“Wha kinda exam that CSEC really send? The students were not prepared for this type of paper!” This is one of the few comments I have stumbled across since the sitting of the exam May 12. But, why was there such an outrage?

Was it that the 2026 paper was difficult or is it that candidates rehearsed the wrong structure? No longer are candidates taught to appreciate variation in language and question structure. Instead, they are engaged in sessions of regressive pattern practices. Candidates should not be trained to expect a particular topic to appear first or in a specific format. It is evident from the 2026 reviews that any deviation from the practised ‘template’ severely affects how candidates perceive an exam's difficulty.

Too often, students engage in marathons using previous exams as a rigid guide. While this should by no means be frowned upon, as it has proven to be fruitful to some degree, the concern lies in making it the foundational approach. The practice of pressuring students to focus only on certain topics based on the patterns observed in recent years should be discontinued.