Rose Wakio is among over 70,000 students who scored above a B-(minus) in the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations and are assured of direct entry into university. However, she is not pleased with her grade, especially because it does not meet the requirements for her desired course.
Rose Wakio aspires to pursue a course in medicine, but her grade fell far short of the cutoff points required for the program, shattering her dreams.
The recent announcement by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) of a mid-year KCSE examination series offered her a lifeline and she is now determined to give it one more shot.
The 19-year-old emerged the top student at Hassan Joho Girls Secondary School in Kisauni, Mombasa in the 2024 KCSE but wants to repeat the examination to achieve the minimum of B+ (plus) which is typically required for medicine.
The mid-year KCSE exams to take place in July will allow students seeking to improve their KCSE grades to retake the examination. There will be two categories: full repeaters who will register for seven or more subjects, and partial repeaters registering for less than seven subjects.
Rose wants to repeat Mathematics, the subject that caused her to miss her target grades, where she scored a C-(minus).
“I want to repeat to get a B+ and above to be eligible to study medicine. This is a second chance for me and many others like me,” she stated in an interview with a local publication, during the Career Guidance day at the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) on Wednesday, January 29.
However, this examination has a short registration window, running from January 27 to February 25. Additionally, a Kshs 7,200 registration fee is required, and for financially challenged students like Wakio, time is running out.
“I am afraid of how I will be able to pay the Sh7,200 fee for the examination. I am a product of Kisauni constituency bursary,” she explained, calling on well-wishers to support her.
Other categories of students allowed to register include missed candidates who were unable to sit for the previous examination due to illness or other valid reasons and adult learners, who have completed secondary education and wish to obtain a KCSE certificate.
According to KNEC, all repeaters and private candidates must register for the July series and not the November KCSE examination series.
Further, registration will be conducted at County headquarters, and students are required to provide their original documents and copies, including their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination certificate and KCSE result slip.
The theory and practical papers will be held from July to mid-August 2025. Project-based assessments for subjects like Agriculture, Art and Design, and Computer Studies will take place from January to July 2025.
Examination centers will be assigned by County Directors of Education. Students who are redoing their projects must report to Sub-County Directors for coordination after registration.
After the examination, partial repeaters retaking fewer than seven subjects will receive result slips only for the subjects they have retaken. Full repeaters will receive their results as with candidates sitting for the current KCSE exam in November 2025.
