Many candidates failed to view the cause of the shapes of the meniscuses through the intermolecular forces.  Rather than mention ‘water molecular’ or ‘glass molecules’ candidates often mentioned ‘water’ or ‘glass’ to miss the score.  In addition some candidates failed to mention the effects of ‘clinging to the glass’ or clinging to each other in order to get additional mark. 
Performance was fair.

The expected answer is

For water in the glass tube, the force of adhesion between the water and glass molecules is greater than the force of cohesion among the water molecules; so water clings to glass (forming a concave meniscus).

On the other hand, the force of cohesion among mercury molecules is greater than that of adhesion between mercury molecules and glass molecules , so, mercury molecules cling to  each other forming a convex meniscus.