WAEC Examination 2021 – What Are The Odds?

With more and more students failing the WAEC exam, it seems that something needs to change. In 2020 alone, over 75% of students that took the test ultimately were unable to pass.

Most educators seem to forget that tests are meant to reflect reality accurately. In such cases, it is common to worry only about test scores. Even in the US, massive efforts were made to turn students into better test-takers. 

However, that represents not seeing the forest for the trees. If you prepare someone only to be a good test taker, then taking tests will be their only true quality. Rubber-stamping certificates will only make the world a worse place.

Yet, there is an advantage to exams over other forms of evaluations. For example, if you assign an essay task, students can just hire a cheap essay writing service and have them do most of the work.

In a way, having an examination that many people fail is great because exams are supposed to be aspirational. They should require a lot of hard work to pass. Climbing a mountain will always be more impressive than climbing a hill.

RECOMMENDED: WAEC Timetable 2021/2021 May/June Exams.

That being said, rhetoric about rising to challenging standards is fine until your child fails their exam. Yet, before we dive into the problem, let’s define what the WAEC is:

WAEC

The West African Examination Council is a designated examination body that administers the English-speaking areas of West Africa.

But why should you want their approval and certification? Well, they are more or less the gatekeepers for migration to the western English-speaking world.

If you want to move abroad via a degree program, you have to pass the WAEC exam.

Avoid last-minute learning

People tend to postpone doing work until the last minute. Nowhere is this impulse more evident than with students. Test-takers try to cram as much info as possible right before an exam.  This is a common counter-productive activity.

Similar to how you can’t get bulging muscles after a single week of intense workouts, you can’t assimilate vast amounts of information in a short period. Even if you can achieve such feats, your mind will be exhausted and prone to forgetting key details.

Also, cram sessions are only suitable for specific subjects.  For example, an area such as history and anatomy requires you to memorize a lot of facts. Math, on the other hand, has very little memorization and a lot of hard thinking.  Cramming for the Math exam is not very effective.

It should be mentioned that most problems with the WAEC exam are in English and Maths.

MUST-SEE: WAEC Online Study Materials For Candidates.

Learn about the exam

A good strategy would be to not only learn for the exam but to learn about the exam. It is relatively easy to get your hands on questions from previous years.

The WAEC commission would announce if there were any dramatic changes in the format. Lacking such an announcement, you can safely assume that you won’t waste your time studying and solving older tests. The odds dictate that the current year’s questions will be similar.

Also, you should check the WAEC Syllabus. Not every page of a textbook will be relevant to the exam. If you want to save time by only preparing relevant subjects, it would be best to consult the official syllabus.

The syllabus eliminates much guesswork out of the process and lets you target relevant information only.

Construct a schedule

It seems like the modern business world has three managers for every square foot of ground. “Management” is critical, as you come to realize that having time and resources is not enough.

As a student, your time is your most precious resource, and you must distribute it well. Let’s assume that you have six months left to study. It is advisable not to begin studying at random.

First, you should inventory what you already know or have learned and forgotten. Then, with the syllabus in hand, estimate the total amount of information that needs to be memorized.

After these factors are considered, write a schedule. If your English knowledge is excellent, try and cut back a little and assign that extra time for doing maths exercises.  Setting up a good program makes learning more accessible and forces you to inventory your current level of knowledge.

Otherwise, you will face another common pitfall: getting stuck on a single subject. Most of us want to learn in a linear progression. Even while solving exams, we tend to answer the questions in order.

So, when we get to a question we can’t answer, we get stuck and spend most of the exam time on a single problem. If we just skip that problem and move on, we can still get a high score.

With learning, the situation is similar. Save the troublesome aspects for the end, and move on if you get stuck.

Aim for a large volume of information while studying. This will make it almost impossible to fail, if not guarantee a high grade. Schedules will remind you that you can only spend a limited amount of time on a specific subject.

The more you sweat, the less you bleed.

“The more you sweat in training, the less you will bleed in war.” This quote highlights the need for preparation, and mock tests represent the best way to prepare for an examination.

The truth is that many students are extremely stressed on exam day, and stress can cause even a well-prepared person to fail. For this reason, exam simulations are superior.

During the period just before the exam, mock WAEC tests are usually held. It is strongly advised that you attend these simulations. They are designed to be identical to the real thing, allowing you to expose yourself to the stress of test-taking without ruining your grade.

Yet, try not to be affected by the result. Namely, do not let a failure discourage you, and do not neglect further studies if you pass. Treat the mock WAEC test as more of emotional preparation rather than an evaluation of your ability.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the WAEC exam is just an exam. It can be tempting to treat it as the most important event of your life because migration rights can depend on the result.

Despite this importance, regular test-taking advice still applies. Students need to avoid last-minute cram sessions, create a schedule, and learn about the exam itself.  A heavier focus should be placed on Maths and English since those are supposedly the subjects that cause the most failures.

ALSO SEE: Will There Be WAEC In 2021 (May/June)?