An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa

Eric Machisi

doi:10.29333/ejmste/15431

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Eric Machisi ¹ ^*

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¹ Fujairah Boys’ School, Fujairah, UAE^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study employed a quantitative survey methodology to analyze the 2021-2023 grade 12 calculus application exam questions in the context of South Africa. A total of 11 grade 12 teachers and 220 grade 12 students participated in the study. Analysis of the survey data and students’ test results points to the view that examiners sometimes misjudge the level of difficulty of the exam questions and include questions that are very difficult, which fail to discriminate between strong and weak candidates. It was noticed that calculus applications questions that most students could not correctly answer included multiple mathematical skills that were compacted in a short statement. This paper recommends that mathematics examiners should continuously reflect on their own work and find ways to improve their skills in setting future exam papers. The inclusion of item difficulty and item discrimination indices in post-exam analysis of results could be part of the examiners’ reflective practice. Feedback from the grade 12 mathematics teachers on the standard of each exam question is just as important to the examiners as the examiners’ reports are to the teachers.

Keywords

calculus application
exam questions
item difficulty
expert opinion
discrimination index

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 20, Issue 10, October 2024, Article No: em2519

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431

Publication date: 13 Oct 2024

Article Views: 292

Article Downloads: 156

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How to cite this article

APA

Machisi, E. (2024). An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 20(10), em2519. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431

Vancouver

Machisi E. An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2024;20(10):em2519. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431

AMA

Machisi E. An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2024;20(10), em2519. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431

Chicago

Machisi, Eric. "An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2024 20 no. 10 (2024): em2519. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431

Harvard

Machisi, E. (2024). An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 20(10), em2519. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431

MLA

Machisi, Eric "An analysis of calculus application questions in grade 12 mathematics exams in South Africa". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 20, no. 10, 2024, em2519. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/15431