Many excel amid testing times

PETALING JAYA: The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2020 cohort fared better in the national exams although they sat for it during a pandemic and had to answer more higher order thinking skills (HOTS) questions compared to previous years.

Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin (pic) said these candidates did better compared to their predecessors based on the higher national average grade (GPN) score achieved in SPM 2020.

He said the GPN has been steadily improving over the past five years and showed an improvement of 0.06 points from 4.86 in 2019 to 4.80 in 2020, adding that a lower number means a better score.

Radzi said more candidates also qualified for the SPM certificate, from 86.72% in 2019 to 88.68% in 2020 while the number of special needs candidates who qualify for the certificate increased by 6.88% to 68.22%.

“The candidates did better (in SPM 2020), ” he said when announcing the results for SPM 2020 yesterday.According to the SPM 2020 Results Analysis Report, 2.46% (9, 411 candidates) achieved all As for their exams in 2020 whereas in 2019, 2.28% (8, 876 candidates) obtained straight As.

The report also said 40% of the questions in this round of the national exams were also HOTS questions.

This has been increasing over the years since 2014 when only 20% of questions were HOTS questions.

Radzi also said there was a smaller gap between the average grade for urban and rural candidates.

“If we look at 2019, the gap between urban and rural candidates was 0.44 points.

“In 2020, the gap dropped to 0.38 points, ” he said, adding that rural candidates also showed more improvement compared to their urban counterparts in 2020.

The average grade for rural candidates improved by 0.08 points to 5.06 compared to the 0.02 point improvement for urban candidates (4.68 in 2020), he said.

Radzi also said that scores for 43 subjects showed an improvement, 39 declined, while one remained unchanged in SPM 2020.

The core subjects in 2020 that showed an improvement in overall scores are Mathematics, Science, Islamic Education and Moral Education while those that declined were Bahasa Melayu and English Language, he added.

“There are a lot of variables that affected the SPM 2020 candidates and we need to analyse them one by one to understand this year’s results, ” he said.

He added that the SPM 2020 was benchmarked and quality was assured by two international bodies – Cambridge Assessment International Education and Pearson UK.

To ensure student safety throughout the exam period, Radzi said the number of invigilators was increased by 15, 591 to 48, 014 to cater to the increased number of classrooms used for the exams.

He also said more than 24, 800 examiners were roped in – an increase of over 1, 700 – to mark over five million papers online in order to release the results within 76 days.

Previously, results were only released nearly 100 days after the last paper, he said, adding that a shorter time was needed this time so that the candidates can execute their plans, such as furthering their studies, promptly.

He said school teachers were also on hand to carry out the standard operating procedures, including checking the candidates’ health declaration forms and ensuring physical distancing was adhered to at all times.

He added that over 401, 000 candidates sat for the national exams in 3, 310 examination centres nationwide.