Physics is an elective science for school candidates and for private candidates. It is not Integrated Science, and it is not Core Mathematics. 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 Physics. 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 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 longer questions, often split into parts, and many of them ask for a calculation or a diagram. 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 an experiment, a table, a graph, or a short account of what you did. 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 Physics. 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. Mechanics
Motion, force, work, energy, power, and simple machines. Say whether the acceleration is constant before you choose an equation. A start from rest means the initial speed is zero.
2. Heat
Temperature, heat capacity, change of state, and how energy moves. Name the quantity, the unit, and whether the substance is warming or changing state. Those are different calculations.
3. Waves
Sound and light, and the ideas they share: speed, frequency, wavelength, and amplitude. Say whether the wave is transverse or longitudinal when the question asks. A louder sound is a larger amplitude, not a higher speed in the same air.
4. Electricity and magnetism
Current, potential difference, resistance, power, and the force on a current in a magnetic field. An ammeter goes in series. A voltmeter goes across the component. Do not swap series and parallel.
5. The atom and radioactivity
The parts of the atom, and what a radioactive emission does. Name the particle or the ray the question asks for. Do not invent a half life the question did not give.
WASSCE syllabusWASSCE Physics past questionsMotionHeat energyWavesCurrent electricityMagnetism
How to answer theory and practical questions
The command word decides what a marker can credit. A calculation, an explanation, and a practical account are different answers.
1. Match the command
Calculate means a value with a unit. Show that means the result is already on the paper and the marks are in the working. State is a short fact. Explain is that fact plus a reason. Describe is what you would see or how the arrangement is set up. 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 line above it.
3. Lead with the point
Write the relation or the point the mark is for in the first line, then the substitution or the reason. A long paragraph that never states the point is hard to mark.
4. Draw what was asked
A circuit, a ray, or a graph should be the one in the question. Make it large enough to label. A label line touches the part it names and does not cross another label line.
5. Write a practical account in order
Apparatus, 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.
6. Obey the rubric
Answer the number of questions the paper asks for. Starting one more than that, and leaving it unfinished, spends time the marked answers needed.
Calculations and working
In Physics the working is the answer. A bare number at the end cannot show which relation you used.
1. Write the relation first
The formula is a mark. The substitution is a mark. The answer with its unit is a mark. Do not jump from the question to the number.
2. Convert before you substitute
A length in centimetres and a speed in metres per second cannot sit in the same line until one of them has been converted. Write the conversion so a marker can see it.
3. State a start from rest
If the body starts from rest, the initial speed is zero. Write that before you shorten the equation. Constant speed is distance over time. Constant acceleration needs the equations of motion. They are not the same model.
4. Keep the sign
A negative sign means the opposite direction to the one you called positive. Do not drop it because it looks untidy. Say which way you called positive when the question has two directions.
5. Label a graph before you read it
Each axis needs the quantity and the unit. A gradient is a change in the vertical quantity divided by a change in the horizontal quantity. One reading divided by another reading is not a gradient.
6. Head the practical table
Each column needs the quantity and the unit. Plot the points you measured. Draw a line of best fit when the instruction asks for one, and take the gradient from two points on that line.
A short way to revise
Rotate the three papers. A week of notes with no calculation and no practical account leaves two papers cold.
1. Give each paper a turn
One session for objective items, one for a full theory answer, one for a table, a graph, or a practical account. Do not save the practical paper for the night before.
2. Close the book and calculate
Write the relation, substitute, and put the unit on the result. Then check. Recognising a formula in a note is not the same as being able to use it.
3. Reject the wrong options
On an objective item, say why the other options fail, not only why one looks right. Check the unit of each option before you choose.
4. Have the answer marked
Anna marks WASSCE Physics 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 Physics inside the wider plan
The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. Integrated Science and Core Mathematics are different papers. 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. The right formula for the wrong motion
Reports often describe a constant speed formula used for a body that is accelerating, or an equation of motion used after the speed has become steady. Name the motion before you choose the relation.
2. A bare number
The unit is part of the answer. A distance written as a speed, or a power written with no unit, drops the last mark even when the arithmetic was right.
3. Mixed units
Centimetres left beside metres, or grams left beside a value that is per kilogram, change the result by a factor you did not mean. Convert first.
4. A graph that cannot be read
Axes with no quantity, or a gradient taken from a single plotted point, hide the result. Label the axes, then use two points on the line of best fit.
5. Series and parallel swapped
In a series path the current is the same through each component. Across parallel branches the potential difference is the same. The instruments follow the same rule: an ammeter in series, a voltmeter across.
6. A method with no observation
On the practical paper the observation, or the reading in the table, is the evidence. The conclusion comes after it. A list of apparatus is not a result.
Keep these open while you revise
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