The identified weaknesses of candidates were:
- poor understanding of the demands of the questions;
- poor spelling of labels and technical terms;
- use of wrong terms in answering questions e.g. splinter instead of splint, nails instead of claws, gaseous exchange instead of respiration etc;
- writing of scientific names with small letters e.g. agama agama instead of Agama agama;
- poor knowledge of experimental procedures especially those involving chemistry;
- poor knowledge of classification and Nitrogen cycle;
- inability to relate structure to function.
The following remedies were proffered to overcome these weaknesses:
- Candidates should be encouraged to read their books;
- Emphasis should be placed on teaching technical terms in biology;
- Rote learning should be discouraged in Biology;
- All students in secondary schools should be exposed to all science subjects in SS. I.
- Practical lessons should be an integral part of teaching science and not left to the end of SS III.