Educator Calls for Deep CSEC Mastery Over Pattern-Drill Prep After 2026 Sitting

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Since the May 12 CSEC sitting, one line of complaint has kept surfacing in conversation: "Wha kinda exam that CSEC really send? The students were not prepared for this type of paper!" That reaction forces a useful distinction. Was the 2026 paper genuinely beyond reach, or did too many candidates prepare for a fixed shape of paper rather than the subject itself?

In many classrooms and extra lessons, variation in language and question design no longer gets the emphasis it deserves. Learners are sometimes walked through backward-looking pattern drills that teach them to expect a given topic to open the paper or to arrive in a familiar layout. Commentary around the 2026 cycle makes the cost plain: when the live paper steps away from the rehearsed template, candidates often read the whole assessment as harder than it is.

Working through prior papers still has value, and nobody should treat that habit as worthless. The problem begins when it becomes the main strategy. Pushing students to ignore wide areas of the syllabus because recent years seemed to favour certain topics is a practice that should end. Instruction needs to push toward full grasp of the curriculum so ideas can be understood, retained, and used under pressure. Someone entering an exam such as Paper 2 in this sitting should be able to work through each question on its own terms, no matter how the booklet is arranged. What matters first is what they know and how well they can apply it.

Whether this message will land widely enough to put thinking and application ahead of memorised formats is an open question. Even so, the direction is clear.

To the teachers who exposed candidates to different question styles and saw them stay on course when the 2026 paper did not match old patterns, congratulations on sound preparation.

MEGAN SAMUELS-WEBB
Educator
St Ann