1. CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES

The weaknesses observed include:

1. poor paragraphing;
2. poor expression as a result of wrong concord, poor punctuation marks, wrong use of tenses, poor use of prepositions and articles;
3. failure to grasp the requirements and demands of some questions attempted;
4. inability to construct simple and correct sentences;
5. wrong use of the first person pronoun “I”;
6. writing below the required number of words on the essay topics;
7. illegible handwriting;
8. use of SMS language such as “u” for you; “4” for for
9. spelling errors;
10. wrong use of the word “cause” instead of “because”, “there” for “their”;
11. poor knowledge of the basic rules of English grammar;  
12. mindless lifting of answers from the passage;
13. inability to restate in the candidate’s own words, ideas contained in the passage.

1. SUGGESTED REMEDIES

Candidates should:

1. endeavour to improve on their vocabulary and grammar in English Language through extensive reading;
2. acquaint themselves with the techniques of answering questions;
3. take time to understand the exact demands of questions before attempting to answer them;
4. draw up an outline to organize their thoughts before writing their essays;
5. read through their work to correct spelling and grammatical mistakes before submitting their scripts;
6. practice essay writing constantly;
7. converse regularly in simple and correct English expressions.