Process of moderating KCPE exam results

May 31, 2025 Hillary Kangwana

KCPE RESULTS MODERATION PROCESS- You probably must be wondering how standardization of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results is done. Well. The process of moderating KCPE scores is quite straight forward and well documented.

Standardization of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) Examination

BACKGROUND

The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination is primarily a Norm Referenced (N.R) examination which compares candidates’ performance to that of other candidates taking the examination.

Standardization of raw marks to standard marks in the KCPE examination is a process that involves adjusting the raw marks for each paper in the examination to allow for differences in difficulty and extent to which marks scatter.

In this process, the difficulty among the papers is measured in terms of the mean raw marks scored by all candidates, while the differences in scatter are measured in terms of the standard deviation.

Standardization entails converting the raw marks of each paper in the KCPE examination so that the mean and standard deviations of each of the papers are identical.

For the KCPE examination, the expected mean is 50 with a standard deviation of 15 for a paper marked out of 100.

FORMULA FOR KCPE STANDARDIZATION STANDARDIZATION

For standardization to a mean of 50 and Standard Deviation of 15 the formula is as follows:

Where:

XSD = Standard Scores

X = Raw mark obtained by Candidate

M = Mean raw mark

SD = Standard deviation of raw marks

EXAMPLE ON KCPE STANDARDIZATION IS CARRIED OUT

Examination Raw Paper / Subject Means and Standard Deviations

*Paper Name*	*Paper* *Mean*	*Paper Standard Deviation*	*Subject* *Mean*	*Subject* *Standard Deviation*
English Objective	24.56	07.05	99.01	24.76
English Composition	17.08	07.04	99.01	24.76
Kiswahili Objective	26.38	06.34	99.02	23.93
Kiswahili Insha	20.12	07.36	99.02	23.93
Mathematics	26.90	10.26	26.90	10.26
Science	29.82	08.94	29.82	08.94
Social Studies	38.96	09.57	58.50	13.48
Religious Education	18.03	04.48	58.50	13.48

Examination Raw Scores for the Five (05) Candidates & Aggregate Scores based on Percentages

	*Candidate’s Raw Marks*								*total based on % raw marks* *(out of 500)*
	*English*		*kiswahili*		*maths*	*scie*	*ssre*
	*obj.*	*comp.*	*obj.*	*insha*	*maths*	*scie*	ss	re
1.	48	37	44	37	50	48	59	25	*473*
2.	46	39	44	38	49	47	58	27	*471*
3.	45	37	46	38	49	47	60	24	*469*
4.	46	35	45	38	50	48	57	25	*469*
5.	42	38	43	38	49	49	57	28	*468*

***Standardised* *Scores for the Five (05) Candidates & Aggregate Scores as shown in the previous table.***

	*CANDIDATES’ SUBJECT STANDARDIZED SCORES*					*Total Standardized Score* *(out of 500)*
	English	Kiswahili	Maths	Science	SSRE	*Total Standardized Score* *(out of 500)*
1.	99	93	83	80	79	434
2.	99	94	82	78	81	434
3.	96	97	82	78	80	433
4.	96	96	83	80	78	433
5.	94	93	82	82	81	432

RATIONALE FOR THE STANDARDIZATION OF RAW MARKS TO STANDARD MARKS IN THE KCPE EXAMINATION

Standard scores are a measure of relative performance and have the ability to tell us how a candidate or a group of candidates have performed in comparison to other candidates while raw marks cannot;

Standard scores are essential when results from different papers must be combined to give an overall total, as is the case of the KCPE examination. Standard scores are useful for comparing relative performance of a candidate or group of candidates from subject to subject and from year to year.

Once the raw marks have been standardized, the cut-off marks for all grades from Grade A to Grade E are identical for all subjects and are the same from year to year.

When scores are standardized, the relative positions of candidates remain unchanged, the top candidate in each subject remains at the top;

Standard scores always convey the relative performance of a candidate relative to other candidates sitting the same examination;

Standard scores are essential if marks from several papers are to be added to give a total score, and it is desired that each paper should contribute equally to the total score.