How to Answer WAEC NECO GCE Reading Comprehension Questions

A Guide to WAEC, NECO, GCE Reading Comprehension Questions

Reading comprehension is a critical component of English exams like WAEC, NECO, and GCE. Mastering this section can significantly enhance your chances of success. This post explains how  to answer WAEC, NECO, GCE Reading Comprehension Questions. Below are strategies, explanations, and practical examples to help you confidently tackle comprehension questions.

What is Comprehension?

Another word for comprehension is understanding. When applied to a passage, it refers to your ability to read, grasp, and correctly answer questions based on the text. The purpose of comprehension passages in exams is to test your understanding of the material. If you cannot provide the correct answers, it means understanding has not taken place.

Our focus here is on WAEC, NECO, and related reading comprehension exams. These tests have a distinct pattern that you must understand. Treating them like junior-level comprehension exercises or random passages from the internet is a mistake. You must grasp what the examiners expect from you.

Comprehension tests your ability to:

1. Grasp the main idea and details in the passage.
2. Analyze its content.
3. Respond accurately to related questions.
4. Infer information where answers are implied.
5. Use contextual understanding to interpret meanings of words and phrases.

 Point to note: Success in comprehension depends on thorough understanding, which requires focused and deliberate reading.

Tips for Answering Comprehension Questions

1. Read the Passage Carefully:
   • Start with an initial quick read to understand the general idea.
   • Reread slowly, paying attention to details and underlining key points.
2. Understand the Question Types:
   • Direct Questions: Answers are explicitly stated in the passage.
   • Implied Questions: Answers require logical inference based on the passage.
   • Vocabulary/Contextual Synonyms: Determine the meaning of a word based on its usage in the passage.
3. Pay Attention to Observable Elements:
   • Understanding: Ensuring clarity and absence of confusion in the passage.
   • Grammatical Names and Functions: Recognize phrases, clauses, and their roles in sentences.
   • Figurative Expressions: Identify metaphors, personifications, etc.
   • Contextual Synonyms: Replace words with equivalents based on context.

Sample Passage with Questions and Answers

Let’s use the Nov/Dec 1999 WAEC past question to demonstrate how to answer WAEC NECO GCE reading comprehension questions effectively.

“As I sat down there waiting for the result, my pulse beat faster. It was as if my heart was protesting violently against its imprisonment in the rib cage. For the past 24 hours, I had hardly slept. Yet, long before, I had counselled myself to be calm, courageous, and to face whatever was to come as a man. After all, I had done my best and had never been found wanting in my academic work. So far, the few available reports from my work were quite encouraging. Indeed, going by what I had heard from the grapevine, I should have a very high rating. So why this restlessness, almost to the point of a nervous breakdown?

I had lost my appetite since the previous day; my favorite dishes had become tasteless. My wife had prevailed on me to swallow some morsels of foo foo, but I had eaten rather mechanically to please her. Then I tried to do some reading. I took up the latest issue of the International Digest. My eyes saw the lines, but my brain did not assimilate anything. The analysis of the country’s political crisis failed to excite me. It was mostly a futile exercise. Rather, what registered on my mind was the ongoing meeting of the wise men and women poring laboriously over facts and figures connected with the promotion exercise. I imagined them arguing about who should be promoted, who should not, and why. Countless times I imagined them arguing my case for and against. Each time, my heart missed a beat. I gave up the reading when the magazine fell to the floor.

I got up and started pacing up and down. Then I stepped out and walked slowly towards the road. I crossed to the other side and strolled to the pond almost hidden by a shrub. I stopped at its edge and gazed into the water, seeing the reflections of the trees and leaves, the sky, and, of course, my face. I think I was attracted by my own image, for I spent many minutes gazing at it. What attracted me to the image, I wouldn’t know, but I really fixed my eyes on it for long minutes. Somehow, I was thrilled by the way my face floated on the lake against the background of the bluish sky.

Then from afar, I heard someone shout my name. I looked up, and there, across the road, was my friend Marcus shouting excitedly, “Congratulations! Congratulations!” I was so caught unawares that I did not know whether to cry or laugh.”

Questions and Answers

(a) What was the writer waiting for?

• Answer: The writer was waiting for the result of the promotion exercise.

(b) Mention three indications of his anxiety.

• Answer:
  1. His pulse beat faster.
  2. He lost his appetite.
  3. He was restless and started pacing up and down.

(c)
(i) Mention one subject matter contained in the magazine which the writer tried to read.

• Answer: The analysis of the country’s political crisis.

(ii) What occupied the writer’s mind as he tried to read?

• Answer: The ongoing meeting of the wise men and women poring over facts and figures connected with the promotion exercise.

(d)
(i) What result did the writer get?

• Answer: The writer got a good result.

(ii) How do you know?

• Answer: His friend, Marcus, congratulated him.

(e)
(i) “…My heart was protesting violently against its imprisonment.” What figure of speech is the expression above?

• Answer: Personification.

(ii) Why do you consider it so?

• Answer: The sentence attributes human-like emotions and actions to the heart.

(f) “I gave up reading when the magazine fell to the floor.”
(i) What type of sentence is this?

• Answer: It is a complex sentence.

(ii) Identify and name the clauses.

• Answer:
  • “I gave up reading” is the main clause.
  • “When the magazine fell to the floor” is the subordinate clause.

(g) For each of the following words, give another word or phrase that means the same and can replace it as it is used in the passage:
(i) Counselled: Advised
(ii) Rating: Grade
(iii) Futile: Useless
(iv) Gazed: Stared
(v) Thrilled: Excited

I have finished answering the questions, but before we move to the next section of this lesson, it is crucial to explain something important to you.

Implied Answer

What is an implied answer?
An implied answer is an answer that is not explicitly stated in the passage. You have to deduce it through reasoning or interpretation.

In the comprehension passage above, there is an implied answer. Can you identify it? Recall the question: What result did the writer get?

Does the passage directly state whether the writer’s result was good or bad? No, it does not. However, it mentions that the writer’s friend congratulated him. Based on this congratulatory remark, we can conclude that the writer’s result was good.

Thus, the answer to this question is implied.