The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has revealed the processes it goes through before setting questions for students in Ghana and other member states.
Speaking exclusively on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem Wednesday, Head of Science, Maths and Technical Subjects Department at WAEC, John Appiah, said they have people known as setters.
These people, according to him, are workers at WAEC who are taken through training before setting the questions.
“We have people called setters who are spread throughout our member countries. Some of them are workers at WAEC. We take them through training and give them documents and guidelines on how the questions should be set,” he said.
According to Mr Appiah, after the questions are set, they use samples as a trial test for the students to answer before the main examination.
“When they set the questions, with the objective test, we have something called trial test and that is what we take to schools for the students to answer in order to know how the exam will be taken by the students. We do that because we want some properties in the test and we do that in all our member countries,” he explained.
He said when all samples are tested with marks scored; they then identify what is called the item difficulty, which to him will urge them on how to set questions for the main exam.
WAEC, he said, also has its standards which is why it embarks on the trial testing in order to know if it falls under its standards.
“When everything is set, we have specialists from all the member countries who will meet and then deliberate on each of the questions and make all the necessary corrections and then build consensus and if we are all okay with it, then we set the ball rolling,” he added.
Mr Appiah said the same processes are done on the theory questions where WAEC has all experts who solve the questions and get a draft marking scheme for all understanding then their subject officers will compile the paper and send them to the press and finally have them printed for the students.
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