LC: Physics and Chemistry: Taken by about 1,000 students, the higher-level Physics and Chemistry paper has a failure rate of between 10 and 15 per cent, while the ordinary level had a failure rate last year of 42 per cent, the highest of any subject.
It's the last exam for a lot of students. Those who take it would be academically weak, because it is taken in schools that cannot offer pure physics or pure chemistry. A candidate at this level tends not to put enough information on the paper to give you material to write, explained an ASTI spokesperson.
Very often these students are also taking Materials Technology, and other more practical subjects, which balance out the more academic papers.
It's an open secret that marking conferences can adjust marks, but this is done less often in science. This year, we may possibly see a little more up-marking. The layout of the papers this year was very good, with a lot of helpful diagrams. Visually accessible to the student, it made them quite fair.