
previous years. This was due to the word bank given that had
students, that is, students who opted for 2A and 2B demonstrated a
the unconventional text and accurately filled in the blanks with
prepositions and pronouns.
when compared to all the
two redundant words. All
very good understanding of
the correct verbs, nouns,
Exercise 3 - Cultural Component.10%
Candidates who sat for IIA but also those who opted for IIB struggled in this exercise although
most did achieve a pass. Considering the Latin American material given in the examination
syllabus was minimal and condensed and thus appeared in this exercise, it is evident that many
candidates neglected to revise this part of the Syllabus. As from next year the Cultural
Component will only test knowledge of Spain, as Latin American Culture has been eliminated
from the 2010 Syllabus.
Paper 2A:
Reading Comprehension 15%
Not one candidate achieved full marks in this exercise as if there was a grammatical error
especially in the question that required “their own words”, it was penalized accordingly. Although
many demonstrated comprehension of the text, competent expression was lacking. Many got
Q.2 incorrect. Candidates had difficulty with lifting correct single word responses in Q.3 which
indicated a limited lexicon.
Essay 25%
90% of the candidates selected Title No.1 which was a letter. Most were unable to produce the
first basic word Queridos padres “dear mom and dad” when writing a familiar letter, which
indicated limited knowledge of basic vocabulary.
All titles were attempted. Of those candidates who achieved a pass score, an extremely low
percentage demonstrated knowledge of idiomatic Spanish. In fact the standard of this writing task
was poor. The inevitable interference of mostly Italian and occasionally French and English were
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SEC Examiners’ Report – May 2009
duly penalised. It is natural that students who have linguistic competence in a sister language, in
this case Italian and French, interfere with Spanish, which they may have been studying for two to
four years. However their Spanish Competence is being examined here. Even where there was
no interference, the level was disappointing.
As for grammar, the same common errors persist from year to year, namely confusion of usage
between the basic verbs “to have” tener and haber and between the verbs “to be” haber, ser
and estar.
It is of crucial importance that students express themselves repeatedly using
expressions with tener eg. Tengo tres hermanos, tengo un perro, tengo sueňo, tenemos
suerte etc as this basic verb would strengthen the writing task. These fundamental verbs need to
be employed continuously during the learning process of the language.
Exercise 3 Guided Dialogue.
On the whole the paper IIA candidates demonstrated competence in this section.
Paper 2 B:
Reading Comprehension 15%
The questions set on this text all had a similar level of difficulty and most candidates achieved a
pass in this exercise. All responses to questions were simply lifted from the text and some
students had difficulty in doing that. Q.3 proved to be the most puzzling as it required a longer
answer but still was lifted. In Q.4 candidates did very well matching descriptions with words
selected from the text.
Essay 25%
60 % of the candidates selected Title No.1 which also was a letter which lacked basic vocabulary
knowledge. All titles were selected. Many selected the picture composition and only one
candidate selected the most challenging title No.4 but then s/he only wrote two lines.
Recommendations are exactly the same as for the IIA Paper Essay.
Guided Dialogue - 10%
As in previous years most students failed in this exercise. No matter what situation and how
simply it is presented each year. This is an exercise where students always struggle. This
suggests the importance of role play and the use of the right person when addressing someone
else.
The Chairperson
Board of Examiners
July 2009
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