Literature in English is an elective 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 Literature in English. Kevin marks BECE English.
Prose, then drama and poetry
WAEC Ghana publishes a chief examiners report for school candidates. The report linked on this page covers Literature in English Paper 2 and Paper 3. The timetable for your series names every 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 names a paper this page does not describe, follow the timetable.
Paper 2 is the prose paper. It is an essay paper in two sections. Section A is African prose. Section B is non African prose. The questions ask you to write about a set text: a character, a theme, or the way the book is written. Read the front of the paper for how many to answer from each section. This page does not copy that number. A strong essay in one section does not replace a section you left blank.
Paper 3 is drama and poetry. It has four sections. Section A is African drama. Section B is non African drama. Section C is African poetry. Section D is non African poetry. Take work from the sections the instruction names. If the question paper and this page disagree, follow the question paper.
Glearn does not publish the list of set texts. The books and poems change from one sitting to the next. Your school, or WAEC Ghana, is where you confirm the list for your paper. A summary from a friend is not a substitute for the text.
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Topic areas to revise
These are the areas the prose paper and the drama and poetry paper are built from. A heading is not a promise that every text appears on your paper. Glearn does not host the WAEC file of set texts. If the file your school gives you uses a different book, follow the file.
1. African and non African prose
Novels and stories from Africa, and novels and stories from elsewhere. Know the people, the order of events you can defend, and the idea the book keeps testing. A film is not the book.
2. African and non African drama
Plays move by what people say and do, and by the stage directions. There is often no narrator to explain a feeling. Quote speech. Use a direction when it changes the meaning.
3. African and non African poetry
Poems named for your sitting, from Africa and from elsewhere. A device is a way of saying. The mark is the device, the line, and the effect. The name alone is not an answer.
4. Character, theme and style
Character is what a person does and says. Theme is the idea those events test, stated as a claim, not as a single noun. Style is how the writing does that work: point of view, irony, repetition, a metaphor. Content and style are different demands.
WASSCE syllabusWASSCE Literature in English past questionsProseDramaPoetic devicesCharacter and themeWriting the essay
How to answer an essay or a context question
An essay is a set of points about the text. A context question gives you a line or a moment and asks what it is doing there. Both need the book, not a retelling of the plot.
1. Name the task
A character question wants what the person does and what that shows. A theme question wants the idea and two moments that test it. A style question wants the device and its effect. Narrating the plot answers none of these on its own.
2. Open with the answer
The first sentence should meet the question. If it asks how fear is presented, name a method and tie it to fear. A plot summary can wait, and even then it should be short.
3. One moment, then what it shows
Cite something a character does or says, then say what it shows. "She is brave" is the inference. The evidence is the action. Two moments that do different work are stronger than five that repeat one idea.
4. Quote a short line
A short phrase you can explain is enough. Put it in quotation marks so it is clearly the writer's. A long quotation you do not discuss takes the space the point needed. Do not invent a line the text does not contain.
5. Answer a context question in three moves
Say where the line or the moment sits, what it means in that place, and what it does for the character or the theme. If the question names a device, define it in plain words and show it in the line. A retelling of the whole book does not answer a question about one moment.
6. Spread the answers across the sections
Read the front of the paper before you choose. The instruction asks for a spread, not for every question in the section you like. Label the question you are answering. Stop at the number asked.
WASSCE exam tipsWASSCE essay and letter formatsWriting the essay
A short way to revise
Read the texts, then write. A week of notes about plots, with no essay and no poem, leaves both papers cold.
1. Read each set text more than once
The first reading is the story. The second is for people, themes, and the lines you can quote. Do not save an unread book for the night before. Glearn does not publish the list. Confirm it with your school or with WAEC Ghana.
2. Rotate prose, drama and poetry
One session for an African text, one for a non African text, one for a poem. Inside each session, write one point with its evidence before you look at a note.
3. Write one full answer a week
Use a different section each time, and have it marked. Anna marks WASSCE Literature in English on glearn. Kevin marks BECE English. Practise with Kevin and Anna on glearn.now. The first questions need no account.
4. Close the book and write the points again
After you know an answer, close it and produce the points from memory. Recognition is not the same as writing the point under a clock.
5. Keep Literature inside the wider plan
The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. English Language is a different paper. Revise it on its own guide. This page does not copy a date.
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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 narration where an argument was asked
The story of the book, told from the start, does not answer a question about one character, one theme, or one device. Meet the question in the first sentence.
2. Mixed up people and facts
A point built on the wrong character, or on an event the book does not contain, loses the point. If you are not sure of a detail, choose a moment you can stand behind.
3. No theme and no evidence
Many text questions expect the idea the book is testing, then the moments that show it. A list of adjectives with no scene is thin.
4. A device named and then abandoned
Metaphor, irony, repetition and dramatic irony have to be shown in a line. "It makes the work interesting" could fit any text. Say what this line does.
5. Staying in one section
The instruction names the sections. Essays from only the texts you prefer, and none from the others, have not answered the paper.
6. English that hides the point
A true idea in unclear sentences is hard to reward. Short sentences, one point each, let the marker see the work. This page does not give a figure for that.
Keep these open while you revise
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Practise with Kevin and Anna