Visual Arts at WASSCE is General Knowledge in Art plus the practical papers you are entered for. On the Ghana timetable, General Knowledge in Art is its own written subject. Picture making, graphic design, textiles, ceramics, sculpture, jewellery, basketry and leatherwork are their own papers. You sit the ones on your entry, not every name on the timetable. WAEC sets the papers. Glearn Technologies writes this guide. Glearn does not set the papers, and glearn does not publish a pass rate. Read the timetable for your own series. Anna marks WASSCE answers. Kevin is the coach on BECE practice.
General Knowledge in Art and the practical papers
General Knowledge in Art is the written examination. It has an objective paper and an essay paper. On many series the two are taken at one sitting, with the essay before the objective paper. 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.
The essay paper tests general knowledge in art and art history. Expect the elements and principles of art, the art of West Africa including Ghana, and other art the syllabus names, such as prehistoric art, ancient Egyptian art and Western art. Where the paper is divided into sections, the front says how many essays to answer and that they come from more than one section. This page does not copy that number. A script that stays in the section you prefer has not answered the paper. If the question paper and this page disagree, follow the question paper.
The practical papers are separate subjects. Picture making, graphic design, textiles, ceramics, sculpture, jewellery, basketry and leatherwork are the names that appear for Visual Arts candidates. Several of them include studio work on the day and a project arranged before the written sitting. Follow the instruction for the subject you are entered for. A material you were not told to prepare is not part of the paper.
Topic areas to revise
These are the areas Visual Arts candidates revise. 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. Elements, principles, colour and perspective
The elements are line, colour, space, shape, form and texture. Shape is flat. Form has depth. Texture can be the surface you can feel, or the look of a surface. The principles include balance, rhythm, proportion, harmony, emphasis and variety. Harmony is how the parts belong together. Emphasis is the part the eye goes to first. Colour has hue, and it can be warm or cool. A primary colour cannot be mixed from the other colours. Linear perspective uses lines that meet as they go back. Aerial perspective uses paler, cooler colour for what is far away. Foreshortening is a form that looks shorter because of the angle you see it from.
2. Tools, materials and the branches of art
Name a tool by the job it does, and say how it is cared for. A brush is washed and shaped. A pencil is kept sharp. Clay is kept at the dampness the job needs. The branches of art include drawing, painting, sculpture, graphic design, textiles and ceramics. A career answer names the work and the skill it uses. Graphic design is not the same job as sculpture. Music, dance, drama and literature are related arts. They are not the same as a drawing, and a question that asks for the relationship wants the difference as well as the link.
3. Art of West Africa and Ghana
Traditional art has a people, a material, a use and a belief behind it. Asante, Fante and Ewe work are not interchangeable. Kente is a woven cloth. Adinkra is a printed symbol cloth, and each symbol has a name and a meaning. Write both only when you know them. A stool, a linguist staff, pottery, wood carving and brass casting are different objects. Say what the object is for. A court object and a household object are not the same answer. Contemporary artists and art teachers belong in this revision too. Name a person only when you can say what they made or what they taught.
4. Other art the syllabus names
Prehistoric art, ancient Egyptian art and selected Western art are used so you can compare them with African art. Describe what you can see and what the culture used the work for. Do not invent a date, a museum, or a story about an artist. If you are not sure of a period, describe the features and leave the year out. A comparison needs both sides. Stopping after the African example has answered half of the question.
5. The practical you are entered for
Picture making includes drawing and painting from objects, from nature and from life, and composing a picture to a brief. Graphic design includes lettering and layout for a poster, a label or a sign. Textiles include dyeing, printing and weaving. Ceramics includes preparing clay, forming, decorating and firing. Biscuit ware is clay fired once and not yet glazed. It is not food. Sculpture includes carving, modelling and construction. Relief projects from a background. Jewellery, basketry and leatherwork follow the material and the process in the brief. Revise the subjects on your entry. A week on ceramics does not prepare a textiles paper. Clothing and Textiles is a Home Economics examination. It is not this studio paper.
WASSCE syllabusPast questions with answersWASSCE Visual Arts past questionsElements and principlesDrawing from observationColour and paintingGraphic designSculpture and modellingWASSCE General Knowledge in Art past questionsColourLetteringArt historyGhanaian and African artWASSCE Technical Drawing past questionsBECE Creative Arts and Design tipsChoosing an SHS programmeWASSCE Clothing and Textiles tips
Points, terms, and the practical
A theory mark is for a point a marker can see. A practical mark is for work that answers the brief. A name with no reason is hard to credit.
1. Match the command
Define is the meaning. State is a short fact. Explain is that fact plus a reason. Describe is what you can see, in order. Compare needs both sides. Discuss or examine needs a judgement tied to the work, not a cheer. A definition does not answer a question that asked you to compare two cultures.
2. One point, a named example, and a reason
Build each paragraph as a short chain. The point, a work or a people or a material that shows it, and why that example fits. Kente as woven cloth is one example. Adinkra as printed symbols is a different example. Do not use one to stand for the other.
3. Use the art term for the thing it means
Shape is not form. Balance is not emphasis. A silhouette is the outline seen as a flat shape. Relief is not a free standing sculpture. Tie and dye is a resist method. If you are not sure of the term, describe the thing in plain words rather than guess the term.
4. On the practical, obey the brief
Read what to make, the size if one is given, and the materials you were told to prepare. Plan the layout before you commit paint, dye or clay. Lettering must be readable. A beautiful object that ignores the brief has not answered the question. Label a drawing when the question asks for labels.
5. Leave out the invented fact
A year you are not sure of, an artist you cannot connect to a work, or a meaning you composed for an Adinkra symbol does not strengthen a point. The feature you can see, and the use you can explain, are enough.
6. Obey the rubric
On the essay, spread the answers across the sections the instruction names. An extra unfinished essay from your favourite section does not replace a required section you left blank. On a practical, answer the questions the paper says are compulsory for your subject.
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. Read the front before you write
Note how many essays you may answer and which sections they must come from. On a practical, note the size, the materials and what must be finished before you leave. Starting one more task than that, and leaving it unfinished, spends time the marked work needed.
2. Pick the spread first
Choose the essay section you find hardest while you are still calm, and give it a question you can actually answer. Leaving that section until the last minutes is how it gets missed.
3. Plan the studio work before you start
A light drawing of the layout, or a note of the steps for clay or cloth, saves a restart. Mix only the colour you need. Keep the brief where you can see it. A project arranged before the sitting still has to match the instruction you were given.
4. Plan in points, then write
List the points for an essay as short lines, each with its example. Then write them as prose. If two lines say the same thing, replace one before you fair copy.
5. Leave a short reading at the end
A second look catches a section you skipped, a term you swapped, and a practical that drifted off the brief. The exam tips cover the morning of the paper. This page does not copy a duration.
A short way to revise
Rotate the papers. A week of definitions with no studio work, or a week in the studio with no art history, leaves part of the examination cold.
1. Give each paper a turn
One session for objective items in General Knowledge in Art, one for an essay from a section you find hard, and one for the practical subject you are entered for. Do not save the practical for the night before. If you offer two studio subjects, each one needs its own session.
2. Close the book and write the chain
Pick a question stem you have seen, such as a comparison or a definition. Write the points from memory, each with one example. Then check which example belonged to a different people or a different material.
3. Reject the wrong options
On an objective item, say why the other options fail. Form offered as a flat shape is a reason to reject an option, not a detail to ignore. An Adinkra meaning you are not sure of is a reason to leave that option until you can check it.
4. Have the answer marked
Anna marks WASSCE answers 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. Keep Visual Arts inside the wider plan
The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. Creative Arts and Design at BECE is a different paper. The programme guide says what Visual Arts is for after the BECE. This page does not copy a date.
WASSCE revision planHow to pass the WASSCEBECE Creative Arts and Design 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. An element written as a principle
Line, colour, space, shape, form and texture are elements. Balance, rhythm, proportion, harmony, emphasis and variety are principles. A list that mixes them has not answered a question that asked for one of the two.
2. Shape and form treated as one word
Shape is flat. Form has depth. A circle is a shape. A pot is a form. A script that uses the two words as synonyms has lost the distinction.
3. A guessed Adinkra meaning
The symbol, its name and its meaning are three facts. If you know only the look of the symbol, describe that. Do not invent the proverb.
4. Kente and Adinkra treated as the same cloth
Kente is woven. Adinkra symbols are printed. A question about one is not answered by a description of the other.
5. A practical that ignores the brief
The size, the words to letter, the colours you were told to use, and the object you were told to make are the question. A different object, however careful, has not answered it.
6. Staying in one essay section
The rubric asks for a spread when it names more than one section. Essays from only the section you prefer have not answered the paper.
Keep these open while you revise
WASSCE practiceWASSCE syllabusPast questions with answersWASSCE Visual Arts past questionsElements and principlesDrawing from observationColour and paintingGraphic designSculpture and modellingWASSCE General Knowledge in Art past questionsElements and principles of the written paperColourLetteringArt historyGhanaian and African artWASSCE General Knowledge in Art tipsWASSCE Technical Drawing tipsWASSCE Technical Drawing past questionsBECE Creative Arts and Design tipsChoosing an SHS programmeWASSCE Clothing and Textiles tipsWASSCE revision planHow to pass the WASSCEWASSCE exam tipsWASSCE timetableWASSCE grade calculatorWASSCE for private candidatesWASSCE Food and Nutrition tipsCreate a free accountWAEC Ghana WASSCE for schoolsWAEC Ghana timetableWAEC Ghana
Practise with Kevin and Anna