Primary School students, 6,492 of them sit PSE

The second half of the annual Primary School Examinations was sat on various campuses across the country today.  A total of six thousand, four hundred and ninety-two students registered to sit both Math and Social Studies exams.  Traditionally, problem solving has proven to be an area of great difficulty as a majority of those who sit the exams struggle to complete the questions successfully.  While it is too early to determine the overall outcome of the 2011 PSEs, it is clear that more students sat the exams this year than previous years.  This afternoon News Five caught up with the Principal Education Officer as well as several students as they were leaving the exam rooms.

Isani Cayetano

“How well do you think you have performed in the PSEs overall, Math and Social Studies included?”

Daylene Palacio

Daylene Palacio, Student, St. Agnes Anglican School

“Well I think I passed high because it was easy.  Just like how my teachers taught it in the class it was in the PSE so I thought it was [easy] and I passed with a high grade.”

Yvonne Davis, Principal Education Officer, Nat’l Exams

“We have on record six thousand, four hundred and ninety-two students to sit the exam today and this is an increase from last year that I had noted earlier.  From the numbers we tallied from the day one sitting we had one hundred and ninety-two students absent on day one so more or less we’ll expect the same number of students absent day two or maybe a slight variation in the attendance.”

Yvonne Davis

Isani Cayetano

“I’ve managed to interview a couple of the students as they were leaving out of the different compounds where they sat the exams and there’s the perennial issue of Math being difficult.  Can you share with us if there was a degree of difficulty in this year’s exam as opposed to previous years they’ve sat PSEs?”

Yvonne Davis

“The test is set more or less the same each year because the table of specifications remains.  We have been testing these skills in Math for over ten years so what we tested five years ago we tested today as well.  The Math problem solving paper has always been the challenge on the PSE.”

Isani Cayetano

“What were your preparations like for the problem solving?  I know you’ve heard all the countless stories of Math giving students like yourself problems in primary school.  What was your preparation like?”

Osrick Chimilio

Osrick Chimilio, Student, St. Joseph School

“Well I worked long hours and my mom really gave me a lot of work to do and my teachers so that’s like really good help.  You just have to work hard and that way you’ll achieve your goals.”

Isani Cayetano

“What about the Social Studies part of today’s exams?  What were some of the questions like?

Osrick Chimilio

“Some of the questions were just like things about basic ordinary stuff like during life and basic knowledge.  So like that was the easiest part of the exam.”

According to Davis, the results of the exams are expected to be released in early June.