Untitled - Umalusi

5. Findings
The key issue of concern to Umalusi when question papers are
moderated is the standard of the question papers. The word standard is a
very relative term and Umalusi moderates question papers on the premise
that standard is dependent broadly on the following aspects:
both Higher Grade and Standard Grade. It also seeks to discover whether
key content areas in each subject were covered in the examination
question paper. Furthermore, the criterion examines whether the question
paper consists of constructs that cover crucial subject-specific knowledge.
In the final analysis, the weighting of questions in relation to areas of
subject content is another focus of the criterion.
• Adherence to policy
• Levels of challenge (cognitive demand)
• Quality of the representation of question papers
• Quality of internal moderation
Moderators for the six national subjects – Mathematics, Biology, Physical
Science, History and Accounting – observed that content coverage with
regard to all the aspects mentioned above was quite adequate for
examination question papers in 2005. History question papers in particular,
are reported to be by far of a better quality than the previous years.
The report discusses the standard of the question papers in general,
concentrating on the quality of the question papers particularly as they
were prior to external moderation. The report then unpacks the four
aspects as bulleted under five above.
The English Second/Additional Language moderators reported that the
content that was covered in 2005 was in line with the relevant syllabus
requirements for this year.
5.1 Content coverage (Adherence to Policy)
National question papers for 2005 reflect the syllabus requirements
relatively accurately.
This criterion requires the moderators to establish whether the examination
question paper accurately represents the content specified in the syllabi for
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