From the Accreditation Board
The 2024 accreditation exam introduced new pass requirements for the Manuscript (M) part and new pass requirements and structure for the Knowledge (K) part. The revised structure of K part was based on the revised IPEd standards for editing practice. The structure and requirements for the Language (L) part were unchanged from previous exams.
The Accreditation Board (AB) has analysed the exam results with a particular focus on the impact of the changes made to the 2024 exam. In this first of several articles about the exam results, we share some analysis of the overall results and the K-part results. The TL;DR summary is that the revised structure and requirements appeared to work well. Now, prepare yourself for some number-crunching!
Overall results
Of the 58 candidates who sat the 2024 exam, 38 (65.5%) passed by achieving a minimum of 65% in each of the compulsory components of the exam and 80% overall. The 20 candidates who did not pass the exam either didn’t pass one or more compulsory components or questions, or their total was less than the minimum pass mark of 80% overall (or both).
Table 1 shows comparative pass/fail results for each part, component and question (where “pass” is defined as the minimum of 65%) and the number and percentage of candidates who achieved at least 80% for each item. For example, all 58 candidates attempted M part, of which 45 passed that part and 13 did not, equating to a 77.6% pass rate for M part. Also, 34 candidates (58.6%) achieved at least 80% for M part.
Table 1: Number of candidates achieving the minimum pass mark (65%) and number achieving at least 80% for each part, component and question of the exam
| Item | N | Pass (≥65%) |
Fail (<65%) |
Pass rate | ≥80% N |
≥80% rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L part | 57a | 56 | 1 | 98.2% | 48 | 82.6% |
| M part extract | 58 | 46 | 12 | 79.3% | 30 | 51.7% |
| M part style sheet | 58 | 45 | 13 | 77.6% | 29 | 50.0% |
| M part author queries | 58 | 51 | 7 | 87.9% | 43 | 74.1% |
| M part overall | 58 | 45 | 13 | 77.6% | 34 | 58.6% |
| K part compulsory Q1 | 58 | 54 | 4 | 93.1% | 40 | 68.9% |
|
K part compulsory Q2 |
58 | 55 | 3 | 94.8% | 45 | 77.6% |
|
K part elective Q3 |
10 |
7 |
3 |
70.0% |
5 |
50.0% |
|
K part elective Q4 |
30 | 23 | 7 | 76.7% | 15 | 50.0% |
|
K part elective Q5 |
48 | 46 | 2 | 95.8% | 33 | 68.8% |
|
K part elective Q6 |
22 | 12 | 10 | 54.5% | 6 | 27.3% |
|
K part overall |
58 | 48 | 10 | 82.8% | 29 | 50.0% |
Note. To pass the exam, candidates do not have to pass the elective questions in K part, but they need to achieve at least 65% for the part as a whole and for both compulsory questions.
a One candidate did not attempt any questions in L part.
K-part results
In previous exams, K part consisted of 10 to 12 questions, of which candidates could choose any 4. This gave candidates a wide choice but also made studying for the exam more difficult and placed a heavy load on the exam developers and assessors. The revised structure for the 2024 exam reduced the number of questions in K part to 6, of which 2 were compulsory (questions 1 and 2) and 4 were elective (questions 3 to 6). Besides having to complete the 2 compulsory questions, candidates could choose any 2 of the 4 elective questions (still completing a total of 4 questions in K part).
The 6 questions were aligned with the IPEd standards (3rd edition), with the 2 compulsory questions drawn from Part A and the 4 elective questions drawn from Parts B to E:
- Question 1 (compulsory): Professional practice
- Question 2 (compulsory): Ethical and legal matters
- Question 3 (elective): Management and liaison
- Question 4 (elective): Substance and structure
- Question 5 (elective): Language and illustrations
- Question 6 (elective): Completeness and consistency
All 6 questions included sub-questions within them. Questions 1, 2, 5 and 6 gave candidates a choice of sub-questions (e.g. answer 4 out of 6 sub-questions), while questions 3 and 4 required candidates to answer all sub-questions.
Of the 58 candidates who sat the exam:
- 29 (50%) achieved at least 80% for K part (of these, 24 passed and 5 failed the exam overall)
- 19 (33%) achieved at least 65% but less than 80% for K part (of these, 14 passed and 5 failed the exam overall)
- 10 (17%) achieved less than 65% for K part and therefore failed this component (and the exam overall).
Figure 1 shows the minimum, maximum and average marks (as percentages) for each question in K part and for the part overall.
Figure 1: Marks for K-part questions and overall
Notably, full marks were awarded in each of questions 2, 3 and 5, while the highest mark awarded in questions 1, 4 and 6 was 97.5% (19.5 out of 20). More significantly, the minimum marks and the average marks in the 2 compulsory questions are much higher than in 3 of the 4 elective questions. The minimum and average marks in elective question 5 are comparable to those in compulsory questions 1 and 2: question 5 has the highest minimum but question 2 has the highest average.
The average mark for K part overall was 77.65%, which is just under the overall pass mark of 80%. For comparison, the average mark for K part overall in the 2022 exam was 72.43%.
From this analysis, the AB concluded that the revised structure of K part resulted in candidates performing better on average. Candidates were able to prepare well for the compulsory questions in K part and likely attempted these first. Poor sub-question choice or running out of time is the likely explanation for the lower minimums in 3 of the 4 elective questions.
Next month, we’ll look at the results for M and L parts in more detail.