English Language is a core subject. CSSPS counts it with Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. WAEC sets the examination. Glearn Technologies writes this guide. GLearn does not set the paper, and GLearn does not publish a pass rate.
How the papers are set
The WAEC scheme for BECE English Language uses two papers, taken at one sitting. Read the BECE guidelines for the current timing and the marks. This page does not copy them, because a later file can change them.
Paper 1 is the objective paper. It has two parts. One part is lexis and structure: grammar, vocabulary, and the way a sentence is built. The other part is literature, drawn from the prose, drama and poetry named for that sitting. You answer the items the paper asks you to answer.
Paper 2 is the written paper. One part is essay writing. You write on one topic from the choice the paper gives you. The other part is comprehension: a passage, and questions on it. Read the front of the paper for which part is compulsory. Do not write more essays than the instruction allows.
That scheme has no separate oral paper. Expression in the essay is still marked, so spoken habits show up on the page. If the question paper in your hall is arranged differently, follow the question paper.
Lexis and structure
This part tests the English you use, not a story you memorised. The work students revise includes tense, agreement, conditionals, vocabulary and phrasal verbs, active and passive, direct and reported speech, question tags, phrases and clauses, idioms, and parts of speech. A topic on that list is not a promise that it appears on your paper.
1. Tense and agreement
The verb must match the time and the subject. A singular subject with a plural verb loses the item. News and mathematics are singular in this paper.
2. Reported speech
When you report what someone said, the tense, the pronoun and the time word often change. Keep the meaning. Do not keep the original words and call it a report.
3. Vocabulary in a sentence
Phrasal verbs, idioms and ordinary words are tested inside a sentence. The right option fits this sentence, not a meaning you like in isolation.
4. Active and passive
Know who does the action. The passive can hide the doer. Do not change who did it when you change the form.
5. Tags and conditionals
A question tag must match the statement in tense and in whether it is positive or negative. A conditional must match the time the sentence is about.
Literature
Literature on this paper is a set of short items on the books and poems named for your sitting. GLearn does not publish that list. Your school, or WAEC Ghana, is where you confirm it.
1. Read the set texts
A retelling from a friend is not the book. You need the people, what they do, and where the story or poem is set.
2. Characters and roles
Know who acts, and what that person wants. A name without the role does not answer the item.
3. Plot and subject matter
What happens, in order, and what the piece is about. Do not swap one scene for another from a different text.
4. Themes
A theme is an idea the text keeps returning to, such as honesty, family or power. Tie it to something that happens. A slogan with no event is not a theme answer.
5. Devices
Imagery, symbol and other devices are tools. Say what the device is doing in this text, not only its name.
Essay writing
You write one essay. The form is part of the task. A story does not answer a question that asked for a letter. Students meet letters, narratives, descriptions, speeches, arguments, articles and reports. The question may also ask for minutes or an agenda. Write the form it names.
1. Name the form
Underline the form and the reader before you plan. A letter has a layout. The letter writing guide shows the formal, informal and semi formal shapes. Use it when the question asks for a letter.
2. Plan before the fair copy
Three or four points, in order. Each point becomes a paragraph. An opening tells the reader where you are going. A close lands the point. It does not start a new story.
3. Write for the audience
A school magazine is not a letter to a director. The tone changes with the reader the question names. Slang in a formal piece costs expression.
4. Four kinds of credit
Content is what you say. Organisation is the order of the paragraphs. Expression is clear English. Mechanical accuracy is spelling and punctuation. A neat essay that ignores the question can still lose the content.
5. Length
Write to the length the question asks for. This page does not copy a word count. The paper in front of you is the instruction.
BECE letter writing formatEssay writing practiceLetter writing practice
Comprehension
The answers are in the passage. A fact that is true in life but absent from the passage does not score. A passage may tell a story, describe a place, explain a process, give directions, or record a conversation.
1. Read twice
Once for what happens, then again after you have read the questions. The second reading is where the answers are.
2. Own words
If the question says in your own words, rebuild the meaning. A copied sentence shows that you found the line. It does not show that you understood it. Keep names and numbers that have no simpler form.
3. Fact and inference
A fact is written down. An inference is a conclusion from clues. Name the clue when the question asks how you know. A feeling with no clue is a guess.
4. Vocabulary in context
The meaning is the job the word does in this passage, not a meaning you remember from another text.
5. Several points at once
If a question asks you to bring several points from the passage together, answer in the form it names. Do not turn that task into a second essay, and do not add a moral the writer did not earn.
A short way to revise
Rotate the parts. A week of essays with no lexis and no passage leaves half the sitting cold.
1. Give each part a turn
One session for lexis and structure, one for a passage, one for a full essay, and one for the set texts. Do not save literature for the night before.
2. Answer before you read
Do the item first. Then read why. Recognising an answer is not the same as choosing it under a clock.
3. Write one full essay a week
Use a different form each time, and have it marked. Kevin marks BECE English on GLearn. Anna marks WASSCE English. The first questions need no account.
4. Keep the letter layout separate
When the form is a letter, the address and the close are part of the answer. The letter writing guide is the layout. This page is the rest of the paper.
5. Fit English into the week
The revision plan orders the weeks across your subjects. The how to pass guide covers the wider plan. The exam tips cover the morning and the clock. This page does not copy a date.
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Mistakes that cost marks
These are habits, not a secret list of questions. This page does not quote a report, and it does not give a figure. Fix the habit on the next piece you write.
1. Writing every essay topic
The instruction asks for one. Extra essays do not repair a blank comprehension, and they spend the time that passage needed.
2. Mixing a letter and an article
A letter has an address, a salutation and a close. An article has a title and the writer's name. The features do not swap. Yours faithfully at the end of an article tells the marker you wrote a letter by habit.
3. Copying the passage
Own words means the sentence is yours. A lifted line fails that demand even when the idea is right.
4. Skipping the set texts
Literature is its own part of the objective paper. Unread books do not become familiar in the hall. Grammar practice does not replace them.
5. One block of text
Organisation is the shape. A single paragraph hides the points, even when the ideas are good.
6. Ignoring agreement and tense
Expression includes the grammar a reader needs. A good idea in a broken sentence is hard to credit. Read the essay once for the errors you know you make.
Keep these open while you revise
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