THE quality of entries for this year’s maths Higher can be gauged from the principal assessor’s report which notes that they had “a very long tail”.

The report states: “A number of candidates will have taken Intermediate 2 in S5 and attempted Higher in S6 - a difficult journey.”

The inquiry by the maths assessment panel on the 4.7 per cent drop in the Higher maths pass rate, the report of which was published in full for the first time this week, said there was no single factor contributing to the fall.

But the panel’s report makes it clear there was one source of difficulty - the newness of the exam.

The pass mark was set at 46 per cent instead of 50 per cent to take account of the fact that the 2002 maths Higher was easier than the previous year, and there was some evidence of poorer performance.

But the chief culprit appears to be the complexity of the Higher Still arrangements. The panel noted that the unit assessments delivered through the national assessment bank (NABs) “can lead to false expectation on the part of candidates and parents and can contribute to the issue of inappropriate presentations”.

The report adds: “Candidates who in the past would not be presented on the basis of a poor prelim performance and course work are now being entered on the basis of success in NABs. The existing NABs in mathematics do not provide an adequate indicator of likely candidate performance in the external examination, nor do they prepare candidates fully for the external assessment.”

The panel considers it is difficult to make pupils and their parents aware of the “huge jump” required to gain an A or B in the Higher after passing the units at C.

The maths report also cautions against progression routes to Higher. There is an “unrealistic expectation” that a Standard grade 3 at General level will allow pupils to take an Intermediate 2 in fifth year and sit their Higher in sixth year.

The panel says there is no evidence for this and points out that 73 per cent of those with a Standard grade 3 who go on to attempt a Higher will not get any award at all and 9 per cent will gain a compensatory award.

The report discloses that candidates with an Intermediate 2 are performing less well in Higher than those with Standard grade 1 and 2 passes.

One factor behind this is the weakness of the connection between Intermediate 2 maths and the Higher. It is, for example, possible to achieve a pass at Intermediate 2 with “mimimum exposure” to unit three which demands high level algebra skills, regarded as essential in Higher maths.

The principal assessor says this issue will have to be sorted out.