Devote more time to studies to perform well in exams

Students have been urged to spend more time on their studies in order to perform well.

The Dean of the School of Education and Leadership of the University of Ghana, Professor Jonathan Fletcher, who gave the advice in an interview with the Junior Graphic on this year’s WASSCE results, said statistics had shown that when students had more time for their studies in an environment that was conducive, they did well in their examination.

For instance, Prof. Fletcher said the WASSCE results for 2011 and 2012 were the best because that was the time students had enough time to prepare for exams.

Asked if he would advocate a four-year SHS programme, he said: “I would not necessarily call for four years but if that would improve the situation as it did in 2011 and 2012, then why not? However, what was important was for students to have enough time in the classroom to study.”

“Even with the four years, students spent about three and a quarter years in school and now with the three years students spend about two and quarter years in school,” he added.

Prof. Fletcher also encouraged students to develop a personal time table the very day they step into senior high school and allocate specific times on this time table to serve as a guide for their own studies and not wait until the very last minute to exams.

Furthermore, he said there was the need for students to get a good balance between studying elective subjects they were most probably comfortable with and the core subjects they did not like.

On the part of teachers, Prof. Fletcher said it was important that teachers developed skills and knowledge for their work and should be well resourced.

He suggested that teachers could make the walls of their classrooms “talk” by covering them with educational posters so that even when the teacher was not in class, the students have the opportunity to read the posters and gain some knowledge.

He said teachers should also make a conscious effort to prepare students for examination because writing an examination was different from normal classroom work.

“There are students who are good but have failed in exams because they did not know how to write exams,” he added. 

 He said parents must show interest in their children’s education in order to motivate them (children) to study hard.  

He said there had been an improvement in this year’s WASSCE compared to last year’s. He, however, added that there was the need for further improvement. 

On the core subjects, Prof. Fletcher said English language cuts across all the other subjects, so if a student’s command of the English language was good, then he or she would be able to grasp the other subjects well.

 He also said Mathematics was also important because looking at the WASSCE results pattern, anytime students failed in Maths; they failed in Science too because Maths is actually supporting Science.

He said if students did not get English and Mathematics right, it might affect all the other subjects and there was, therefore, the need for students to have very good foundation in those subjects.