The Chief Examiner reported that this question was popular among the candidates and they performed well in it. However, a few candidates were reported not to recall that a quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0 would have real roots if b2 ³ 4ac. In the given equation b = (3 – k), a = 2 and c = 3 + k.  Therefore, the equation would have real roots if (3 – k)2 ³ 4(2)(3+k) i.e. k2 – 14k – 15 ³ 0.  Solving this inequality gave the required values of k which were k £ -1 or k ³ = 15.