Biology is an elective science for school candidates and for private candidates. WAEC sets the paper. Glearn Technologies writes this guide. Glearn does not set the paper, and glearn does not publish a pass rate. Read the timetable for your own series. Anna marks WASSCE Biology. Kevin marks BECE Science.
Objective, theory, and the practical paper
The examination has three kinds of paper: an objective paper, a theory paper, and a practical paper. The practical paper is either work you carry out with specimens and apparatus, or an alternative to practical work that you answer in writing. The timetable for your series names each paper and gives the time. This page does not copy those times or the marks, because a later file can change them. If the timetable and this page disagree, follow the timetable.
Paper 1 is the objective paper. The items come from the syllabus, and you answer the items the paper asks you to answer.
Paper 2 is the theory paper. It is a set of essay questions, often split into parts. You answer a choice of them, not every one. Read the instruction on the front of the paper before you start writing. A blank required question is not repaired by an extra essay.
The practical paper tests a specimen, a diagram, or an experiment. When your entry is the alternative to practical work, you still write the method, what you would observe, and what that observation means. You do not need a laboratory bench in the hall for that written version. Confirm the name on the WAEC Ghana timetable. Glearn does not decide which version a centre sits.
Topic areas to revise
These are the areas candidates revise for WASSCE Biology. A heading is not a promise that every unit appears on your paper. Glearn does not host the WAEC file. If the file your school gives you uses a different name, follow the file.
1. Cells and the variety of organisms
What makes something living, how organisms are grouped, and the parts of a cell with the job of each part. A plant cell and an animal cell are not the same drawing.
2. Nutrition
How green plants make food, and how humans and other animals take food in, digest it, and use it. Name the raw materials, the products, and where the process happens.
3. Transport, respiration and excretion
How materials move in a plant and in a person, how energy is released from food, and how waste leaves the body. Say the direction and what is carried.
4. Support, coordination and reproduction
The skeleton and movement, nerves and hormones, and how new organisms are produced. Growth sits with this work. A part without its job is an incomplete point.
5. Heredity and ecology
Genes, alleles and a simple cross, then how organisms live with each other and with their surroundings. Show the gametes in a cross. In ecology, separate the place from the living community.
WASSCE syllabusWASSCE Biology past questionsThe cellPhotosynthesisTransport in plantsGeneticsEcology
How to answer theory and practical questions
A theory mark is for a point a marker can see. A practical mark is for what you did, what you saw, and what it means. The command word decides which of those the question wants.
1. Match the command
State is a name or a short fact. Explain is that fact plus a reason. Describe is what you would see or what the structure is like. A definition does not answer a question that asked for a test.
2. Answer every part you were given
Parts such as (a), (b) and (c) are separate marks. Leave a short gap between them and label each one. Do not fold a later part into the sentence above it.
3. Lead with the point
Write the point the mark is for in the first line, then the reason. A long paragraph that never states the point is hard to mark.
4. Write a practical account in three lines
What you do, what you see, and what it means. If the question asks for a precaution, add one precaution and say what it prevents. A method with no observation is a story, not a result.
5. Obey the rubric
Answer the number of essays the paper asks for. Starting one more than that, and leaving it unfinished, spends time the marked answers needed.
6. Use the words of the syllabus
Spell the biological term. If you are not sure of a spelling, write the idea in plain words as well, so the point can still be seen. Do not invent a figure.
Drawing and labelling
A Biology diagram is evidence. It has to match the question, and each label has to land on the part it names.
1. Draw what was asked
If the question names a specimen or a named organ, draw that. A memorised diagram of a different organ does not answer it. Look again before you add a part you were not asked for.
2. Make it large and in pencil
A small drawing has no room for clean labels. Use a sharp pencil and a clear outline. Do not shade the whole drawing unless the question asks for shading.
3. Land the label on the part
A label line touches the part it names and does not cross another label line. Write the labels in a row, level, so they can be read. A line that stops in empty space has not labelled anything.
4. Add the job when it is asked
A name is one mark. The job of that part is often the next mark. The cell membrane selects what passes. The cell wall does not. Say which one you drew.
5. Give a title
Name the view or the specimen in a short title when the question asks for a diagram. The title is not a paragraph.
6. Magnify only when asked
When the question asks for a magnification, it is the length of your drawing divided by the real length of the same part. Measure both, then divide. This page does not set the mark for that line.
A short way to revise
Rotate the three papers. A week of notes with no drawing and no practical account leaves the practical paper cold.
1. Give each paper a turn
One session for objective items, one for a full theory answer, one for a drawing or a practical account. Do not save the practical paper for the night before.
2. Draw from memory, then check
Close the book, draw the diagram, then check the labels and the jobs. A label you can only recognise is not a label you can place.
3. Reject the wrong options
On an objective item, say why the other options fail, not only why one looks right.
4. Have the answer marked
Anna marks WASSCE Biology on glearn. Kevin marks BECE Science. A written answer is marked point by point. Practise with Kevin and Anna on glearn.now. The first questions need no account.
5. Keep Biology inside the wider plan
The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. Integrated Science is a different paper. Revise it on its own guide. This page does not copy a date.
WASSCE revision planHow to pass the WASSCEWASSCE Integrated Science tipsTry WASSCE practice free
Mistakes chief examiners keep returning to
WAEC chief examiners write a report after a sitting. This page describes the habits in general. It does not quote a report, and it does not give a figure.
1. A diagram of the wrong thing
Reports often describe a drawing that does not match the specimen or the organ in the question. Draw what is in front of you, or what the words asked for.
2. Labels that do not land
Lines that cross, or that stop short of the part, hide the answer. One clean line to each part is enough.
3. A name with no job
Naming a part when the question asked what it does leaves the function mark behind. Add the job in the same breath.
4. Swapping photosynthesis and respiration
Photosynthesis builds food in green cells and gives off oxygen from water. Respiration releases energy from food. They are not the same process run backwards as a slogan.
5. The wall treated as the membrane
The cell membrane selects what passes. The cell wall supports a plant cell and lets substances through. An animal cell has no wall.
6. A method with no observation
In a food test or any practical account, the observation is the evidence and the conclusion comes after it. A list of apparatus is not a result.
Keep these open while you revise
WASSCE practiceWASSCE syllabusWASSCE Biology past questionsPast questions with answersWASSCE Integrated Science tipsWASSCE revision planHow to pass the WASSCEWASSCE exam tipsWASSCE timetableWASSCE grade calculatorWASSCE for private candidatesWASSCE Chemistry tipsCreate a free accountWAEC Ghana WASSCE for schoolsWAEC Ghana timetableWAEC Ghana
Practise with Kevin and Anna