Ghanaian Language is a BECE subject. Schools also call it Ghanaian Language and Culture. The paper you sit is the language on your entry, for example Twi, Ewe, Ga, Dagbani, Fante, Dangme, Nzema, Gonja, Kasem or Dagaare. Asante Twi and Akuapem Twi are separate entries. 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 at one sitting.
Paper 1 is the objective paper. You answer all of it. It draws on customs and institutions, oral and written literature, and listening and speaking.
Paper 2 is the essay paper. It has four parts: composition, comprehension, translation, and language and usage. The composition offers a choice, and the scheme says you answer one. You answer the other three parts in full. Write in the language you were entered for, except where a translation task asks you to move between that language and English.
If the question paper in your hall is arranged differently, follow the question paper. This page describes the scheme in the guidelines. It does not replace that file.
What to revise
Use the parts of the paper as a revision map. A part is not a promise that every text or custom appears on your paper.
1. Comprehension
Read the passage in your language and answer the question that was asked. Who, what, where and why should come from the passage, not from a story you remember that is only similar.
2. Composition
A narrative, a description, a letter or an opinion, in the language of your entry. One task, done fully, is the aim. Open a letter and close it.
3. Grammar
Language and usage asks for the form that fits the sentence: the right word, the right ending, or the right order. Practise that form inside a sentence in your language.
4. Literature
Oral and written literature: proverbs, stories and poems you were taught. A proverb needs the saying and the meaning. A story or a poem needs the point the question asked for.
5. Culture
Customs and institutions of the people whose language you sit. Name the people. A greeting, a rite or a festival is not the same in every community in Ghana.
6. Translation
Move a sentence from English into your language, or the other way, when the question asks. Keep the meaning. Do not add a detail that was not there.
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How to answer
The essay paper is marked part by part. The language of the answer is the language on your entry.
1. Write in your language
A composition in English does not show the language the paper is testing. Use English only where the translation task asks for it.
2. One composition, then the rest
Answer the number of composition questions the instruction asks for. In the published scheme that number is one. Then do comprehension, translation, and language and usage. A second composition does not repair a blank translation.
3. Answer the comprehension question
Do not copy the whole passage back. Write the fact the question asked for, in a sentence.
4. Keep the meaning in a translation
Keep who did the action. Do not drop a time or a place that was in the sentence. Do not add a reason the sentence did not give.
5. Show the literature point
Name the proverb, the story or the poem, then say what it means in the situation the question gave. A title with no meaning is only a name.
6. Name the people
For a custom, say which people it belongs to. Stay in the variety you were entered for. Asante Twi and Akuapem Twi are not the same paper.
How to revise
Rotate the parts. A week of proverbs with no composition and no translation leaves half the paper cold.
1. Stay on one part
Finish a set of comprehension questions before you jump to proverbs. Then write one composition. Then translate a few sentences.
2. Answer before you read
Do the task first. Then read why. A familiar proverb is not the same as a marked point.
3. Write one composition
Once a week, write a letter or a narrative in your language. Have it marked. Check that you answered only the number the instruction would ask for.
4. Keep a proverb card
For each proverb, write the saying and one situation where it fits. Cover the meaning and say it again.
5. Name the custom
For each festival or rite you revise, write the people and one thing a visitor would see. If you are not sure which people practise it, leave it out rather than guess.
6. 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.
7. 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. A composition in English
The essay is in the language of your entry. English belongs in the translation task, on the side the question names.
2. Answering every composition
Read the instruction. Extra compositions spend the time the compulsory parts needed, and the scheme says you answer one.
3. Skipping translation or language and usage
Those parts are not optional in the scheme. A strong story does not fill a blank grammar section.
4. A proverb with no meaning
Writing the saying alone scores the memory. The mark for meaning needs the situation, in your own words.
5. One custom for every community
Do not write as if every community in Ghana did the same thing. Name the people. If you are not sure, do not guess.
6. Copying the passage
A comprehension answer that repeats the paragraph and never answers the question misses the point.
7. Mixing two varieties
Stay in the language on your entry. Asante Twi and Akuapem Twi are separate. Fante is not Twi. Ga is not Dangme.
Keep these open while you revise
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