How to prepare for WASSCE Management in Living

Topic areas to revise

These are the areas candidates revise for WASSCE Management in Living. 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. 1. Decisions, values, and resources

   Management in the home is using what you have to reach a goal. The process most files teach is planning, carrying the plan out, and checking the result. Some files also name organising. Follow the file your school gives you. A decision starts from a real problem. List the choices you actually have, weigh them against your values and your resources, choose, act, and look back. A need is required. A want is desired. A goal is the result you aim at. A standard is the level you will accept. An event, such as illness or a move, can force a new plan. Resources are human and non human. Time, energy, skills and knowledge are human. Money, tools and the house are non human. Time and energy are managed by grouping tasks, by the order of work, and by rest. Do not invent a timetable the question did not give.

2. 2. The family

   A family is a group linked by kinship, marriage or adoption, that cares for its members. A nuclear family is parents and their children. An extended family includes other relatives. A single parent family is still a family. Say an advantage and a limit when the question asks you to discuss a type. The life of a family changes: a beginning, a time of growth, and a time when the household gets smaller. Roles are the jobs members do, and they can be shared. Functions include care, teaching the young how to live with others, economic support, and passing on values. Conflict has a cause and an effect. Name both, then one way to resolve it: listening, a clear agreement, or help from a person the family trusts. Ghana recognises more than one form of marriage, including customary marriage and marriage under the ordinance. Name the form the question asks about. Do not invent a legal rule. Adolescence brings physical, emotional and social change. Family planning is on the syllabus. Define the term the question uses, then give the factors that influence a choice. This page does not describe a method and does not give medical advice.

3. 3. Housing, ventilation, and safety

   A house is the building. A home is the life of the household inside it. A compound house, a house for one household, and a flat are different forms. People acquire a house by renting, building, buying, a gift or inheritance. The choice depends on money, the site, water, sanitation, space, safety, and how far it is from school or work. Ventilation is fresh air in and stale air out. Cross ventilation uses openings on different sides so air can move through. Poor ventilation holds heat, moisture and smell, and it makes infection easier to share. Windows that open, vents, and furniture that does not block those openings are ways to keep it. A fan is not a substitute for an opening. Utilities include water and electricity. Use them with care. Do not invent a tariff. Hard furnishing is furniture. Soft furnishing includes curtains and linen. Arrange both so people can move and so air can pass. Floors, walls and worktops are cleaned with the agent that suits the material. Do not mix cleaning agents, and do not invent a brand. Household accidents include cuts, burns, falls and poisoning. The mark is usually the prevention: sharp tools stored, hot pans set back, spills wiped, chemicals kept away from food and from children. First aid is the immediate safe action, and knowing when to get help. Do not invent a dose. This page does not give medical treatment.

4. 4. Money, the consumer, and communication

   Money is a medium of exchange, a measure of value, and a store of value, and it can be divided into smaller units. A budget lists the income you can count on, puts needs before wants, sets amounts, records what you spent, and checks the result. The steps are the answer. A price you made up is not a budget. A consumer uses goods and services. Consumerism is concern for the rights of that person. Consumption is the using. Rights include goods that are safe, information that is true, and a real choice. Responsibilities include reading the label, paying, and not wasting. A labour saving device is judged by the work it does, the space it needs, the safety, the care it needs, and whether the household can afford it. Communication has a sender, a message, a receiver and a check that the message was understood. An internal barrier sits inside the person: assuming, not listening, anger, or a word you did not understand. A useful guideline is to listen, to be plain, and to ask what the other person heard. A small home enterprise needs a product or a service people will pay for, a safe place to work, and a record of cost and of what you sold. Profit is what remains after cost. Business Management is still a different examination subject.

WASSCE syllabusPast questions with answersWASSCE Management in Living past questionsThe familyFamily resourcesHousing the familyFood managementConsumer educationBECE Career Technology past questionsBECE home managementWASSCE Food and Nutrition tipsWASSCE Social Studies tipsWASSCE Business Management tipsBECE Career Technology tips

Explanations, plans, and the practical

A theory mark is for a point a marker can see. A practical mark is for a task that matches the brief. A name with no reason is hard to credit.

1. 1. Match the command

   State is a short fact. Define is the meaning. List is the items, without a story. Explain is the fact plus a reason. Distinguish needs both sides. Describe the steps is the order you would work. A definition does not answer a question that asked for a process.

2. 2. Put both sides of a distinction

   A house and a home. A need and a want. A nuclear family and an extended family. A right of the consumer and a responsibility. Write one sentence for each side. Stopping after the first side has answered half of the question.

3. 3. Give the reason, not only the name

   Cross ventilation works because air can enter on one side and leave on another. A budget starts with income because you cannot assign money you do not have. The name of the idea is the start. The reason is the mark.

4. 4. On the practical, do the task in the brief

   Read what to plan or what to show. If the task is a budget, write the steps with the figures the paper gave. If the task is a room or a meal of work, order the jobs and name the tools. Present what was asked. A price or a measurement you did not take is not a result.

5. 5. Leave out the invented figure

   A price, a dose, a tariff or a legal rule is credited when the question supplies it or when you were taught that exact case. Guessing one does not help. The principle is enough. This page does not give medical advice.

6. 6. Obey the rubric

   Answer the number of essays the instruction allows. An extra unfinished answer does not replace one you left blank. On the practical test, complete the task the paper set. Business Management is not a substitute for a Management in Living question.

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How to use the time

The clock is on the timetable and on the front of the paper. This page does not copy a duration. The habit is the same on any length of paper.

1. 1. Read the front before you write

   Note how many essays you may answer. On the practical test, read the task before you start the plan. School candidates and private candidates follow the paper in front of them.

2. 2. Give each required essay a block

   Start with the question you find hardest while you are still calm. A script that is one long essay and several blank answers has not used the rubric.

3. 3. Treat the practical test as its own paper

   Paper 3 is not the last minutes of the essay. Use the time to plan the task, carry out what was asked, and explain the choice. A different task you prefer is not the brief.

4. 4. Plan in points, then write

   List the points for an essay as short lines, each with its reason. Then write them as prose. If two lines say the same thing, replace one before you fair copy.

5. 5. Leave a short reading at the end

   A second look catches a missing side of a distinction, a need you called a want, and a budget that skipped the income. The exam tips cover the morning of the paper. This page does not copy a duration.

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A short way to revise

Rotate the papers. A week of definitions with no budget and no practical task leaves two of the papers cold.

1. 1. Give each paper a turn

   One session for objective items, one for an essay you find hard, and one for a practical task such as a budget or a plan for air and safety in a room. Do not save paper 3 for the night before. Write the steps even when you are not in a house you can rearrange.

2. 2. Close the book and write the distinction

   Need against want. House against home. Nuclear against extended. A consumer right against a consumer responsibility. Write both sides, then check which sentence only renamed the first idea.

3. 3. Reject the wrong options

   On an objective item, say why the other options fail. A want offered as a need is a reason to reject an option, not a detail to ignore. A fan offered as ventilation, with no opening for air, is the same kind of reject.

4. 4. Have the answer marked

   Anna marks WASSCE Management in Living on glearn. Kevin is the coach on BECE practice. A written answer is marked point by point. Practise with Kevin and Anna on glearn.now. The first questions need no account.

5. 5. Keep Management in Living inside the wider plan

   The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. Food and Nutrition and Clothing and Textiles are different papers. Social Studies and Business Management overlap in places and they are still different papers. Career Technology at BECE has a home management strand, and it is not this paper. Revise them on their own guides. 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. 1. Ventilation named with no method

   The word ventilation is not the answer. Say that fresh air must enter and stale air must leave, then give a way, such as openings on different sides. A fan with every window shut has not solved it.

2. 2. A budget that is only the word

   Listing the steps is the answer: the income you can count on, needs before wants, amounts, a record, and a check. A price you invented, or the word budget with no order, does not earn the mark.

3. 3. A need swapped with a want

   A need is required for health and for the work of the home. A want is desired. Food for the household is not in the same class as a second decorative cushion. Say which one the question asked about.

4. 4. Communication with no barrier

   A definition of communication that never names a barrier, or a guideline, has not answered a question about why messages fail. Assuming, not listening, and a word you did not understand are internal barriers. Listening and checking what was heard are guidelines.

5. 5. A house written as if it were a home

   The building and the life inside it are different. An answer about renting a house does not, by itself, explain what makes that house a home. Put the side the question asked for.

6. 6. An invented price or dose

   A figure you made up does not earn the mark. State the practice and the reason. If the question gave a figure, use that figure. Do not turn a first aid point into a treatment, and do not invent a dose.