SPM: Results still following trend - Muhyiddin

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said although the overall performance in last's year's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination dipped slightly, it was still following the trend and was not very much different than in the three years before 2013.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the performance could be deemed satisfactory because the candidates were able to use Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) well despite the percentage of questions requiring this increasing.

"This method of questioning could have been among the factors affecting the performance of candidates. Apart from this, several other factors that might have contributed to the swings in performance will be analysed in detail.

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"However, the results also showed that the performance gap between urban and rural candidates has narrowed as compared to 2013," he said in a statement here Tuesday.

The results were announced earlier today. Of the 455,839 candidates who took the examination, 11,289 or 2.62 per cent obtained excellent results.