One real Grade 12 Mathematics Paper 1, taken apart mark by mark. Of 150 marks, 69 were kept and 81 were lost. 39 of those lost marks had the right method behind them. Here is how the five reasons split, what the report said to fix first, and what one paper cannot prove.
Jakobus Kits, Founder·Last updated 13 September 2026
One pupil, one paper
One Grade 12 pupil wrote one full Mathematics Paper 1 under exam conditions: 3 timed hours, closed book, no help. The paper came back marked question by question, with every lost mark named and sorted. Nothing below is an average or a typical result. It is what happened in this paper.
Exam Diagnostics ZA is a South African service that marks a full Grade 10–12 mock exam paper mark by mark and reports every lost mark, with a strategy report and a video walkthrough, within 24 hours. This guide is one of those papers, written out in full.
The conditions are part of the result. 3 hours, timed from the first question. Closed book. No question read out loud, no calculator borrowed halfway through, no second attempt at the ones that went wrong. A paper written any other way produces a report about a different exam.
Everything below comes from that one script. There is no second pupil in it, no class behind it, and no number has been rounded to make a point.
150 marks: 69 kept, 81 lost
The paper came back with 69 of 150 marks kept and 81 lost. A percentage on its own gives you one number and nothing to do with it. The 81 lost marks are where the information is, and every one of them is sorted into one of five reasons.
A mark is a summary, and a summary is where the detail goes to die. Beside it the report puts the far more useful number: the mark that was in reach. The gap between the two is not a prediction of anything. It is an arithmetic fact about this script — the marks where the method was already right, added up.
Paper
Grade 12 Mathematics Paper 1 · 150 marks
Conditions
3 timed hours, closed book, written at home
Marks kept
69 of 150
Marks lost
81
Of those, recoverable
39
Reasons the losses sorted into
5
The 81 lost marks, sorted
Wrong method took 31 marks. Accuracy took 21. Working never written down took 18. Misreads took 6, and a definition that would not come took 5. Five reasons, 81 marks, and two of the five groups hold marks the method was already right for.
One paper, 81 lost marks, sorted into five reasons.
Reason
What it means
Marks lost
Recoverable?
Wrong method
The route chosen could not reach the answer.
31
No — this is a gap to teach
Accuracy
The method was right; the arithmetic slipped.
21
Yes — the method was right
Not written down
The working stopped before the mark was earned.
18
Yes — the method was right
Misread
A value or instruction was taken off the paper wrongly.
6
No — this is a gap to teach
Didn’t remember
A formula or definition was not recalled in the moment.
5
No — this is a gap to teach
Two things stand out. Wrong method is the largest single group at 31 marks, and it is the one that has to be taught: 31 marks where the route chosen could not reach the answer, however neatly it was written. The two recoverable groups together are larger, at 39, and they needed nothing taught at all.
The small groups matter less than they look. Misreads and a definition that would not come cost 11 marks between them. That is not where a term of work should go, and knowing so is worth almost as much as knowing where it should.
Why 39 of them were recoverable
Two of the five groups — accuracy, and working not written down — hold marks where the route to the answer was right. 21 plus 18 is 39. Those marks needed no new teaching. They needed the working on the page and the arithmetic checked, which is why they were in reach on the day.
Recoverable has a narrow meaning here. It means the method was right and the mark still did not arrive. It does not mean the mark was owed, and it does not mean it is easy to collect next time. It means nothing new had to be learned before it could be.
Accuracy, 21 marks. The method was right; the arithmetic slipped. Every line after the slip followed correctly and was still measured against a wrong number.
Not written down, 18 marks. The working stopped before the mark was earned — an answer with no substitution under it, or a question left half-finished.
Both are habits rather than topics, and a habit changes faster than a syllabus does. That is also why a follow-up paper exists: a second paper built from what the first report found, included in Mark Recovery, to check whether the habit actually changed.
What the strategy report said to fix first
The report puts the recoverable marks in question order, with the concept behind each one, and the order follows the marks. Accuracy came first, at 21. Working never written down came second, at 18. Neither is a topic to relearn, so both are changes to how the next paper is written.
Underneath that sits the 31 marks of wrong method, which is the part a term of teaching is for. The report separates the two so that the quick work and the slow work are not confused with each other, and so the weeks before the next paper go to the right one.
The eight pages ran in this order:
Cover
The mark, and the mark in reach
Why the marks were lost
26% recoverable
Recoverable marks by question
Recoverable marks, continued
Concepts behind the losses
Concepts, continued
That is the whole report for this pupil, and the sample report is the same eight pages you can read before ordering anything. How it works covers what your child does on the day.
What this does not prove
This is one paper from one pupil. It is not an average, not a typical result, and not a promise. No claim is made about what any other pupil would get, in this subject or in any other. What it shows is a method: sort every lost mark, then count the ones the method was already right for.
Your child’s paper will divide differently. The five reasons are the same and the split is not, which is the whole reason for marking a paper your child actually wrote rather than reading somebody else’s numbers.