HOW TO PASS THE “LEXIS AND STRUCTURE” PAPER OF THE NIGERIAN WAEC/NECO ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAMS.

 1.This paper is made up 100 questions for 100 marks. It is composed of   lexical and structural questions. Two fill-in-the-gap comprehension passages   moved from PAPER 1 have also been added in recent years.

2. Using the latest paper set by WAEC the question types were as follows: finding

a). words most nearly opposite in meaning to underlined words…10

b). words that best complete sentences…10

c). interpretations most appropriate for sentences…10

d). words or groups of words nearest in meaning to underlined words…10

e). words or groups of words that best complete sentences…33

f). words to fill  gaps of  two comprehension passages…27

3. Speed and accuracy are essential under “lexis &structure”. The instructions for the paper are usually very helpful…”answer ALL questions…be sure u understand the instructions at the beginning of each section…do not spend too much time on a question….”. Likewise do not rush to pick an option that LOOKS CORRECT.Some options can be categorized as fair,good,likely,reasonable.And u might be tempted to pick them whereas what the examiner wants from you is the BEST OPTION.To pick the best option you need to CHECK ALL  OPTIONS AVAILABLE!.

NOTE

Lexis and structure questions under WAEC Paper 2 can be described as very similar to lexis and structure questions under Jamb’s  ‘Use of English’. Please see our write-up on how to pass Jamb(DECODING A BIG PUZZLE FOR NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS (PART 2)) which is hereby quoted below

4. The questions are to test the student’s genuine understanding and use of lexical and structural terms rather than their dictionary meanings. So a good tutor must lead his student on how to avoid errors arising from:

5.   Vocabulary i.e. meaning, choice, and spelling of words

6.  Meaning of words…definitions, illustrative sentence, words in their context, prefixes, suffixes, words from various sources such as Latin, Greek, French etc.

7. Choice of word… synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, homophones and  malapropisms.

8. Idiomatic Expressions and Collocation…such as “hook, line and sinker” or “Tom, Dick and Harry” etc.The  total meaning of these words cannot be arrived at by the consideration of the dictionary meanings of the words in the situation they appear

9. Grammar…Parts of speech…nouns ,verbs( finite, infinite, transitive, intransitive), pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, phrases and clauses.

10. Figurative usage…Allegory, Alliteration, Anti-climax .Antithesis, Assonance, Blank verse, Climax. Elegy, Epitaph, Epigram, Euphemism, Euphony, Hyperbole, Innuendo, Irony, Litotes, Metaphor, Metonymy, Ode, Onomatopoeia,  Oxymoron, Paradox, Parody, Personification ,Pun, Saga, Sarcasm, Satire, Simile, Sonnet, Syllepsis, Synecdoche. Zeugma

11. Analysis of sentence…Simple and complex analyses into clauses for nouns, adjectives,  adverbs etc.

12.  Errors to avoid (of usage, style and grammar) (tutors interested should contact us for examples if need be. Its free service!)

(a).   Errors of usage…words wrongly used, clichés, jargon, slang, foreign words and phrases, tautology, misuse of the hyphen.

(b).  Errors of style…breach of proximity, ambiguity, non sequitur

(c). Grammatical Errors…errors of attraction, non-agreement of the relative, distributives with plural verbs, relative in  the wrong case, wrong use of superlative, misrelated participle, confusion of gerund with present participle, inconsistency in use of pronouns ,wrong verb forms, wrong use of verb in the past tense, wrong concord, confusion of similar pairs, active for passive….please see details under Comedy of Errors write-up

13.NOTE/ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: For years WAEC has been producing chief examiners reports specifying these errors in detail with specific examples to be listed soon under a write up titled COMEDY ERRORS BY NIGERIAN STUDENTS.Is it too much to ask tutors to use these reports as basis for guidance of students? No we do not think so! We consider these Examiner’s Reports as a key for unlocking the door of knowledge required by students for doing fairly well in their exams.

14.RELEVANCE OF LAGOS BOOK CLUB AND RELATED LIBRARIES

The use of dictionaries and thesaurus available at  good libraries such as LBC is essential for vocabulary development which constitute the foundation for lexis and structure. There are at least 50 different types of these at LBC! Students should also try their hands on crossword puzzles, anagrams,  word  games such as scrabbles, read novels, magazines and news papers. These are areas of strength of LBC.

15 .Students should also take note of foreign words and of recent changes in the language with new terms such as “gridlock” “nerd” “wannabee” “stakeholder” or “ luvie”. They are important for synonyms. Also remember there are now foreign words that are acceptable such as “femme fatale”

16. Most of the direction to be given to students for lexis and structure  concern errors which are also available under the following write-ups by EDUPEDIA:

a). Comedy of  Errors( Essay Writing/Comprehension)

b. The Big Puzzle About Jamb’s Use of English

c). 2500 WAEC-RELATED Words for Vocabulary Development and Spelling Practice.

d).750 WAEC-RELATED Dangerous Pairs for Reduction of Spelling Errors (Phonetic Misspellings)

17. Other suggestions which relate to taking objective papers can also be found under the write-up titled PASSING JAMB/SAT/TOEFL EXAMS WITH LESS WORK AND NO CHEATING! All these write-ups will be coming up on this weblog soonest…Please stay tuned…

Thank you.