9 Reasons Why Candidates Fail 2019 Chemistry WAEC Practical

The Chemistry practical isn’t so hard as it is usually of 2 parts of which the parts are to be pre-taught before the examination day. Unfortunately, many students still fail and the Reasons Why Candidates Fail 2019 Chemistry WAEC Practical is the focal point of this article.

Candidates’ weaknesses in the paper were evident in the following areas:

1. inability to draw logical conclusions from observations made during tests;
2. some candidates carried out test directly on the solid sample instead of solution;
3. lack of knowledge on recrystallization procedure;
4. inability to calculate mass concentration of solution;
5. poor knowledge of significant figures;
6. non-adherence to instructions, especially with regard to stepwise tests;
7. use of wrong symbols to represent ions;
8. poor knowledge of the mole concept;
9. arithmetic errors and omission.

WAEC Recommendations in Boosting Candidate’s Performance

Gross examination of the year’s performance led to the following observations which could have added more grades to the students were it be they keyed in. The following are recommended by the council

The candidates were unable to:

Candidates should:

1. understand the demands of the questions before responding to them;
2. improve on their mathematical skill;
3. be familiar with the examination syllabus;
4. be familiar with ions and their symbols;
5. learn how to write IUPAC names of compounds correctly;
6. improve on their study habit;
7. qualified teachers should be allowed to teach the subject;
8. early exposure of candidates to practical;

General Candidate’s Strengths observed.

Candidates’ strengths in the paper were evident in the following areas:

1. majority of the candidates were able to carry out titrations and obtained concordant titre values;
2. a good number of the candidates were able to calculate average titre value;
3. majority of the candidates were able to present the experimental results in correct format;
4. identification of the gas evolved during test tube reactions;
5. ability to state the mathematical relationship between molar mass, mass concentration and molar concentration.
6. determination of percentage purity;
7. ability to state the unit of average titre value.

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