Description

From the BECE Mathematics (August 1990) paper, the exam was in two parts: Section A (Objective/Multiple Choice, 1 hour) and Section B (Essay, 1 hour, 60 marks).

What types of questions came in 1990 (Mathematics)

1) Number & operations (core arithmetic)

• Fractions operations and simplification (including mixed numbers and complex fraction expressions).

• Ratio & proportion (e.g., solving for an unknown in a ratio statement).

• Percentages in real-life contexts (e.g., percentage remaining after usage).

• Money/word problems involving sharing amounts and basic financial reasoning.

• Decimals/addition with missing values (“missing addend” style).

2) Sets & Venn diagrams

• Set notation and operations like intersection (∩) and union (∪), including questions based on diagrams.

• In the essay, a Venn diagram word problem (two subjects, “everyone passed at least one”), then finding how many passed both.

3) Algebra

• Expanding and multiplying algebraic expressions (including a clear “difference of squares” pattern like $(2x+y)(2x-y)$).

• Factorisation (factorize completely) in the essay section.

• Solving linear equations (appears in Section B).

4) Inequalities & number line

• Objective question interpreting an inequality from a number line.

• Essay question solving an inequality (solution set) and illustrating it on a number line.

5) Geometry & mensuration

• Triangle area / right triangle relationships (a triangle with a right angle and area given).

• Circle geometry vocabulary (e.g., identifying a chord).

• Perimeter/area (e.g., area of a square → perimeter).

• Area of a trapezium.

• Scale and map questions (distance on map ↔ real distance).

• Construction recognition (identify what construction a diagram represents).

6) Constructions (practical geometry) — strong in Section B

• Constructing a right-angled triangle with given lengths, drawing perpendicular bisectors, finding their intersection, then drawing a circle and taking measurements.

7) Statistics & data representation

• Interpreting a pie chart (fraction of income on food, amount on rent, angle for savings).

• Drawing a bar chart from a frequency table, then answering total and percentage questions.

8) Probability

• Simple probability from a bag of colored marbles (probability of picking a green marble).

9) Number bases

• Converting a number from base five to base ten.