Is the P4 exam getting progressively Harder?

GGabriel11y ago

Hello, I was going through P4 past exams since Dec 2010 and I noticed that the Dec 2013 exam was so nice and easy but, a year later, the Dec 2014 exam was, on the other hand, a nightmare and so difficult. Why is the P4 exam getting inconsistent? Do you think that now there is a variation in the difficulty level of P4, as in is it getting more difficult to achieve a pass as the papers are now set at a very high standard of difficulty?

John MoffatTutor11y ago#1

I don't think that the overall standard is changing. The examiner did say at a meeting in February that he accepted that question 1 in the December exam was difficult, but that level of difficulty of the paper overall was OK - and I agree with him. Question 1 was hard, but mainly because there were so many different things being tested coupled with the time pressure involved. Having said that, if approached sensibly, then it was not too difficult to get more than the 50% needed to pass (even though it would have been almost impossibly to completely finish the question correctly in the time).