Over 61 percent of the entries achieved Grade I-III, a 12-percent improvement when compared with 49 percent in 2005.

Six of the twelve subjects examined returned improved performance when compared to 2005; performance declined in five subjects and one was unchanged in one subject.

The best performance this year was in Spanish. Some 82 percent of the entries achieved Grades I-III compared with 71 percent in 2005.

The largest percentage point improvement was in English A (Language) with 68.77 percent achieving Grades I-III in 2006 compared with 40 percent last year.

Performance in Mathematics also improved significantly from 42 percent in 2005 to 52.8 percent this year.

Biology and Physics recorded improved performance, 60 percent and 66 percent respectively this year, compared with 57 percent in both subjects last year.

However, performance in Chemistry remained the same with 43 percent of entries achieving Grades I-III.

There was a marginal decline in the performance in Business subjects when compared with 2005. This year, 48 percent of the candidates achieved Grades I-III in Principles of Accounts compared to 49 percent in 2005; 73 percent achieved Grades I-III in Principals of Business compared with 81 percent in 2005 and 78 percent achieved Grades I-III in Office Procedures compared with 80 percent in 2005.

This is the final sitting of Office Procedures; the subject has been replaced by Office Administration which will be examined for the first time in the May/June 2006 sitting.

Although the performance in Social Studies was among the best, it declined when compared with that of 2005. In 2005, 80 percent of the candidates achieved Grades I-III compared with 71 percent this year.

Human and Social Biology, which was examined at the January sitting for the first time this year, recorded below average performance with 40 percent of the candidates achieving Grades I-III.

Both candidate entries and subject entries increased this year. Candidate entries increased from 18 452 to 21 277 candidates while subject entries moved from 29 119 to 29 808 entries this year.

Twelve subjects were offered in this year’s January sitting, 11 at General Proficiency and one, Information Technology at Technical Proficiency.