ELDORET, Kenya — As thousands of candidates access their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has reminded students and parents to pay close attention to symbols appearing on result slips, warning that they carry important implications on performance, eligibility and possible investigations.
Unlike grades, the symbols highlight special circumstances that may affect a candidate’s results, including absence, pending cases or suspected examination irregularities.
What the Symbols on KCSE Result Slips Mean
- X — Indicates that a candidate was absent for one or more examination papers. This applies where a registered paper was not sat, resulting in an incomplete record.
- Y — Shows that results for one or more subjects were cancelled due to examination irregularities. This may arise from confirmed cases of misconduct or breach of examination regulations.
- P — Means the results have been pended. This usually occurs when there are entry-related discrepancies, such as mismatched details used during KCSE registration, including KCPE records.
- W — Signifies that results have been withheld. This happens when KNEC is investigating suspected malpractice, and the outcome will be determined after the probe is concluded.
- U — Stands for ungraded. It indicates that although a candidate sat the examination, the results could not be graded, often due to failure to meet minimum award or assessment criteria.
How to Verify and Correct KCSE Result Errors
KNEC advises candidates to carefully review their result slips immediately after downloading them to ensure all details are accurate.
Candidates should first confirm their personal information, including full names, index number and school code, to ensure it matches official registration records.
The next step is to review all registered subjects, confirming that each appears correctly and that grades correspond to the right subject codes.
Any missing subjects, blank fields, duplicated entries or mismatched grades should be treated as errors requiring urgent attention.
Where discrepancies are noted, candidates must report them promptly to their school principal or examination officer.
Supporting documents — such as registration forms, admission records and other relevant evidence — will be required.
Schools are responsible for submitting correction requests to KNEC through the Query Management Information System (QMIS), the council’s official platform for handling result-related queries.
Candidates are further advised to follow up regularly through their schools or the KNEC portal until the issue is resolved and the final outcome communicated.
