The WAEC curriculum for Physics outlines the material that candidates need to be familiar with in order to take the exam. It includes the exam goals and objectives, as well as the format and notes for the Physics test.
Your preparation for the exam will not be complete without first studying the Physics syllabus. You can use it as a reference to find out what kinds of things you should read about. In addition, there are some notes on different ideas that you ought to focus on mastering.
Preparing for an exam without using the Physics curriculum is like to working on a field without the proper agricultural equipment. You will find that you are unable to accomplish anything.
Make using the syllabus the first thing you do when getting ready for the exam.
This post provides the West African Examination Council’s recommended texts in addition to the syllabus for the subject of Physics (WAEC).
If you have any queries, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. I am quite interested in your response.
Phenomena, laws, definitions, concepts, and theories in science;
Scientific words, phrases, and rules, such as symbols, quantities, and units;
How to use scientific equipment, including how to use it and how to keep it safe;
Scientific quantities and how to figure them out; Scientific and technological applications and how they affect society, the economy, and the environment.
Information Handling and Problem-solving
Candidates should be able to use visual, oral, aural, and written (including symbolic, diagrammatic, graphical, and numerical) information to find, select, organize, and present information from a variety of sources, including everyday life; analyze and evaluate information and other data; use the information to find patterns, report trends, and draw inferences; give reasonable explanations for natural events, patterns, and relationships; and make predictions.
Experimental and Problem-Solving Techniques
Candidates should be able to follow instructions, use equipment to carry out experiments, make observations, measurements, and estimates with attention to precision, accuracy, and units, interpret, evaluate, and report on observations and experimental data, identify problems, plan and carry out investigations, including choosing techniques, equipment, measuring devices, and materials, evaluate methods and suggest ways to make them better, and so on.
Plan for the Examination
There will be three tests, called Papers 1, 2, and 3, and you must take all of them.
Papers 1 and 2 will be combined into one test that will be taken all at once.
Paper 1 will have 50 multiple-choice questions, will take 114 hours, and will be worth 50 points.
Paper 2 will have two parts: Sections A and B, which will take 1 1/2 hours and count for 60 marks each.
There will be seven short, structured questions in Section A.
For a total of 15 points, candidates will have to answer any five questions of their choice.
Part B –
Will have five essay questions, and candidates will have to answer any three of them to get 45 points.
Paper 3: Will there be a practical test for school candidates or an option for private candidates who don’t want to do a practical work paper?
Each version of the paper will have three questions, and candidates will have to answer any two of them in 2 hours and 45 minutes to get 50 points.
WAEC Physics Course Outline
In order to cover this syllabus, it is important for candidates to take part in hands-on activities.
The candidates will be asked questions about the topics listed in the column labeled ” TOPIC.” The “NOTES” are meant to give you an idea of how broad the questions will be, but they shouldn’t be taken as a full list of limitations and examples.
S.I. units will be used to set the questions.
But more than one unit or less than one unit can be used.
Part 1: How Matter, Space, and Time Work Together
Ideas about matter
Fundamental and derived quantities and units
Fundamental quantities and units
Derived quantities and units
Position, distance and displacement.
Position is seen as a set of point-rectangular coordinates that show where something is.
How far away something is
The idea of direction as a way to find a point of interest
The difference between distance and motion
Weight and mass
How to tell the difference between mass and weight
Time
Time is thought of as the space between physical events.
How long things take
Fluid at rest
Volume, density, and density in comparison
Pressure in fluids
Balance of the bodies
Archimedes’ principle
The rule of floating
Motion
Random, straight-line, translational, rotating, circular, orbital, spin, and oscillatory are all types of motion.
Relative movement
Why something moves
Forces:
Force of contact
Force without touching (field force)
Sticking together
Viscosity (friction in fluids) (friction in fluids)
Simple ideas about how circles move
How fast and how far
Speed is thought of as a change in distance over time.
The idea of speed as a change in distance over time
Speed that is uniform or not uniform
Distance/displacement-time graph
Rectilinear acceleration
Acceleration and deceleration can be thought of as changes in speed over time.
Acceleration that is uniform or not
Graph of speed and time
Equations of motion with a constant acceleration; motion under gravity is a special case.
Scalars and vectors are two types of measurements.
Scalars are physical quantities that have a size but no direction.
Vectors can be thought of as physical quantities that have both size and direction.
Representation of vectors
Vectors added together
Changes in vectors
Using vectors to show the resultant velocity.
Forces in a state of balance
Moments as a rule
Conditions for how rigid bodies stay in balance when they are hit by forces that aren’t in line with each other.
Stability and center of gravity
Harmonic motion is simple.
Simple harmonic motion: a picture, an explanation, and a definition (S.H.M)
How fast and how fast S.H.M.
The body’s period, frequency, and amplitude when it does S.H.M.
The power of S.H.M.
Vibration and resonance that are forced
Newton’s laws of motion are:
First Law: Mass at rest and mass in motion
The second law is about force, speed, momentum, and impulse.
Third Law: Cause and effect
Part 2
Energy: The Energy of Motion and Heat
Sources of power
The world’s energy supplies
Energy must be saved.
Work, Power, and Energy
The idea of work as a way to measure the transfer of energy
Work done in a gravitational field.
How mechanical energy can be used
Potential energy (P.E.)
Kinetic energy (K.E)
Mechanical energy is always the same.
Think of power as the rate at which work gets done.
Uses of machines that use mechanical energy.
Levers, pulleys, an inclined plane, a wedge, a screw, a wheel and axle, and gears.
Heat Energy
How to measure temperature
How heat changes things, such as
The temperature went up
State or phase change
Expansion
Resistance Change
Expansion due to heat: linear, area, and volume expansivities
Transfer of heat The conditions, the rules, and the radiation.
Boyle’s law and the gas laws Charles’ law, the law of pressure, and the general gas law
Heat capacity is a way to measure heat energy.
Capacity to hold heat.
Hidden heat
The idea of “latent heat”
Point of melting and Point of boiling
Certain latent heat of melting and boiling
Loss of water and boiling
Vapour and vapour pressure
relative humidity, dew point, and humidity
The weather and the humidity
Part 3
Waves
How waves are made and how they move
How mechanical waves are made and spread
Pulsating system: A system that sends energy at a certain speed, frequency, and wavelength.
Waveform
How frequency (f), wavelength (), period (T), and speed (v) are related mathematically (v)
Different kinds of waves
Crosswise and up-and-down
Mathematical model of how waves move.
READ ALSO: Complete WAEC Syllabus for Chemistry 2023, Recommended Books, Practical, Topics
Reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, and the stacking of moving waves to make standing waves are all wave properties.
Waves of light
Light sources
Light travels in a straight line
Light that bounces off a flat surface: a plane mirror
Concave and convex mirrors show how light is reflected at curved surfaces.
Light bends around flat surfaces: a rectangular glass prism (block) and a triangular glass prism.
Converging and diverging lenses show how light bends around curved surfaces.
How lenses are used in optical instruments.
White light is spread out by a glass prism in the shape of a triangle.
Types of electromagnetic waves in the electromagnetic spectrum
Waves of Sound
Sound sources
Sound waves being sent
How fast sound travels in solids, liquids, and air
Sounds that echo and reverberate
Sounds and tunes
What sounds are made of
Strings that shake
Forcing to move
Resonance
Tones and harmonies
Vibration of air in pipe – open and closed pipes
Part 4
Fields
Fields have a “description” property.
The idea of fields: Electric, magnetic, and gravitational
How a force field works
Gravitational field
speed up because of gravity (g)
Newton’s law of gravitation says that there is a force of gravity between two masses.
Gravitational potential and escape velocity.
Electric Fields
Electrostatics
How electric charges are made
Different ways charges can be split
Putting away charges
Force lines in electricity
Coulomb’s law describes the electric force between point charges.
Electric field, electric field intensity (potential gradient), and electric potential.
READ ALSO: Complete WAEC Syllabus for Biology 2023, Recommended Books, and Topics
Capacitance: What it is, how it works, and how to use it
Current electricity
How electricity is made from the primary and secondary cells
Difference in potential and flow of electricity
Electric circuit
Electricity flowing through things
Electric power and electricity
Switch and multiplier
Conductivity and Resistance
Electric current, potential difference, resistance, emf, and the cell’s internal resistance are all things that can be measured.
Field of magnetism
Magnets and magnetic materials have certain traits.
Magnetization and demagnetization.
Magnetic field as an idea
Magnetic force on: a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field; between two parallel current-carrying conductors
Electromagnets are used
The magnetic field of the earth
A moving charged particle is affected by magnetic force.
Field of electricity
The idea of an electric field
Switch and multiplier
Conductivity and Resistance
Electric current, potential difference, resistance, emf, and the cell’s internal resistance are all things that can be measured.
Field of magnetism
Magnets and magnetic materials have certain traits.
Magnetization and demagnetization.
Magnetic field as an idea
Magnetic force on: a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field; between two parallel current-carrying conductors
Electromagnets are used
The magnetic field of the earth
A moving charged particle is affected by magnetic force.
Field of electricity
The idea of an electric field
Magnetic induction
Faraday’s law, Lenz’s law, and the motor-generator effect:
Inductance
What are they?
Getting and giving out electricity
Simple a.c. circuits
Graphical representation of e.m.f and current in an a.c. circult.
Peak and r..m.s. values
Series circuit containing resistor, inductor and capacitor
Reactance and impedance
Vector diagrams
Resonance in an a.c, circuit
AC circuits provide power.
Part 5
Physics of atoms and nuclei
How the atom is put together
A model of an atom
Energy quantization
The light-electric effect
X-rays from thermionic emission
How the nucleus is put together
How the nucleus is made
Radioactivity is both natural and made.
Fusion and fission are types of nuclear reactions.
Wave-particle paradox
Electron diffraction
Two kinds of matter
WAEC Books You Should Read for Physics
Ike, E. E. (2014). Essential Principles of Physics.
Ike, E. E (2014) Jos, ENIC Publishers. Numerical Problems and Solutions in Physics.
Nelson, M. (1977). Fundamentals of Physics. Hart Davis Education, Great Britain.
Nelson, M and Parker Â… (1989) High School Physics (Sixth Edition), Heinemann.
Okeke, P. N., and Anyakoha, M. W. (2000). Senior Secondary School Physics.
Olumuyionwa A. and Ogunkoya O. O. (1992). Comprehensive Certificate Physics. Ibadan, Nigeria: University Press Plc.
Let me know if you need more information or have any questions. I’d be happy to help you.