Creative Arts and Design is a BECE subject. The guidelines file titles the section Creative Art and Design. The timetable and the NaCCA curriculum use Creative Arts and Design. It is the same subject. It brings together design, visual arts, music, and dance and drama. It is not one of the four cores CSSPS adds. Those are English Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. A grade in this subject can still be one of the two other grades, when it is among your best. WAEC sets the examination. Glearn Technologies writes this guide. Glearn does not set the paper, does not place students, and glearn does not publish a pass rate.
How the papers are set
WAEC Ghana publishes the scheme in its BECE guidelines. Read that file for the current timing and the marks. This page does not copy them, because a later file can change them. The structure in the guidelines is two papers, taken together as one composite paper.
Paper 1 is the objective paper. The items come from the whole syllabus, and you answer all of them. You choose one option for each item.
Paper 2 is the essay paper, and it is practical as well as written. It has three sections. Section A is Visual Art. The design question in that section is compulsory, and you also answer one other question from the section. Section B is Music, and you answer one question. Section C is Dance and Drama, and you answer one question.
Answer only the number the instructions ask for. The guidelines say that answers beyond that number are left unmarked. Because the paper is practical, take pencils, colour pencils or water colour or crayons, an eraser, and a ruler, unless the question paper says otherwise. If a question needs special tools or found objects, the school is told ahead of time.
The published timetable lists the essay paper before the objective paper. If the question paper in your hall is arranged differently, follow the question paper.
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Topic areas from the curriculum
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment publishes the Creative Arts and Design curriculum for junior high school. It organises the work in two strands, Design and Creative Arts. The essay paper still asks about visual art, music, and dance and drama as separate sections. Revise both strands, and do not leave music or drama until the last week. A strand is not a promise that every unit appears on your paper.
1. Design
Design in nature and the manmade environment. Drawing, shading, colouring and modelling. Creativity, innovation and the design process. The compulsory question in the visual art section is on design.
2. Creative arts
Media and techniques, creative and aesthetic expression, and connections in local and global cultures. This strand carries visual arts, music, and dance and drama. A drawing week with no song and no drama leaves two sections cold.
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How to answer and how to do the practical
Paper 2 is marked point by point. A practical shows the element, the step, or the performance the question named.
1. Do the design question first
It is compulsory. A strong music answer does not repair a blank design question.
2. Cover every section you are asked
After the design question, answer one other visual art question, one music question, and one dance and drama question, unless the question paper says otherwise.
3. Use the tools the paper expects
Pencils, colour, an eraser and a ruler are the ordinary kit. Follow a notice from the school if a question needs something else. A blank page because a colour was left at home is a missing practical.
4. Separate elements from principles
Line, shape, colour and texture are elements. Proportion, contrast, harmony and pattern are principles. If the question asks for one, do not answer with the other.
5. Show the music the question asks for
A scale needs the clef and the direction the question names. The top number of a time signature and the bottom number do different jobs. If you are not sure of an Italian term, describe the speed or the volume in your own words rather than guessing the word.
6. Name the dance or drama element
Body, space and energy are elements of dance. Props, costume and lighting do a job in a performance. Gesture communicates without words. Give a Ghanaian example when the question asks for one.
How to revise
Rotate design, visual art, music, and dance and drama. A week of drawing with no music leaves a section you still have to answer.
1. Stay on one strand
Finish design in nature before you jump to a performance. Then take one music idea and one drama idea in the same week.
2. Answer before you read
Do the question first. Then read why. Recognising a poster is not the same as being able to name the element.
3. Make one full practical
Once a week, do a design task with colour, and write one music point and one dance or drama point. Have the writing marked.
4. Keep a small card for each art
For design, write one element and one principle. For music, write one Ghanaian musician and the kind of music. For dance, write one dance and the people it belongs to.
5. Fit the subject into the week
The revision plan orders the weeks across your subjects. When the official timetable is out, give the earliest paper more time. This page does not copy a date.
6. Have the answer marked
Kevin marks BECE answers on glearn. Anna marks WASSCE answers. The first questions need no account.
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Mistakes that cost marks
These are habits, not a secret list of questions. Fix the habit on the next paper you write.
1. Revising drawing only
The essay paper also has a music section and a dance and drama section. A folder of sketches with no rhythm and no performance leaves those sections blank.
2. Mixing an element with a principle
Colour is an element. Harmony is a principle. If the question says element, an answer that lists only principles misses the point.
3. Leaving the design question
It is the compulsory question in the visual art section. Do it before you choose the other visual art question.
4. Answering every question in a section
Music asks for one question. Dance and drama asks for one. Extra answers are left unmarked, and they use the time the marked answer needed.
5. A dance answer with no element
Naming a festival dance without body, space or energy describes the occasion only. Say how the body, the space or the energy is used.
6. Guessing a music term
A speed or a volume you can explain in your own words is safer than an Italian word you are not sure of. Name the clef the question asked for.
Keep these open while you revise
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