You Gotta Test Yourself

Thought this would be fun.

In Kenya, at the completion of secondary school, every student sits for the KCSE or Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam. It's sort of like a high stakes SAT or ACT in the US. The exam takes place over the course of about a month and students sit for one or two papers a day. Every student takes English, Kiswahili, and Mathematics. They usually take 2 or 3 sciences: Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. And they take 1 or 2 Humanities/Applied: Geography, Agriculture, History, Business Studies, or Christian Religious Education. At the bigger schools they offer other languages, music, computers, and a few other random subjects. Each subject includes two or three papers that take between 2-3 hours. Example: they will sit for "Biology Paper 1 - Theory" on a Monday, "Biology Paper 2 - Technical" on a Friday, and "Biology Paper 3 - Practical" the following Thursday.

What's at stake? Admission to a university. Their future. Their life. There are only a handful of universities in the country so competition is fierce. Last year something like 55,000 students achieved a grade high enough to be considered, but there were only 9,000 spots available. Their options for post-secondary education are few and far between. The students study like crazy, trying to memorize so much information from 4 years of education.

Anyways, I've included selected questions from this past year's exam. And my question is: 'How would YOU do?'


English

Imaginative Composition:

Write a composition ending with the words: "It then dawned on me that perhaps this is why I had been born."

Fill in the blank spaces in the following sentences with the most appropriate word(s).
(i) If we had gone to bed early last night, we __________ rested enough.
(ii) If I ___________ the recruiting officer, I would not take bribes.
(iii) Every one of the students now ____________ a role to play in keeping the school compound clean.

Fill in each of the blank spaces in the passage below with the most appropriate word.
There was a time when telecommunication ___________ Africa was nearly non-existent. With the ____________ of one or two more developed nations, most African countries ____________ infrastructure and telephony was out of reach for ___________ of the population. But mobile telephony has ____________ a lot of that and has demonstrated Africa's _____________ to leap-frog older technologies with new ones more ___________ to the environment.

You are the Chairperson of your school's Wildlife Conservation Association (WICA). Your group has just come back from a visit to a national park in a neighboring country. Write a report to the Patron of WICA about the trip. In your report indicate what you accomplished, the problems you experienced and what cautionary measures you would take during future trips.

Mathematics

Three quantities t, x, and y are such that t varies directly as x and inversely as the square root of y. Find the percentage decrease in t if x decreases by 4% when y increases by 44%.

Two places P and Q are at (36 degrees N, 125 degrees W) and (36 degrees N, 55 degrees E) respectively. Calculate the distance in nautical miles between P and Q measured along the great circle through the North Pole.

The product of the first three terms of a geometric progression is 64.
If the first term is a and the common ratio is r,
(a) Express r in terms of a
(b) Given that the sum of the three terms is 14,
(i) Find the values of a and r and hence write down two possible sequences each up to the 4th term.
(ii) Find the product of the 50th terms of the two sequences.

Given that q i +1/3 j + 2/3 k is a unit vector, find q.

Chemistry

(a) What is meant by isomerism?
(b) Draw and name two isomers of butene.

When 94.5g of hydrated barium hydroxide, Ba(OH)2. nH2O were heated to constant mass, 51.3g of anhydrous barium hydroxide were obtained. Determine the empirical formula of the hydrated barium hydroxide (Ba = 137.0; O = 16.0; H = 1.0)

State how the following substances conduct electricity:
(i) molten calcium chloride
(ii) graphite

Biology

Name two tissues in plants which are thickened with lignin.

State the function of each of the following parts of human ear.
(a) Ear ossicles
(b) Cochlea
(c) Semi-circular canals
(d) Eustachian tube

Name the substance that is responsible for the transmission of an impulse across the synapse

State the importance of tactic response among some members of kingdom Protista.

State two physiological processes that are brought about by the application of gibberellic acid on plants.

Geography

(a) What is soil catena
(b) Draw a labelled diagram to show a well developed soil profile
(c) Describe how laterization occurs

History/Government

Give one reason why Homo Habilis was referred to as 'able man'.

Give one reason why United States of America (U.S.A.) did not join the First World War until 1917.

Give 3 factors that should be considered when sending a message.
Explain the effects of Telecommunications on modern society.

What were the physical changes which occurred in early human beings as they evolved from ape-like creatures to modern people?


Soooooo......

Would you be going to university?