By Karabo Rammutla
A question in last year’s final matric maths exam that contained an error so that even maths experts couldn’t answer it has been excluded from the marking process.
Matric students will be relieved to hear that the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) said that the tricky question 5 of the Grade 12 Maths Paper 2, including sub-question 5.1, was not considered in the marking.
The question was worth seven marks.
Although many were calling for all learners to be given free marks for the question, Umalusi’s Biki Lepota said instruction was given to all marking centres to mark Question 5 out of 23 marks instead of out of 30.
“This means that a candidate who obtained 23 marks will be awarded 30 marks. The marks achieved by each candidate were converted to a mark out of 30,” he said.
Most learners were left worried by the question. Teachers, learners and maths experts couldn’t answer it.
The Department of Basic Education was inundated with complaints regarding the error in the exam paper.
Lepota said due to Umalusi’s interventions, they are satisfied that it has mitigated the effect of the error.
Pictured above: Some relief for matriculants as question 5.1 has been left out of the calculation of marks
Image source: Karabo Rammutla
