The reasons why Private Candidates fail 2018 English Language WAEC are summarized below, however, the same reasons are enough for general candidates to fail, if they fail to observe them.
Candidates’ Weaknesses
The weaknesses observed include:
- poor paragraphing;
- poor expression as a result of wrong concord, poor punctuation marks, wrong use of tenses, poor use of prepositions and articles;
- failure to grasp the requirements and demands of some questions attempted;
- inability to construct simple and correct sentences;
- wrong use of the first-person pronoun “I”;
- writing below the required number of words on the essay topics;
- illegible handwriting;
- use of SMS language such as “u” for you; “4” for for
- spelling errors;
- wrong use of the word “cause” instead of “because”, “there” for “their”;
- poor knowledge of the basic rules of English grammar;
- mindless lifting of answers from the passage;
- inability to restate in the candidate’s own words, ideas contained in the passage.
Suggested Remedies
Candidates should:
- endeavour to improve on their vocabulary and grammar in English Language through extensive reading;
- acquaint themselves with the techniques of answering questions;
- take time to understand the exact demands of questions before attempting to answer them;
- draw up an outline to organize their thoughts before writing their essays;
- read through their work to correct spelling and grammatical mistakes before submitting their scripts;
- practice essay writing constantly;
- converse regularly in simple and correct English expressions.
