WASSCE Candidates’ Weaknesses In English Language (Core) And Remedies | Extract From Chief Examiners Report For WASSCE 2023
Teachers preparing students for any examination are always worried about the potential weaknesses in answers that their students will provide during the examination. Fortunately, the main examining body, the West Africa Examination Council always provide candidates’ weaknesses in English Language (core) during the last held examination.
WAEC Summary of 2021 WASSCE English Language (Core) Paper Two (2)
A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
(1) Relevant features and ideas for content of all the essays were prominent. A good
number of candidates understood the essay questions and wrote extensively on them.
They no longer had problems with the formal features of an informal letter.
(2) Organisation was well done. The use of intra and inter-paragraph linkages was well
done leading to the achievement of cohesion and coherence of the ideas. Candidates
dealt well with questions that required two phases of attention.
(3) Some candidates used the appropriate vocabulary and registers in writing the essays.
They were also able to develop their points to satisfy the requirements.
(4) Some were able to provide the mandatory formal features.
(5) The exhibition of knowledge of the correct use of idioms: this enriched their essays.
B. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
The general performance of the candidates revealed that many of them have still not
grasped the rudiments of English Language. The following weaknesses, among others,
were observed:
(1) Poor syntactic structures or faulty sentence constructions.
(2) Poorly controlled sentences due to poor knowledge of punctuation.
(3) Wrong spelling of words
(4) Use of wrong tenses
(5) Indiscriminate use of capital letters
(6) Wrong application of subject-verb agreement
(7) The small letter (i) was written instead of the capital (I), for the first person singular
pronoun.
(8) In summary, candidates lifted answers wrongly from the passage and provided answers
outside the context of the passage.
C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
(1) The teaching of grammar should be a major concern of teachers of English. In this
regard, the basic topics such as the parts of speech, types of sentences, clauses, phrases
and their functions should be treated extensively.
(2) The correct use of tenses should be taught exhaustively
(3) Students should be given more lessons in the correct use of punctuation marks.
(4) The reading habit should be inculcated in students to increase their vocabulary stock,
enhance correct spelling and enable them to write correct sentences.
(5) Students should also do more writing exercises as part of their preparation towards the the
examination.
(6) Students should be taught techniques in tackling summary questions.
WAEC Summary of 2020 WASSCE English Language (Core) Paper Two (2)
A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
(1) Relevant features and ideas for content of all the essays were prominent. A good
number of candidates understood the essay questions and wrote extensively on them.
They no longer had problems with the formal features of an informal letter.
(2) Organisation was well done. The use of intra and inter-paragraph linkages was well
done leading to the achievement of cohesion and coherence of the ideas. Candidates
dealt well with questions that required two phases of attention.
(3) Some candidates used the appropriate vocabulary and registers in writing the essays.
They were also able to develop their points to satisfy the requirements.
(4) Some were able to provide the mandatory formal features.
(5) The exhibition of knowledge of the correct use of idioms: this enriched their essays.
B. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
The general performance of the candidates revealed that many of them have still not
grasped the rudiments of English Language. The following weaknesses, among others,
were observed:
(1) Poor syntactic structures or faulty sentence constructions.
(2) Poorly controlled sentences due to poor knowledge of punctuation.
(3) Wrong spelling of words
(4) Use of wrong tenses
(5) Indiscriminate use of capital letters
(6) Wrong application of subject-verb agreement
(7) The small letter (i) was written instead of the capital (I), for the first person singular
pronoun.
(8) In summary, candidates lifted answers wrongly from the passage and provided answers
outside the context of the passage.
C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
(1) The teaching of grammar should be a major concern of teachers of English. In this
regard, the basic topics such as the parts of speech, types of sentences, clauses, phrases
and their functions should be treated extensively.
(2) The correct use of tenses should be taught exhaustively.
(3) Students should be given more lessons in the correct use of punctuation marks.
(4) The reading habit should be inculcated in students to increase their vocabulary stock,
enhance correct spelling and enable them to write correct sentences.
(5) Students should also do more writing exercises as part of their preparation towards the
examination.
(6) Students should be taught techniques in tackling summary questions.
WAEC Summary of 2019 WASSCE English Language (Core) Paper Two (2)
A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
(i) Candidates were able to produce relevant ideas for the content of the essays. Many
were able to write full length essays.
(ii) Candidates showed glimpses of accurate knowledge of the formal features of all the
essays.
(iii) A good number of them had a good command of the language organizing their essays
well with good paragraphs.
(iv) A few of them did very well in answering the comprehension questions, giving a
good rendition of the grammatical names and functions.
(v) Several of them were able to provide good answers to the summary questions.
B. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
(i) A majority of the candidates failed to write full length essays.
(ii) Subject – verb agreement remains a major problem for most of the candidates.
(iii) Most candidates failed to spell simple words correctly.
(iv) Punctuation errors predominated candidates’ work with some writing single sentence
paragraphs.
(v) The sequence of tenses and pronoun mixing continues to dominate candidates’ work.
Most of them were unable to use the appropriate pronouns.
(vi) Answering comprehension questions remains a major challenge to most of the
candidates. The “WH” questions remains a major problem. Besides, most candidates
failed to observe the tense of the questions before attempting to answer them.
(vii) Several candidates still could not find concise answers to the summary questions.
C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
(i) Candidates should have a lot more practice exercises to enable them to perform better.
(ii) Candidates should make reading a hobby. This will go a long way to enhance their
writing skills.
(iii) Greater effort should be made by teachers to teach the grammar of the language.
Emphasis should be placed on grammatical names and functions as well as figures of
speech.
(iv) Teachers should intensify the teaching of summary and help students with practice
passages to enable them to perform better.
(v) Candidates should communicate more in the English language and avoid using the
corrupted form.
(vi) Candidates should engage in spelling drills to become conversant with spelling of
most words.
WAEC Summary of 2018 WASSCE English Language (Core) Paper Two (2)
A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS
(i) Candidates were able to generate ideas and displayed good knowledge of the formal
features of the essays.
(ii) There was an improvement in the choice and use of appropriate vocabulary.
(iii) A good number of candidates showed a marked improvement in their sentence
structure and punctuation.
(iv) Some candidates showed a clear understanding of the comprehension and summary
passages and provided appropriate responses.
(v) Quite a few displayed skills in answering summary questions.
A. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
(i) A number of candidates wrote rather long essays which made them loose focus.
(ii) Poor punctuation, poor spelling and wrong use of tenses were dominant in some of
the essays.
(iii) Candidates could not differentiate between the topic sentence and the illustrations in
the summary test.
(iv) Some candidates resorted to copying portions of the passage as their answers to
questions on the comprehension passage.
(v) Candidates used unacceptable contractions that have become common on social
media.
(vi) Identifying grammatical names and functions remains a major problem of most
candidates.
C. SUGGESTED REMEDIES
(i) Candidates should read widely on a variety of subjects in order to enrich their
vocabulary.
(ii) Teachers should give more exercises, especially on grammar, and mark them in order
to give feedback to the students.
(iii) Candidates should be taught the formal features of essay types especially speech,
debate and letters.
(iv) Grammar teaching should be intensified especially identifying grammatical names
and functions.
(v) Grammar and spelling drills should be organized for the candidates in order to
improve their writing skills.
It the hope of our team that candidates will perform better when teachers and candidates go through this summary of strengths, candidates’ weaknesses in English Language (core) and remedies and apply same
Source: waecgh.org
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