Regional petition launched over CAPE Unit 2 Chemistry Paper

Thousands of students across the region are fuming and worried about results following the testing of the Unit Two Chemistry paper of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

They are going so far as to launch an online petition calling for the examining body to adjust the marking criteria.

As seems to be an annual occurrence, the administration of the examinations, the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has again come under fire from parents and students alike, this time for what has been described as ambiguous questions and the exam structure not falling in line with the recommended syllabus.

The exam was held on Thursday, May 9, 2024, and the petition was launched on May 13, 2024. Since then it has garnered support from 2,479 supporters.

The petition outlines 10 complaints raised by students, including the objectives being tested across the modules and the heavy focus on the content of Unit One.

“8) Due to the high emphasis on Unit 1 content, consider therefore how a student who wrote Unit 2 Chemistry in 2024 before ever writing Unit 1 chemistry would cope with this paper,” the petition stated.

Here at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC), educators in the Division of Arts Science and General Studies  (DASGS) said the petition has come to their attention.

One Chemistry lecturer who spoke to SEARCHLIGHT said they understood the basis for the launch of the petition.

“From the students and from seeing the paper, I understand the concern from the region.”

The lecturer explained that point number eight expressed in the petition may not necessarily apply to local students as the College’s standard is that students complete Unit One and then do Unit Two, but if students had not reviewed the Unit One content they would have encountered challenges.

“If a student did not review that, based on trends from past years, it is not normally retested in that detail in Unit Two. Not all countries do [Unit] Two; they would have found it a challenge to answer that question effectively.”

The lecturer also highlighted the concerns raised in the petition about the objectives for Module Two as that module “focuses more on the more analytical methods and not so much titration that you do in Unit One”.

The petition outlined the issues the students encountered in that module saying,

“6) Too many marks were allocated to drawing titration curves in module 2, which is more of a unit 1 objective … The link was not made properly and does not warrant an entire 6 marks allocated to drawing titration curves.”

While the number of local students who signed onto the petition could not be confirmed, the lecturer said it is believed that the students here encountered similar challenges to those around the region.

“Based on what they said. Most of them would have found it a challenge,” the lecturer said.

Regional advocate and spokesperson for the Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress, Paula-Anne Moore, who also coordinates the Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados told SEARCHLIGHT she believes that CXC has disadvantaged students with their inconsistent administration of exam material.

She queried why in a Unit Two examination, approximately 30 percent of the total marks was based on Unit One topics. She also highlighted how the structure of questions could make it difficult for students to answer.

“Teachers with decades of experience, and educators with PhD in Chemistry found almost impossible to solve as the wording was problematic and unclear.”