UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

THE MATRICULATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

ACCOUNTING

May 2010

EXAMINERS’ REPORT

MATRICULATION AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS BOARD
Statistics

Table 1: MATSEC Intermediate Level Accounting, May 2010

Distribution of Grades

Grades A B C D E F Absent TOTAL

No. of candidates 17 26 31 27 23 17 4 145

Table 2: MATSEC Intermediate Level Accounting, May 2009

Distribution of Grades

Grades A B C D E F Absent TOTAL

No. of candidates 15 28 31 31 25 15 4 149

A total of one hundred and forty five candidates applied for the examination but there
were four absentees, the same as the previous year. Seventeen other candidates failed
to get a pass mark and the remaining hundred twenty four obtained grades ranging
from A to E.

Overall performance was comparable to that of the previous year. More than half the
candidates obtained a grade ranging from A to C. One can also observe the same
pattern of student preferences wherein candidates obtained higher marks in the last
section that includes the costings. This is perhaps due to the very limited syllabus it
covers thus making the questions easier to guess.

Section A

The first question is compulsory, but on the whole was fairly well answered by the
majority of candidates. The average mark obtained was 18. Some candidates found
great difficulty in calculating the figure for sales while others displayed a great lack of
knowledge when dealing with appropriation of profits between partners.

Section B

This section contained three questions of which the candidates had to answer two.
Nearly all candidates opted to answer question 2 thus showing candidate preference
for final accounts questions even though complicated by departmental work. The
average mark obtained was also high, 14 out of 20.

Each of the other two questions was answered by half the candidates. Question three
dealt with depreciation and disposals. Many of the answers provided were quite
satisfactory although some candidates did not answer the theory part thus losing
valuable marks. Question four was answered by a little less than half the candidates
but the overall performance was not as good as that for question three.
Section C

This section contained three questions of which candidates were asked to answer any
two. Only seventeen candidates answered question seven, all the others chose to
answer questions five and six. As in previous years the overall marks were high in
contrast to those of the financial part of the paper. A good number of candidates
obtained full marks for these two questions while at the same time having very low
marks awarded for the financial part of the paper.