BECE

Guide to Answering English Comprehension Questions

Students preparing for the WASSCE, BECE, JHSCE, JAMB, and any other WAEC and non-WAEC exams need to understand the steps to follow when answering English comprehension-related questions. In this all-important educational article, we will provide learners, candidates, and teachers with our well-thought-out guide to answering English comprehension questions.

This article will look at:

The types of comprehension questions that WAEC can ask at the BECE and WASSCE.
The types of word replacement questions that are usually asked by WAEC.
The best ways to write your comprehension answers to earn the highest marks.

These three aspects will make students at the Junior and Senior High school levels super ready to do well in the comprehension part of the English language paper.

What are the types of comprehension questions that WAEC can ask at the BECE and WASSCE?

There are three types of comprehension questions WAEC usually asks candidates. These are:

Literal Questions: Literal questions demand that students understand the questions and can absorb the meaning of the passage. An example of such a question is, “What did the chief tell his people at the durbar?”
Interpretive Questions: These questions are asked to see if the candidate understands the underlying implications of an issue in the passage. Example of a question: Why was everybody surprised by what the chief said at the palace?
Applied Questions: These are comprehension questions that focus on translating topics into real-world situations. Example: Why did the village folks race to the chief’s palace?
Appreciative Questions: These questions look at the reader’s response based on their personal feelings. Example: Why do you think there was laughter in the chief’s palace?

How to replace words in a given passage correctly

Word replacement questions at the BECE and WASSCE remain an important part of comprehension and are used to test the strength of the vocabulary of students.

To get this right:

Identify the part of speech the underlined word belongs to, such as verb, noun, adverb, adjective, etc. If it is a verb, note the verb tense, such as past, present, continuous, etc. This should help you provide a better word that fits the underlined word.
Also, consider the context in which the underlined word is used.

Example 1: The man was killed on the spot when he was hit by the car. The correct answer would be knocked down. For such questions, you need the context in which the word is being used.
Example 2: The goat was killed by the butcher. Here, the best replacement would be slaughtered and not knocked down. In this example, you need the dictionary meaning of the underlined word.
Example 3 (with the word “Killed”): The high cost of electricity killed businesses. In this instance, the word “killed” can be replaced by “destroyed” and not knocked down or slaughtered. This explains the situation where the connotative nature of the underlined word is used. This is the association of certain words with emotions related to the word.

The best ways to write your comprehension answers to earn the highest marks

If the comprehension question contains words such as mention, state, give, list, itemise, outline, enumerate, etc., write straightforward answers.

Example: What food did the children eat? Mention the books found in Kuma’s bag.

Let us look at this extract: “…In a clear voice, the king decreed all thieves will be killed.”

Question for this above extract: What did the king say will be done to thieves?
Answer: The thieves will be killed (Correct)
Wrong: The king decreed that all thieves will be killed in a loud voice. Avoid writing such answers that lift passages as answers.

READ: 10 things you must never do in the exam hall?

Avoid lifting sections of the passage that contain the needed answers in their raw state. Your answer will be marked down if the lifted passage is not well refined and simplified and if the lifted section contains portions of the passage that are not needed as answers. This kind of answer shows that you do not know the exact answer.