“One cannot but wonder why weak candidates seem genuinely puzzled at their low scores. What they expect for their lousy performance only God knows.
“Every so often, disappointed candidates send up the doleful wail, ‘The Exams Council has failed me!’ Others pout as they moan, ‘I’ve given my best to the Exams Council, but it seems my best was not good enough to satisfy that Council. It’s an insatiable bully, a sadist, a vampire thirsting for blood’,” Naa Afarley Sackeyfio, ‘A Touch of Class in Senior English’.
“The questions (on comprehension) include: individual words to be explained in relation to their context; questions testing comprehension of the whole or part of a given passage; turning direct speech into indirect speech and vice-versa; phrases or sentences to be recast or explained; synthesis and exercises in sentence construction; recognition, comprehension and use of the simple figures of speech,” I.K. Gyasi, ‘A Textbook Of English’.
The WASSCE test in ‘comprehension’ seeks to assess the student’s understanding of a given passage
The types of comprehension questions can be grouped in several ways. Some authors group them under: General grammar; Vocabulary; Optional/Free Answers and Implication. Other writers group them under: Content; Derivative and Appreciative questions.
The aim under General grammar is to test the student’s language skills and determine how much he knows about the basic rules in writing. The student must know, for example, the different types of sentences: Simple sentence; Compound sentence; Compound-complex sentence. He must be able to distinguish between ‘sentence’ and ‘phrase’.
The student is also expected to identify the various word- classes (parts of speech): Nouns; Pronouns; Adjectives; Verbs; Adverbs; Prepositions; Conjunctions and Interjections
It is expected that the student will be able to tell the grammatical function of a word, that is what the word does in a sentence, e.g. (i) The boy hit one of his friends hard QUESTION: What is the grammatical name given to the italicized word in this sentence? ANSWER: Adverb.
QUESTION: What is its grammatical function? ANSWER: It gives a clearer meaning to the verb ‘hit’. Compare this with the following: (ii) They were given hard questions. QUESTION: What is the grammatical name given to the italicized word in the sentence? ANSWER: Adjective. QUESTION: What is its grammatical function? ANSWER: It qualifies the noun ‘question’. (iii) ‘…if he is busy’.
QUESTION: What is the grammatical name given to the above construction? ANSWER: Conditional clause.
QUESTION: Should a vehicle get close to a passer-by, the driver will blow his horn. (i) What is the grammatical name of the expression in italics? (ii) What is its grammatical function? ANSWER: (i) Adverbial clause of condition (ii) It modifies the verb ‘will blow’.
It is required that the student be familiar with some of the common literary terms and devices (e.g. figures of speech): metaphor, paradox, simile, personification, euphemism, idioms and hyperbole.
The aim under Vocabulary is to test the student’s vocabulary, that is, to show what he knows about words and their meanings- as they are used in a passage, NOT as they may mean in a different context, or as they may mean to him.
Where the question demands the replacement of words or expressions, the substitutes must fit into the passage perfectly, taking account of the tense, gender, agreement and all other grammatical constructions relating to part of speech. QUESTION: For the word in italics, give another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it in the passage: (i) As we sat in the room and watched the television, Irene sneaked into the dining room. ANSWER: walked stealthily. It will be wrong to write, for example, ‘walks stealthily’ because if this phrase is transposed into the sentence, it will read wrongly: As we sat in the room and watched the television, Irene walks stealthily into the dining room’. QUESTION: For the word in italics, give another word or phrase that means the same and which can replace it in the passage. (ii) The lady was arrested for assaulting her house- help. ANSWER: beating. It will be wrong to write, for example ‘beat’ because if this word is transposed into the sentence, it will read wrongly: The lady was arrested for beat her house-help. The aim under Optional/Free Answer is to get the student to use his own words to show his understanding of a passage.
To get a satisfactory answer, he must look out for the pervasive theme or word to show his understanding of a passage he is tested on.
The aim under Implication is to get the student to comment on the implication of particular words or phrases in a passage. These may take the form of idiomatic expressions, proverbs or local parlance, e.g. ‘Our father was over-zealous about advising his teenage daughters. On one occasion, he woke them up at dawn and delivered to them a sermon, not on the mountain, but on the mantel’. QUESTION: What does the writer’s reference to a ‘sermon’ tell you about the teenage girls’ attitude towards their father’s advice? ANSWER: They were displeased with the advice.
The following points should be borne in mind: Read the passage and the questions carefully several times over (as time may allow you). Follow the instructions and satisfy the specific demands of the questions, e.g. unless specifically stated, do not give answers in full sentences. Sometimes you may be required to select a word to replace one in a sentence. Write only the word down for an answer, e.g. QUESTION: His father was a kind man. Find a suitable word that can replace the word in italics. ANSWER: generous. It will be wrong to write: ANSWER: generous or open-hearted. The latter answer is wrong because ‘generous’ and ‘open-hearted’ are two words, not one word. You may use your own words, but do not give your own comments or show your own sentiments. Do not give more than one answer to one question unless specifically instructed. Ensure accuracy in grammar, construction and spelling.
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By Africanus Owusu-Ansah
