Table 1.

Characteristics of participants (N = 544).

Item	Category	Frequency	Percentage
Gender	Female	343	63.1
	Male	188	34.6
	Other	4	0.7
	Missing values	9	1.6
Grade	9	255	46.9
	10	226	41.5
	Missing values	63	11.6
Home language	Afrikaans	229	42.1
	English	14	2.6
	African languages	295	54.2
	Missing values	6	1.1
Second language	Afrikaans	29	5.3
	English	393	72.2
	African languages	98	18.1
	Missing values	24	4.4
English marks in the previous exam (November 2020)	50–59%	148	27.9
	60–69%	158	29.8
	70–79%	149	28.1
	80–89%	69	13.0
	90–100%	7	1.3
Mathematics marks in the previous exam (November 2020)	50–59%	228	44.0
	60–69%	131	25.3
	70–79%	87	16.8
	80–89%	52	10.0
	90–100%	20	3.9

211 of the 229 participants who had Afrikaans as their first language had English as a second language (missing values = 18); 168 of the 295 participants who had an African language as their first language had English as a second language, while 105 had an African language as a second language.