The Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE, is a major exam conducted to assess and qualify a student for the secondary cycle of education. Each year, thousands of students are prepared by thousands of educational institutions and professionals to successfully go through the exams.
Should preparations and enlightenment on BECE start as late as JHS3? Are we all passing students impacting enough on these young candidates for them to sit for these papers without fear of failure and the spirit of inadequacy? Journey with me as I take you through my personal experience a few years back in the same lane as a BECE candidate and a few things that can help to prepare you adequately for a BECE pass with a Grade As.
How To Pass BECE With Good Grades
A journey of thousand miles they say begins with a step. Let’s talk about part of this journey that is normally introduced a few months before the exams. Normally the fever is introduced when the student steps into the 3rd year (JHS 3), year of exams.
Should it be so? Considering the pattern of BECE questions, most often, questions are set to cover a wide angle of studies. Why am I making this point? Both the teacher and the pupils must be constantly reminded that the’s a big day ahead in a few ya years to come. Hence, each academic work and practice inculcated into the student will be done to prepare him/her to be geared toward the BECE.
Let’s take a look and discuss some of these practices that our students will benefit greatly from when they are introduced to them at the very junior level.
1. Get yourself a notebook or jotter
Taking short notes from what you read or learn is very important during your studies. Aside from the very lengthy lecture notes that are written or dictated to us, most often back in the day, we had these small notebooks (we normally term them as “singing notebooks) that we keep in our pockets each time. We normally refer to them for reminders.
In it, we jot down very important key points and terms in every lesson taught by the teacher. Very often it could even entail diagrams naming parts of a particular object or even probably illustrations and examples made by the teacher as he explains a difficult area. Oh yes!!
I remember I had this science and math teacher that coins all the science experiments and topics into pleasant musical tunes where we use the scientific terms as lyrics. We write these into our small memory book anytime any day. This helped me through my university days. I still do remember very key and even minute things on topics such as the respiratory system, plants, digestive system, etc.
2. Constant revision of topics and notes.
They say practice makes perfect. Constantly reading your notes over and over again, hitting the nail right in the head again and again will hammer in most things that you might even find difficult to remember. It will assist you as a student to familiarize yourself with all the topics and even be a push button for you to thirst for more information regarding what you keep revising.
I say learning is a habit. If you don’t inculcate it, education would be very unpleasant for you. So start it early. Develop a love for it by revising your notes. Revisit what you are taught always. You will see that even if you so hate that topic, with time the hatred becomes even a push for you to learn it well.
Talking about me, I found out I was a reader, so my technique for studying reading subjects was to keep reading the topics often while I jot down the vital parts.
3. Understand what you read
The third on my list is for you to understand what you read. As you constantly read, you would eventually aim at understanding what you keep reading, otherwise, that will be a waste of time on your part. You need to comprehend the terms, the explanations, the definitions, and the formulas.
Key them in, work them out, and challenge what you read to see if it makes sense to you. Be a little adventurous. At times, practically in my mind, I station myself in a court of law, where I oppose and stand to challenge or debate what I’m reading. It helps me come to terms with what the lesson notes are saying and also helps with memorizing. To achieve this, I start right from the classroom by being attentive during lessons. This is because the moment I allow myself to get distracted, I’m unable to follow what is being explained, hence ’ll need to do extra work with my notes in order to the topic. So I try to follow the teacher. When I face difficulties, I immediately alert the teacher to aid me understand before we move on.
4. Have a study group
Make positive friends who express energy or zeal towards academic excellence. Come to think of it what’s the goal? To make good grades in your BECE. No matter the type of student you are, whether average, below average, or above, invest your time in helping the ones that have difficulty in their studies and are willing to be assisted. It will help challenge you to fill your own tank as you become an outlet to others. On the other hand, form alliances with the smart ones too. When I was in the JHS, we were only 7 in class. So we had the bonus of forming a small group studies team. Where we compete the best with the group in our mock and terminal exams. In these groups, we made sure we were mixed (average with below average). It will surprise you how focused everyone became in helping each other, serving as a reminder, and even going as far as making sure you copy your note and make lesson notes in other to come explain things to your colleagues the next day.
Oh, how prepared we were and we didn’t get disappointed!!!!
What Do You Do During The BECE Exams? Tips and Tricks
Now that you are fully equipped, it’s normal to have a level of anxiety but don’t let it get the best part of you. Know that, anxiety can cause you much harm. It can either create unnecessary fear of failure in you or otherwise give you complacency or overconfidence.
This will make you rush to answer questions with a wrong understanding. So be patient. Stay calm but ready. Say a prayer and then do these;
- Read and understand all instructions on the paper before you begin answering the question. Some questions are compulsory and others are optional and these are stated in the instructions. Instructions also let you know what is required from you in your answer. It is essential to do this in the first minutes of the examination even before they announce that you are to start work.
- Make sure to read through the questions and especially the headings and understand what is required. Before attempting any question, understand the question itself. As the saying goes, part of the question Is the answer. Failing to fully understand what the question is seeking can cost you a great deal. Take time to understand every question that you intend to answer.
- Attempt the questions you know you have enough knowledge on before any other question follows. Don’t try battling out the ones you ain’t familiar with. It will waste your time and leave you with minimum time to answer those you are rather good at. How painful it will be to be asked to drop pens while you are yet to give the best of your knowledge on paper!!
- Manage the time given to you well. Make use of every minute that is given to you in the exam hall although it may not be enough. Ensure that you don’t waste time or get distracted or else you will be intimidated when they start announcing the time left for the examination to end. Do not expect additional time will be given to you. Making good use of time will also make sure you have time to go through your answers and make corrections where needed. Wasting time will pressure you at the last minute and that can affect your thinking.
- Lastly, make sure you leave no required questions unanswered. Be on top of your game. Pour out all you know when if you have the slightest clue about a topic. Half a loaf they say is better than none. Better you give a half-correct answer than to leave the entire sheet blank because of fear and doubt. This is your time, you can, you have an idea so write it down. After all, Sir isn’t around to whip you for writing down what you think nor are there your peers to laugh at your answer as they do in class…..lol. Who knows… you just might be right.
Conclusion
In the year,2010, I passed my BECE with good grades and I’ve kept on facing my education with sane techniques and sailing through to date. BECE is an exam that almost every student in West Africa writes. It’s no scary attempt if you prepare well and believe in your capabilities.
You are good enough, just push a bit harder and you will be through in just 1 week. But the lessons and benefits of exerting yourself will be with you through your education.
Best of outcomes to you all.
