MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

FIJI SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION - 2004

EXAMINER’S REPORT

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

A total of 2027 students sat for the Agricultural Science paper. All the questions were derived
from the Agricultural Science Prescription for Forms 5 and 6. Some of the text books used for
references were Dynamic Agriculture, Understanding Farm Animals and Fundamental of Soil
Science. As a trend from past year, most of the questions were from Dynamic Agriculture Books
1-4.

The range of marks from 12 to 85 need to be mentioned. The wide range can be due to the
following assumptions :

(i) Level of students taking Agricultural Science.

(ii) The depth of teaching given by teachers.
(iii) Availability of resources for the teaching of Agricultural Science.
(iv) Reflection of teachers teaching Agricultural Science.

There is a big number of students scoring marks above 60 for this year compared to past years.
The paper was set to check students knowledge and understanding of basic agricultural science
concepts taught in Forms 5 & 6. Some of the questions are related to practical experiences an
area that needs to be improved in future.

SECTION A

For the multiple choice questions, the marks range from 10 to 28 and majority of the students
scoring marks between 12 and 20. Most students answered questions 1, 2, 6, 9, 12, 16, 17, 23,
24, and 30 correct and have questions 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 22, 27 and 25 incorrect. The correct
answers are as follows.

1. C 6. D 11. B 16. C 21. B 26. D

2. D 7. B 12. D 17. B 22. C 27. A

3. A 8. D 13. C 18. D 23. C 28. B

4. B 9. D 14. A 19. B 24. C 29. B

5. A 10. B 15. B 20. C 25. A 30. C

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SECTION B

QUESTION 1

This question was not well answered by most students. The mark range was from 0 to 7 and
majority scored marks between 1 and 4.

(a) Marks were given when comparing sand and clay or for just writing down the properties
of sand.

(b) (i) Majority of the students cannot answer the question.

 Flooding and drainage of soil
 Adding gypsum (CaOH)
 Adding acidic based fertilizer eg. NHSO4
(ii) Teachers are also advised to give notes on the causes of soil acidity for some
students could not answer the question.

(c) Students needs to read and understand the questions. The key word is “Explain”. Some
were able to identify the ways but fail to explain it further.

(d) Part (d) was well answered by students. A common mistake observed was referring
metamorphic rocks to hot volcanic eruption.

(e) The two terms were self explain but students still fail to differentiate them.
Productivity : how much the soil can produce.
Fertility : Nutrient status of the soil.

(f) Student are to be taught how to define terms thoroughly to avoid confusion when reading
answers.
eg. (i) Humus and Organic matter are both dead plant and animal materials.
 Porosity – total % of pore spaces in the soil.
 Saturated Soil : when all the pore spaces had been filled with water then the soil is
saturated.

QUESTION 2

The question was well answered by most of the student. The mark range from 0 to 10 with many
scoring marks between 4 and 8. It is once again observed that students are not comprehending
questions very well before answering the questions. A good example is part (f) where students
were to state the importance. Majority of the students answering part (f) were defining the two
terms.

(a) Labelling was answered very well but we need to improve on the functions of the parts.
There are some confusion in the answers given which can reflect back to the depth of
what is taught in the classroom.

(b) Marks were given for listing the farming systems but full marks were given when it was
described.
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(c) A common mistake in the answers given was the returning of food back to the mouth for
re-chewing. More reading and teaching to be done on the breaking down of starches,
proteins and fats before being absorbed.

(d) This section was well answered by the students. Pieces of grit are needed to help in the
grinding of food in the gizzard.

(e) This section was correctly answered by most of the students. A common mistake is the
use of oestrogen to maintain pregnancy.

(f) As already mentioned above, students fail to answer the question ie. to state the
importance.

QUESTION 3

The question was fairly answered by students with the mark range from 0 to 8. Majority of the
marks were between 1 and 5.

(a) This section was well answered by students. A common mistake is writing down the
beneficial effects that are not related to agriculture.

(b) This is the section that was answered very poorly by the students. Students fails to relate
nutrition, respiration and germination to plant growth and development. Since the
question was based on one of the objectives of the prescriptions, it seems that focus was
on the mechanism involved rather that it’s outcome as it relates to plant growth and
development.

(c) The question was well answered by most of the students. A common mistake is relating
tissue culture to plant breeding where some of their advantages are totally different.

(d) Students need to familiarise themselves with the different symptoms of plant diseases.
This is one of the most important aspect of crop production and more emphasis should be
given to the teaching of this important concept.
 Wilting and dying of young seedlings.
 Changing of leaf colour from green to yellow.

(e) Fairly answered by most of the students. Most of the confusion is still on the difference
between cultural, mechanical and chemical control.

(f) Terms need to be defined in such a way that it will avoid confusion with other terms or
concepts.
 Soil fumigation – sterilisation of the soil by using chemical gas. eg. methyl
bromide.

QUESTION 4

Student’s practical experience was tested in this question. This is in relation to plant
propagation. It is strongly recommended that topics covered in the prescription should be dealt
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with thoroughly and outside practical experience is a must to expose student to real life situation.
The question was fairly answered and the mark range was from 0 to 8½. Majority of the students
scored marks between 1 and 5.

(a) Student’s understanding of the question was again the main downfall of this section.
Students were just explaining the practices outlined without relating them to
conservation. The depth of topics taught to students is once again highlighted for it seem
that the teaching was only focusing on the knowledge aspect of the topics without
moving further to upper level of learning eg. comprehension and analysis.

(b) The poor response to the procedure of the propagation method is again very worrying.
Exposure of students to practical skills is very vital in the teaching of Agricultural
Science.

(c) This is again a practical question that was answered very poorly by students.
 Leaves no space between plants therefore continuous hedge and prevents
unnecessary entry.
 Encourages more shoots to grow upward and to have maximum sunlight on the
new shoots.

(d) The advantages of pruning was answered very well by the students. Students should
elaborate more when writing on the beautification advantage.

(e) It is not the definition of the two terms that is important but how they are related to the
propagation of a plant. eg. planting cuttings – why light control and temperature is
important.

(f) The section was very well answered by students.

(g) Watershed management and Terracing was not well defined by students.
 Watershed management : The management of forest areas that supplies water to
streams and rivers.
 Terracing : Cutting of terraces (step like manner) on steep slopes to reduce its
length therefore reducing soil erosion.

SECTION C

QUESTION 5

The section on agricultural engineering (a – d) was poorly answered by students. More time
should be spent on the teaching of the topic for it is an important component in Agricultural
Science. Marks range from 0 to 6½ and most of the students scored marks between 2 and 5.

Common mistake was for part (d).

 Power take off : transfer power from the tractor to the attached implements.
 Piston rings : seals the gap between the cylinder and the pistor therefore preventing oil
leakage into the combustion chamber and increasing compressive / power efficiency.

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(e)&(f) These two sections were well answered by the students.
(g) Students fail to relate the market supply to market demand. The lower the supply the
higher the demand forcing the farm to undertake that particular enterprise on his farm.

(h) The relationship was once again ignored by students but the two goals were well defined.

(i) Well answered by students.

The mark range varies greatly due to the question answered and the understanding of the
questions. Some students were heavily penalized because they write on topic that are totally
different from the question asked. It was clearly evident that the most 2 favourite questions were
Question 2 and 4.

QUESTION 1

Students answering this question spent most of their time on the method of operation rather than
focusing on the five benefits asked. Answer given for benefits was very poorly done. Answer
can be checked in Dynamic Agriculture – Book 3 – Page 96.

QUESTION 2

Majority of the students answered this question and most of them selected pawpaw to discuss.
Marks were given on the following
 Soil Requirement and Land Preparation
 Planting/Spacing
 Care and Management
 Pest and Disease Control
 Harvesting/Storage/Marketing

QUESTION 3

The question was fairly answered by the students who answered the question. A common
mistake is that students fail to relate soil texture to other soil factors which are responsible for
soil productivity.
 Proper drainage.
 Movement of water.
 Air circulation.
 Soil structure to some degree.
 Penetration of plant roots.
 Germination of seeds.
 Capacity to hold water and minerals.

QUESTION 4

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This question was very well answered by students. It is very encouraging to note students
awareness on the importance of our mangrove forest.
QUESTION 5

Fairly answered by students. Student lost marks by writing on factors affecting agriculture.
Some students only managed to write down the factors and could not elaborate on them.

CONCLUSION

The paper was a fair paper testing students on all levels of their understanding. Incomplete
answers, sentence structure and grammatical errors is still a major problem when marking the
papers. Level of English is also a worrying issue for some of the students. Overall the paper
was well attempted by the students and their level of knowledge should be commended. A few
recommendations to be noted :

 The depth of covering topics should be emphasised for this usually lead to students
confusion during examination.
 Students still need to improve on answering of questions to avoid confusion of the
marker.
 Essay writing need to be improved.
 Some more emphasis should be made on practical work.
 Over use of (twink) correcting fluid should be discouraged.
 Students need to transfer their answers correctly to the answer book to avoid confusion.
 More reading and research still need to be done on the topics given in the prescription.

It is strongly recommended that students / teachers should move away from the use of past
examination papers for revision. Teachers are to make their own question for examination so to
test all the different states of learning that needs to be tested. Prescription are to be covered
thoroughly and reasoning power of students should always be tested.

With the above comments and recommendations, it is now envisaged that the future of
Agricultural Science in secondary school would be improved.

Thank you.

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