Examiners’ Report

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January 2020

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January 2020
Publications Code 4BA0_01_2001_ER
All the material in this publication is copyright
© Pearson Education Ltd 2020
 4BA0_01_ Principle Examiners Report for Publication – January 2001

General comments

This is the first January setting of the new International GCSE Bangla qualification.
A good proportion of candidates performed very well and scored high marks in the
paper. A variety of question styles were displayed to comply with the different
levels of demand. The paper comprises three main sections: Section A is mainly
reading and responding to a variety of tasks. Section B comprises the guided
writing tasks to a variety of topics. The last section C is a short translation task
from English into Bangla.

Candidates had every opportunity to respond to these variety of tasks in each section.
Some key words and phrases helped to discriminate between good and adequate
performance of the candidates. Also, several outstanding pieces of translations
including examples of continuous pieces of writings were evident from a good number
of responses.

Section A: Reading and responding (Q1 – Q4)

Question 1

Question type: Multiple choice word drop question.

This text was about a boy Sohel who encountered difficulties during his recent visit
to Dhaka.
Candidates were provided with 12 words in a box plus one example. They were
asked to drop the correct letter from that box into the answer grid below to indicate
which word would fit in the gap in the statement. Distractor were provided to fit
more than one option. A majority of candidates answered successfully all 6 gaps to
a greater extent. The average score for this question was 6.

Question 2

Question type: Multiple choice matching question.

The text was about the family relationships of three youngsters: Candidates were
asked to match the statements to the correct named person(s) by matching the
appropriate statements to the correct named person(s) by marking the appropriate
boxes with an [X].
Some successful candidates struggled to differentiate I don’t see my mother often
in F with I tend to have more affection from my father than mother and so scored
less marks. The average score for this question was 7.

Question 3

Question type: Note taking question.

The text was about a young woman’s story who made her dream come true in
Bangladesh. The candidates are required to complete the sentences 3 (a-i) with
correct words or phrases. Many candidates achieved maximum marks in these
questions. However, a number of candidates failed to answer Q03 (b) as they
struggled to distinguish between the types of exams and the subjects and so
provided wrong answers which resulted them in scoring 0 mark in both parts of
3(b). Some candidates also struggled to grasp the idea of the source of the main
character’s inspiration to realise her dreams in 3(i) and so scored 0 mark there. The
average score for this question was 11.
Question 4(a)

Question type: Open response questions.

Text: Literary text

The text was about the extract from the story, ‘The City of My Childhood’ followed
by a set questionnaire

4(a)(i-v). A majority of candidates achieved good marks for this

Question 4(b)

Question type: Summary question

The text was a follow up of the content of the text in 4(a). The text comprises a
discussion between two friends about the city life with reference to the literary text
and a way forward. The candidates were asked to read, understand the outcomes
of the discussion and summarise the main points of the discussion. The most
frequently correct inferential answers given in response to 1st part of 4(b)(i). In
Q04b(ii), some candidates did not score full marks because of summarising very
generic comments about the positive impact of technology on the lifestyle and how
this generation can deal with the traffic situation. In fact, they copied literally the
answer from the text and so scored 0 on that point. The average score recoded on
Q4b was 3.

Section B: Writing

Question 5

Question type: Shorter writing task – open response

The question was about writing a paragraph on spare time activities. A majority of
candidates performed well and were able to use the 4 words or phrases given in the
task and scored good marks both in the communication as well as in the quality of
language. However, some candidates struggled to produce a continuous piece of
writing due to lack of skills to display grammatically appropriate structures and
coherence in context; some candidates even struggled to grasp the idea of
favourite hobby and failed to address this part in their writing, therefore scoring few
marks. The average score recorded on this question was 12.

Some candidates misinterpreted the term ‘favourite hobby' in Bangla and therefore
failed to address this part. Candidates need to be aware that it is mandatory to
refer all four key points with at least two-time frames to secure marks in the top
band. For Q05, a majority of the candidates achieved 6 in Communication and
Content and 5 in Linguistic knowledge and Accuracy.
Question 6(a, b, c)

Question type: Longer writing task – open response

The candidates had a choice of one response from three for this question. Although
the tasks were longer narratives followed by certain guided points provided, Q6b was
a narrative in response to an email stimulus. These narrative writing were on different
contents and topics. Q6a was to write a magazine article on describing one’s future
dream house. Q6b was on studies and the future plans and Q6c was on the healthy
eating and lifestyle. The candidates successfully narrated their chosen task with a
range of vocabularies and structures. A good number of candidates used
straightforward language with extended well-linked sentences, referencing to past,
present and future events. Some candidates made good efforts to combine facts with
opinion/s and so scored high marks. However, there were instances, when some
candidates struggled to display these criteria in their written pieces and so scored
few marks.
Amongst the three options, Q6b was the most popular and responded by many
candidates which was evident in the statistics. However, some candidates attempted
Q6a and Q6c. Other candidates struggled to grasp the concept of ‘ways of making
the house environmentally friendly, on Q6(a), favourite subjects in Q6(b) and the
challenges in maintaining a healthy lifestyle in Q(6c) These have resulted them in
scoring few marks.

For Q6a, the average score recorded was 20 for Q6b, the average score was also 21.
However, for Q6c, the average score recorded was 20.

Section C: Translation

Question 7

This question was to translate a short English passage into Bangla. Most of the
candidates achieved good marks in this question, although, a good number of
candidates failed to achieve higher marks due to their unfamiliarity of the Bangla
vocabulary of the English terminologies used in the text. For example, 'recently
formed', 'young men and women', 'employment', 'interview techniques' etc. A
number of candidates found some of the phrases such as 'competitive job market',
'aspirations to move away', 'traditional manual labour jobs' and 'highly skilled jobs'
challenging. It was due to the fact that they are lacking appropriate knowledge and
skills in transmitting these words/phrases in Bangla. The spelling errors also often
hindered their transmission. However, the average marks scored were 13.

Overall, candidates had found this paper accessible without much difficulty.
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