Official Mathematics Exam — BEPC Session 2024

This mathematics examination from the 2024 session of the Brevet d'Études du Premier Cycle (BEPC) in Cameroon is the most recent exam available, offering an up-to-date view of the national examination expectations. The document contains the complete official exam paper, faithful to the standardised format.

Exam Structure:

The exam is organised into two parts:

• Part A — Resource Assessment, with numerical activities (3 exercises) and geometric activities (3 exercises).
• Part B — Competency Assessment, centred on a concrete problem-solving situation.

Numerical Activities:

Exercise 1 focuses on rationalising the denominator of a fraction containing radicals: students compute a notable square, prove an identity and determine a second-order bound for A from a given bound of √3. Exercise 2 covers factoring algebraic expressions and simplifying rational expressions with determination of the existence condition for a numerical value. Exercise 3 is a descriptive statistics problem with grouped data: identifying the studied variable and its nature, justifying a missing frequency, determining the modal class and calculating the mean.

Geometric Activities:

Exercise 1 uses a True/False format in an orthonormal coordinate system, covering vector coordinate calculation, distance between two points and verification of a Cartesian line equation. Exercise 2 involves a right-angled triangle with cosine calculation and angle measurement deduction, the inscribed angle property (angles subtending the same arc), and Thales' theorem to calculate a length in a parallel lines configuration. Exercise 3 deals with a regular pyramid with a square base: calculating the volume of the complete pyramid, then deducing the volume of a reduced pyramid obtained by a cross-section at half-height using the cubed similarity ratio.

Competency-Based Problem:

Part B presents a financial management problem: a hotel owner must determine the total budget for renovation work, knowing that it is funded in three portions — a fraction by a bank (2/5), another from revenue (1/4) and the remainder (1,225,000 FCFA) from personal savings. Students must set up and solve an equation to find the total budget. The second part of the problem involves tiling a rectangular kitchen (4.80 m x 3 m) with square tiles of the largest possible dimension without gaps, using the GCD to determine tile size and calculate the number needed.

Skills Assessed:

• Denominator rationalisation and bounding
• Factoring and rational expressions
• Descriptive statistics: grouped data, modal class, mean
• Analytic geometry: vectors, distances, line equations
• Trigonometry (cosine) and inscribed angles
• Thales' theorem
• Pyramid volumes and similarity ratio
• Equations and GCD applied to practical problems

Target Audience:

This exam paper, the most recent in the collection, is particularly recommended for ninth-grade students preparing for the BEPC to practise under conditions closest to the actual exam, as well as for teachers seeking the latest official exam paper.