My theory in the exam committee. Is that the prior leadership in the committee was more transparent and timely. Also the pass marks were higher under them. Exams results were released as soon as they were ready in a staggered fashion. Not waiting to 2pm on a specific day for all at once. But, 10 am for a given exam one day, then the next day.
Once the new leadership came in IQs became a thing and kept on increasing in magnitude of difficulty and at the same time the pass percentage for exam 8 continued to get lower.
Part of the reconciliation process the exam committee does is review the MQC that they had as an apriori before any tests were graded, and the mqc after tests were graded. My impression was the past leadership was more willing to lower the MQC and adapt.