Students are having to spend their summers revising for exams they might never sit for because they have been given no clear timeline when to expect ‘revision of papers’ results.
Every year, hundreds of teenagers apply for the MATSEC service that sees a fresh reviser mark the paper of a candidate who has paid a fee of between €35 and €45 that is refundable if the revision results in an upgrade.
But candidates are not told when to expect the outcome of this exercise, meaning that many are spending the summer in limbo, revising for resits that start at the end of this month.
“These students are frustrated as they have to spend weeks waiting for their revision of paper results while trying to study just in case they do not get an upgraded mark,” one concerned mother told Times of Malta.
Students could apply for a revision of paper in July but are still waiting for information one month later.
Impact on students' mental health
So far this year, there have been 699 candidates applying for a revision of paper for a total of 1,010 papers, according to MATSEC.
“We speak about the importance of mental health, yet, we are not realising the impact of uncertainty on students’ health,” the mother said.
“This is also very frustrating for those who wish to apply for a college overseas.”
Her 16-year-old son had plans to start a summer job after he completed his SEC exams in May and spend the summer balancing time with work, friends and applying for sixth forms.
Instead, after receiving a grade 6 in his Maltese, he now spends two hours a day attending private lessons while waiting for his revision of paper result. Sixth forms usually accept pupils who have scored grades from 1-5.
“It’s frustrating, especially since I was meant to start working this summer and now I’m attending lessons every day,” he said.
He is now worried that he was wasting time and money on lessons if his Maltese exam mark is upgraded.
“It would all be for nothing, yet, so far, we have no idea when the results will be published and my exam is on September 1.”
Another student applied for a revision for SEC accounts after failing to get a pass mark.
He believes that his messy handwriting could be the reason behind him losing out on marks.
He is also studying for his biology and Maltese exam resits.
“I find the system very unreliable because, if I passed the revision of paper but they send me the mark in late September or October, then I won’t be able to submit my mark when applying for sixth form and it would have gone to waste.”
A long-standing problem with delays
A spokesperson for MATSEC said that the exam body “endeavours to communicate the outcome of all revision of papers before the start of the written papers for the second session but, given the short period of time between applications for revision and the start of the actual exams, this may not always be possible.”
He explained that results are communicated to candidates according to subject, once all the papers of that particular subject and level are revised and verified.
The delays in receiving revision of paper results have been an issue for over a decade.
In 2012, the education ministry had said it was “unacceptable” that revision of MATSEC exam papers were completed after resits were held.
The subjects at SEC level that are most often subject to revision of paper are Maltese, English and maths while, at intermediate level, it is English, pure maths and Systems of Knowledge.
At advanced level, meanwhile, the most popular revisions are those for the biology, chemistry and English subjects.
Last year, in SEC, just under five per cent of revisions were upgraded. Out of 458 requests made, only 22 grades were revised upwards.
At intermediate level, 10 out of 244 requests received an upgraded mark while, at advanced level, just one candidate out of 378 candidates had the grade revised.