The Chief Examiner reported that this question was quite popular among the candidates. However, their performance was said to be poor. According to the report, majority of the candidates did not recognize that the equation could be converted to a quadratic equation.
Candidates were expected to rewrite ( )2 -=10 as
()2-3- 10 = 0.
Setting  = y, candidates would obtain the quadratic equation y2 -3y-10 =0, Solving this quadratic equation gave y =5 or -2. Since y =, it implied that =5 or=-2. Hence m=25 or 2-2 i.e. m=32 or.