STEADFAST in the belief that the grades issued to him by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) were not what he deserved, 19-year-old Areeb Ali paid to have some of his subjects reviewed with the hope of seeing his grades improved.
Ali wrote eight units at this year’s Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE); he believes some of the grades issued to him were unsatisfactory, given his confidence in his ability.
However, over one month after applying for the reviews, Ali and many other students who forked out the US$15 per subject, are still awaiting word on what exactly is going on with the reviews of some of their subjects.

Ali has already received feedback on two subjects, but he noted that the length of queries CXC is dealing with may be holding things up.
“I’ve done reviews in the past for CSEC and I knew it took some time. So in this situation where there was some drama involved, I’d expected it would take some time,” the Queen’s College student explained.
However. some students do not share Ali’s patient outlook on the situation. Two students, also from QC, noted that they were informed that their review results would be issued before the end of November.

“They told us that we would’ve gotten them by the 20 November. Honestly, I’m really irritated. They dealt with this thing terribly. If I needed those grades to apply to university, I’d have to take a year off,” one of the students who asked to remain anonymous, related.
Of the 15 subjects she wrote at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Examinations Certificate (CSEC), she said she paid for reviews in five subjects in October, but is still waiting to hear from CXC. She said queries made at the local Exams Division resulted only in her being told that she had to wait for them to call her.

Zane Ramotar, who recently exited Upper Six, paid for a review of two of his subjects and is anxious to know what exactly is going on.
“I’m just on edge. Because it’s like I don’t know if anything has been changed yet. Or if they are going to come back to me with the same nonsense. I had asked one of the teachers that handles [sic] the CXC submissions and stuff, but she said she went over to Exams Division and there was no news for me,” Ramotar said.
At McKenzie High, in Region 10, Toneisha Jacobis is also yearning for word on what is going on with her results, one of which was an “ungraded.” She did not make an official review request with CXC, but her school had made a note with the Ministry of Education about their ungraded students.

This year, after modifying its exam marking scheme for 2020, the CXC faced a backlash over results issued and saw an unprecedented number of queries and review requests, particularly for CAPE and CSEC.
Most of the issues were “ungraded” results or unsatisfactory grades received by students, and occurred across several out of the 20 countries where the exams were written this year.
To mitigate the situation, CXC registrar Dr. Wayne Wesley, and Chairman, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles had noted during a press conference in October that CXC would be increasing its capacity and putting several other measures in place to handle the queries and reviews in a timely manner.

However, some students do not believe things are being done as pledged.
“I am expecting the schools to call me but the whole thing seems like circles and it’s like the schools and CXC are not working together. Everything just feels in the dark to be honest,” noted one student from St George’s College, in Kingston, Jamaica.
The student had paid for a review of three of their subjects and has been desperately waiting on the results to apply to a university.

Some of the students now feel dejected, despite assurances from CXC officials that measures were being put in place to properly address the situation.
Since releasing the preliminary results for its 2020 exams on September 22, CXC is still yet to release the official results, which cannot be done until the reviews and queries have concluded.
Emails sent to the council for an update on the situation have gone unanswered.

In Guyana, aside from individual queries/reviews made by students, schools had also made official reports with the Ministry of Education requesting reviews.
A total of 20 schools had reported having unprecedented number of students receiving “ungraded” results across 15 subject areas written at this year’s CSEC and CAPE. Twenty four schools had requested reviews for unsatisfactory results across 20 subject areas for CSEC, and six schools submitted requests for review of unsatisfactory results in seven subject areas for CAPE.