UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
THE MATRICULATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION
ADVANCED LEVEL
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
May 2007
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
MATRICULATION AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS BOARD
AM EXAMINERS’ REPORT MAY 2007
AM Information Technology
May 2007 Session
Examiners’ Report
Part 1: Statistical Information
Table 1 shows the distribution of grades awarded in the May 2007 session.
Table1: Distribution of grades awarded.
Grade
A
B
C
D
E
F
Abs
Total
Number
9
16
20
11
4
1
0
61
% of Total
14.8
26.2
32.8
18
6.6
1.6
0
100%
There seems to be a consistent decline in the number of students sitting for the IT
Advanced examination. This year there were only 61 students sitting for the IT Advanced
level. On the other hand it seems that the quality of the students’ work has improved.
The candidates sitting for the examination this year were better prepared and more
focused on the topics than those of the previous years.
Part 2: Comments regarding performance.
Paper 1
Section A
This section focuses on Information Systems.
The average mark for this section was 40 out of 50. This indicates a considerable and
consistent improvement over the previous years.
The students seem to be familiar with the terms ICT in question 1. Question 2 about
information lifecycles was also well answered but not very popular. Question 3 about
systems and networking was well answered and surprisingly very popular. Question 4
dealing with security issues seemed to be very popular and was well answered.
Section B
This section focuses on human communication issues.
The average mark for this section was 14 out of 25 which is 1% lower than that of the
previous year. Question 1 was well answered but some answers could have been better.
The majority of the candidates opted to answer question 2 rather than question 3.
Question 2 proved to be more difficult than Question 3.
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AM EXAMINERS’ REPORT MAY 2007
Section C
This section focuses on Business Organization.
The average mark for section C was 13 out of 25 which is identical to that of the previous
year. This is again quite disappointing as topics from the Business Organisation subject
should not be difficult to comprehend. The marks for question 1 were again on the low
side. Question 3 from this section was only selected by few candidates. Question 2 was
answered by the majority of students most of whom obtained 70% of the marks for it.
Paper 2
Section A
The average mark for this section was 36 out of 50. This is an increase of 22% over the
mark obtained in the previous year. This is significant indicating that the students were
more well prepared, since the questions were of the same level as those of the previous
year.
Section B
The average mark for this section was 31 out of 50. This indicates an improvement of
about 8% on last year’s performance. But the average mark is still low. This section deals
with programming and system development and is one of the fundamental areas in
computing and information technology.
Set Exercises
The overall average mark for the set exercises was 13 marks out of 20, that is 65%. It
seems that the exercise marks were on the lower side.
Concluding Remarks
The marks obtained for section B still show that students are not adequately trained to
obtain proper programming skills which should be given more importance.
Chairperson
Board of Examiners
July 2007
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