ABSTRACT
Christie and Forrest while still maintaining that the issue of standards and the various forms of comparability will be resolved until the dual function of examinations is resolved come to the commonsense conclusion that Public examination grades as currently conceived reflect both aptitude and attainment: they represent both, the cause and effect of educational achievement’. The solution to the difficulties which arise in applying purely norm-referenced standards looks at first glance deceptively inviting. The mark awarded, although it is used to determine the position of a candidate in an order of performance, is of no use in itself for reporting the position unless all the other marks. The shape of the distribution reflects an examination’s effectiveness in discriminationg between candidates. The more widely the marks are distributed, the easier it is to discriminate - in other words, the more effective will be the ranking function of the examination.
