A total of 47,884 candidates or 92.67 percent passed in at least, one subject in the 2012 Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), as compared to 46,705 (92.19 percent), the year before.

Malaysian Examination Council (MEC) chairperson Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin said, of the total, 2,709 candidates or 5.24 percent passed all five subjects while 21,779 candidates (42.15 percent) passed four subjects.

“A total of 10,029 candidates (19 per cent) passed three subjects and 7,299 candidates (14.13 percent) passed two subjects while 6,068 candidates (11.47 percent) passed only one subject.

“The number of candidates who obtained passes in four subjects and more increased by 1,253 candidates from 23,246 candidates (45.89 percent) in 2011 to 24,488 candidates (47.39 percent) last year,” he said when announcing the results of the 2012 STPM in Kuala Lumpur today.

On the performance of students, Mohd Noh said 18 candidates achieved Grade A in five subjects as compared to 12 candidates the year before.

Of the total, he said seven candidates were from science stream and 11, arts stream.

There were 53 candidates who sat for five subjects and obtained four Grade A while 379 candidates took four subjects and scored Grade A in all subjects.

CGPA rose to 2.24 from 2.22 in 2011

Mohd Noh said, on the whole, the performance of candidates last year was better as compared to the year before, in which the national mean Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) rose to 2.24 from 2.22 in 2011.

In 2012, a total of 442 candidates (0.86 percent) obtained a CGPA of 4.00 compared to 300 (0.59 percent), the year before.

Last year, 51,673 candidates sat for the examination.

Mohd Noh said the gap between the performance of urban and rural candidates was still quite significant, with 1,105 urban candidates (13.53 percent) obtaining 3As and better, compared to only 170 (9.2 percent) rural candidates.

He said 392 (14.85 percent) urban science stream candidates obtained 3As and above, compared with only eight (6.4 percent) for rural candidates.

For the urban art stream, 713 candidates (12.9 percent) scored 3As and were better, compared to only 162 rural candidates (9.24 percent).

From the aspect of school performance, he said government schools showed improvement compared to the year before, with the mean school CGPA for 2012 at 2.33, compared to 2.29 in 2011.

In 2012, 59 schools achieved a mean CGPA of 2.8 or higher, compared to 52 schools the year before and 47 schools in 2010.

Mohd Noh said, on the performance of candidates according to subjects, it was found six subjects recorded better pass rate, namely Further Mathematics T (71.43 percent), Chinese Language (69.34 percent), Economics (59.19 percent), Syariah (76.43 percent), History (64.18 percent) and Geography (70.21 percent), compared to the year before.

He said 98.13 percent or 25,503 candidates used English in their answers for seven subjects, namely Mathematics S, Mathematics T, Further Mathematics T, Computing, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, as compared to 98.11 percent or 25,993 candidates, the year before.

In announcing the performance of students in the November 2012 session of  Malaysian University English Test (Muet), Mohd Noh said there was an overall improvement with 36.22 per cent of the candidates obtaining Band 3 or better, as  compared to 23.94 percent in the July session last year.

At the function, he also presented cash prizes of RM1,000, certificates of appreciation and plaques to 18 outstanding STPM students, and two awards to outstanding special students.

The awards were also presented to outstanding rural students and the best  Muet students in 2012 for the July and November sessions, respectively.

- Bernama