In accordance to the information made available by the council, here are the Reasons Why Candidates Fail 2016 Biology WAEC Theory. The conclusion was arrived after through examinations of common but most popular mistake made by the students. The weaknesses are:

  1. poor drawings and not drawing to scale;
  2. not writing titles of the diagrams drawn;
  3. inability to label diagrams correctly e.g., some candidates could not label the vacuole in the typical plant cell drawn in question 1 (b);
  4. inability to name the organs that constitute the alimentary canal in sequence in question 2(a);
  5. inability to correspond the answers to questions on comparison;
  6. mistaking the roles of pancreas in digestion for the roles of pancreas in the regulation of blood sugar in question 2(d);
  7. inability to state the source of energy when describing the energy flow in a fresh water habitat in question 3(b);
  8. inability to state the structural differences and similarities in the alimentary canal of a bird and human in question 2(b);
  9. inability to apply the knowledge of fingerprinting to crime detection

General Remedies by the Chief Examiners

In line with what were highlighted as the weaknesses, the council through the chief examiner compiled the following remedies:

  1. teachers should teach students the rules guiding drawing of biological diagrams;
  2. teachers should make students draw from original specimens and according to the specified size;
  3. students should practice the use of technical terms often so as to know how to spell them correctly;
  4. teachers should tell students that adaptation questions require stating the structure with its function to score;
  5. students should endeavour to correspond answers that require comparison;
  6. the correct definition of biological terms should be encouraged;
  7. schools should provide teaching aids and models to help students understand biological concepts;
  8. teachers should ensure they complete the syllabus.

Candidates strength in the Examination

The observed strengths of the candidates include;

  1. ability to answer questions that require listing and naming examples;
  2. ability to draw the shape of the plant cell properly;
  3. ability to follow instructions stated;
  4. tabulation of answers to the questions that required tables;
  5. ability to answer the questions peculiar to their country;
  6. presentation of answers neatly;
  7. ability to state the roles of decomposers in the ecosystem properly in question 3(a)(ii);
  8. ability to explain habitat properly;
  9. ability to match blood donors with recipients correctly in question 4(a)(ii);

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