Tips on How to Pass English in WASSCE & NECO Examinations – Comprehension
Tips
on How to Pass English in WASSCE & NECO Examinations – Comprehension
Comprehension in WASSCE and NECO English Language papers.
COMPREHENSION
Instructions:
Read the instruction(s) before any other thing. This section usually carries 30 marks, and
you will be required to spend 30 minutes on it.
You will be required to read a given passage (of about 350 words) chosen
from a wide variety of sources, but within the level of your understanding, as
a candidate of WASSCE or NECO. You will
then be asked to answer all the questions that will be propounded.
You will be asked to answer a number of
questions bothering on your ability in the following areas (which your examiner
will be looking out for):
(a) Comprehending the content of the passage
factually and accurately;
(b) Finding appropriate synonyms or
equivalents for selected words and phrases;
(c) Identifying and explaining figures of
speech and literary expressions;
(d) Making inferences or conclusions from
the content of the passage;
(e) Understanding English expressions which
reveal attitudes/emotions/sentiments of the writer;
(f)
Identifying
vital grammatical structures, words phrases or clauses and explaining their
functions as they are presented in the context; and
(g) Recasting clauses, phrases or sentences
into grammatical alternatives.
What You Should Do To
Ensure Success:
First,
read through the passage once, with deep concentration. Go through the questions. Then read the passage a second time, taking
note of the key or topic sentence and other pertinent points as you read. Please endeavour to read fast and have a good
grasp of the content of the passage to enable you answer the questions well.
Now,
let us discuss in more details.
-
The
tense of verbs in your answers must harmonise with those of the questions.
If the tense of verbs in the question is past
simple, then the tense of verbs in your answers should also be in past simple,
and not in present tense nor in present continuous tense.
-
For
synonyms or equivalents that are needed to be used for replacement of
selected words and phrases, the function and
position of such selected words and phrases must be considered carefully, so
that the right ones are used. Not all
synonyms can convey the equivalent meaning/correct sense of selected words and
phrases in a sentence. You have to
carefully consider the aptness/suitability of the synonym as a perfect
replacement for the selected word or phrase, before you choose to use it.
Also, a correct synonym must be of the
same part of speech with the selected word; must be of the same tense if the
selected word is a verb; and must be of the same singular form or plural form
with the selected word, if such is a noun.
-
When asked to identify a figure of speech,
study the selected word or phrase to
know whether it is a ‘simile’ or ‘metaphor’ or any
other type, before writing it.
Generally, ‘similes’ go with the adverbs ‘like’ or ‘as’ e.g. the man is like a lion; and ‘metaphors’
go with the verb ‘is’ directly e.g. the
man is a lion.
-
When
asked questions that have to do with making inferences or conclusions
on the content of the passage provided, try to
deduce how one factor joined another factor, or how one idea added to another
to result into a particular development.
For example, if Mr. Green Black boarded a speedboat which capsized in
the Lagos Lagoon, but all the passengers were eventually rescued, one can infer
that Mr. Green Black was rescued, and did not die in the mishap.
-
When
asked to explain the attitude/emotion/sentiment of the writer in the
passage provided, look deeply at the expressions used
by the writer. Do the expressions depict
anger or love or harshness? Does the
writer sound condemnatory or judgemental or empathetic? A careful look at the type of words and
phrases used in the passage will help you to know the attitude of the writer,
and answer the pertinent question(s) correctly.
-
You
will be asked to give the grammatical name of a highlighted clause or
phrase, and also asked to state the function of
such. No one can give you a bracket
solution to these types of questions because they differ in the context under
which they are used, and also differ in their functions. However, please take this guide that such
clauses or phrases are usually adverbial
clause of time, adjectival clause, adjectival phrase, noun clause, noun phrase,
relative clause, etc. They are often
used to qualify a noun or a noun phrase, to modify a verb or to serve as a
subject of phrase.
(Please have it in mind
that I will treat the various types of clauses and phrases in another segment
in the future, by God’s grace).
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When
asked to recast a selected clause or phrase or sentence into a grammatical
alternative, the examiner is expecting you to
explain such expression with alternative words that will give clearer but
correct meaning. So, carefully consider
the meaning and purpose of such clause or phrase in the context in which they
are used, so as to know how to explain such, correctly in other words.
Finally, your answers should not be
stated just in single words. They should
be expressed in sentences or clauses that make complete sense. For example, if you are asked a question
like: ‘What shows in the passage that
the condemned criminal died?’ It will be
unsatisfactory to just say: ‘hanged’.
Rather, you should answer in a more satisfactory way by writing something
like: ‘The hangman hanged the criminal,
two months after being sentenced’.
Your answer, of course, should be in
accordance with the content of the passage.
Do not provide any answer outside the content of the passage.
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