WASSCE Core Maths revision works best when you start from where marks are actually lost, not from the first chapter of the textbook. WAEC Ghana publishes Chief Examiners’ reports on the WASSCE, with comments on each Core Mathematics question and the mistakes candidates made. This guide pulls together what the 2024 and 2025 reports say, explains each weak topic briefly, and gives an original worked example for each one. The examples are Tutopiya’s illustrations written in WASSCE style, not WAEC questions or official marking guides.

Why Core Maths matters so much

A credit (A1 to C6) in Core Mathematics is required for university entry in Ghana, so a weak maths grade can block an application regardless of your electives. Results swung sharply over the last two years:

WASSCE (school candidates)	Core Maths A1–C6	Source
2024	66.86%	GNA, December 2025
2025	48.73%	GNA, December 2025
2026	60.75%	GNA, September 2026

In numbers, A1 to C6 passes fell from 305,132 in 2024 to 209,068 in 2025, a drop of more than 96,000, according to the Center for Education Policy and Management (Citi Newsroom, December 2025). WAEC did not blame the paper. Its head of public relations said chief examiners found the 2025 questions comparable to 2024 and that “the challenge came from the candidates’ own weaknesses, not the quality of the paper” (Graphic Online, December 2025).

The 2026 recovery is welcome, but around four in ten candidates still missed a credit. The weak areas below have appeared year after year.

What the Chief Examiners’ reports say

WAEC Ghana’s reports are on its Chief Examiners’ Report page. The 2025 report for school candidates and the 2024 report list these weaknesses for Mathematics (Core):

Weakness	2024 report	2025 report
Representing information in a diagram	Yes	Yes
”Global mathematics” (the earth as a sphere)	Yes	Yes
Translating diagrams or word problems into mathematical statements	Yes (diagrams)	Yes (word problems)
Business mathematics, including simple interest	Yes	Yes (simple interest)
Mensuration	Yes	Listed as a strength
Cumulative frequency tables	–	Yes
Making deductions from real-life problems	–	Yes

The detailed comments add more. In 2025 the Chief Examiners said a circle geometry question was skipped by the majority of candidates, and that another geometry question showed “candidates dislike for Geometry and Trigonometry questions”. The 2024 report recommended refresher courses for teachers in geometry and trigonometry.

Candidates did well on the midpoint of a line, mensuration, simple average speed problems and the distance between two points in 2025, and on trigonometric ratios, probability and the mean in 2024. Those are worth keeping sharp, but they are not where the big losses are.

Topic 1: Drawing the diagram from words

What goes wrong: a question describes a mast, a building or a lighthouse in words and asks you to “illustrate the information in a diagram”. In 2025, a question on the angles of elevation of a mast and a pillar was “poorly answered by majority of the candidates” because they could not draw the diagram, and without it they could not answer the follow-up parts. The 2024 report described the same problem on an angle-of-elevation question.

Fix: draw before you calculate. Mark the right angle at the foot of every vertical object, write each angle at the point it is measured from, and label every length you know.

Worked example. Two surveyors stand on level ground on opposite sides of a 40 m mast, in a straight line with its foot. The angles of elevation of the top of the mast from the two surveyors are 32° and 47°. Find, to the nearest metre, the distance between the surveyors.

• Diagram: mast TF of height 40 m, with surveyor A on one side and surveyor B on the other, both on the line through F.
• From A: tan 32° = 40 ÷ AF, so AF = 40 ÷ 0.6249 = 64.01 m.
• From B: tan 47° = 40 ÷ BF, so BF = 40 ÷ 1.0724 = 37.30 m.
• The surveyors are on opposite sides, so AB = AF + BF = 64.01 + 37.30 = 101.31 m.
• Answer: 101 m. If they were on the same side, you would subtract instead. The diagram is what tells you which.

Topic 2: The earth as a sphere

What goes wrong: both reports list “solving global mathematics related problems” as a weakness, and the questions behind it are on latitude, longitude and distances on the earth’s surface. In 2024 most candidates “could not draw the globe correctly”, placing two towns on a line of latitude when they should have been where a line of longitude meets the equator.

Fix: remember two facts. Lines of longitude (meridians) all have the radius of the earth, R. A line of latitude θ° is a smaller circle with radius R cos θ. The distance along an arc is (angle ÷ 360) × 2πR for the circle you are on.

Worked example. Towns P and Q lie on the same line of longitude. P is at latitude 4° N and Q is at 10° N. Taking R = 6,400 km and π = 22/7, find the distance PQ along the line of longitude, to the nearest kilometre.

• Angle between them along the meridian: 10° − 4° = 6°.
• Distance = (6 ÷ 360) × 2 × (22/7) × 6,400
• = (1 ÷ 60) × 40,228.57 = 670.48 km.
• Answer: about 670 km.

Topic 3: Simple interest and business maths

What goes wrong: in 2025, a question on money invested at two rates of simple interest was “poorly answered by most candidates”. They could not calculate the interest from each account correctly, so they never reached the equation. The 2024 report listed business mathematics as a weakness, and a partnership question on sharing profit was not answered by most candidates.

Fix: let the unknown be one amount, write the other amount in terms of it, then write each interest as P × R × T ÷ 100 before adding.

Worked example. Efua invests some money at 8% simple interest a year and GH¢2,000 more than that at 12% a year. After 3 years the total interest is GH¢5,040. How much did she invest at each rate?

• Let x be the amount at 8%. The amount at 12% is x + 2,000.
• Interest at 8%: x × 8 × 3 ÷ 100 = 0.24x.
• Interest at 12%: (x + 2,000) × 12 × 3 ÷ 100 = 0.36x + 720.
• 0.24x + 0.36x + 720 = 5,040, so 0.6x = 4,320 and x = 7,200.
• Answer: GH¢7,200 at 8% and GH¢9,200 at 12%. Check: 1,728 + 3,312 = 5,040.

Topic 4: Ratio with percentage change

What goes wrong: in 2025, a question that shared a cost in a ratio and then increased parts of it by different percentages had a part (b) that was “poorly answered by most candidates”. The usual error is averaging the percentages or applying one percentage to the whole total.

Worked example. A trader’s GH¢36,000 budget for rice, oil and sugar is split in the ratio 4 : 3 : 2. The price of rice rises by 15%, oil by 20%, and sugar stays the same. Find the new cost of the same goods and the overall percentage increase.

• Total parts = 9, so rice = GH¢16,000, oil = GH¢12,000, sugar = GH¢8,000.
• New rice = 1.15 × 16,000 = GH¢18,400. New oil = 1.20 × 12,000 = GH¢14,400. Sugar = GH¢8,000.
• New total = GH¢40,800, an increase of GH¢4,800.
• Percentage increase = 4,800 ÷ 36,000 × 100 = 13.3% (to 3 significant figures). It is not 17.5%, the average of 15 and 20, because sugar did not rise and rice and oil have different weights.

Topic 5: Turning words into equations

What goes wrong: the 2025 report names “translating word problems into mathematical expressions” as a weakness, and a farming-rate question was not well answered by most candidates. In 2024, most candidates could not form the equation in a speed and time question.

Fix: write “Let x = …” with units, then translate one sentence at a time.

Worked example. A school buys 40 chairs and 15 tables for GH¢10,500. A table costs GH¢150 more than a chair. Find the cost of one chair and one table.

• Let c = cost of a chair in GH¢. A table costs c + 150.
• 40c + 15(c + 150) = 10,500, so 55c + 2,250 = 10,500.
• 55c = 8,250, so c = 150.
• Answer: a chair costs GH¢150 and a table GH¢300. Check: 6,000 + 4,500 = 10,500.

Topic 6: Circle theorems

What goes wrong: in 2025, only a few candidates answered a question on the angle subtended by a chord at a point on the circle, and “majority of the candidates did not answer this part”. Many skip geometry entirely, which throws away whole questions.

Fix: learn the core facts with their reasons, because you are expected to state them: the angle at the centre is twice the angle at the circumference; angles in the same segment are equal; opposite angles of a cyclic quadrilateral add to 180°; the angle in a semicircle is 90°.

Worked example. A, B and C lie on a circle with centre O, and angle AOB = 124°. C is on the major arc. D is a point on the minor arc AB. Find angle ACB and angle ADB.

• Angle ACB = 124° ÷ 2 = 62° (angle at the centre is twice the angle at the circumference).
• ACBD is a cyclic quadrilateral, so angle ADB = 180° − 62° = 118° (opposite angles of a cyclic quadrilateral).

Topic 7: Cumulative frequency tables

What goes wrong: the 2025 report lists constructing a cumulative frequency table as a weakness, and noted that some candidates “could not even construct the cumulative frequency table correctly”. A common error is plotting against class midpoints or class limits instead of upper class boundaries.

Worked example. The marks of 40 students are grouped as: 1–10: 3, 11–20: 5, 21–30: 9, 31–40: 12, 41–50: 7, 51–60: 4. Construct the cumulative frequency table and estimate the median.

Marks	Frequency	Upper class boundary	Cumulative frequency
1–10	3	10.5	3
11–20	5	20.5	8
21–30	9	30.5	17
31–40	12	40.5	29
41–50	7	50.5	36
51–60	4	60.5	40

• The median is the 20th value (½ × 40), which falls in the 31–40 class.
• Reading along the curve, or estimating in a straight line: 30.5 + (20 − 17) ÷ 12 × 10 = 33.0. On your graph, plot cumulative frequency against the upper class boundaries (10.5, 20.5 and so on) and read across from 20.

Topic 8: Logic statements and conclusions

What goes wrong: in 2025, a question asking candidates to show two statements on a Venn diagram and decide whether conclusions were valid was poorly answered by most candidates. The same report lists “making deductions from real life problems” as a weakness. In a mensuration question, most candidates found the right volumes but “could not give the correct conclusion”.

Worked example. Statements: x: All prefects are punctual. y: Some punctual students are in the choir. Are these conclusions valid?

• Draw the set of prefects entirely inside the set of punctual students. The choir set overlaps the punctual set.
• “Ama is a prefect, so she is punctual”: valid, because the prefect set is inside the punctual set.
• “Kwame is in the choir, so he is a prefect”: not valid, because the choir set only overlaps the punctual set and need not touch the prefect set.

The habit to build: whenever a question asks “determine whether”, end with a full sentence that answers it, such as “The tank is not large enough”, not just a number.

Where IGCSE Mathematics practice overlaps

Tutopiya does not have WASSCE content. Several of these weak topics, though, are also in Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics (0580), whose 2025–2027 syllabus lists them in the Extended content:

WASSCE weak topic	IGCSE 0580 (Extended)
Angles of elevation and depression	E6.2 Right-angled triangles
Simple interest, percentage change	E1.13 Percentages
Dividing in a ratio	E1.11 Ratio and proportion
Forming and solving equations	E2.5 Equations
Circle theorems	E4.7 and E4.8 Circle theorems
Venn diagrams	E1.2 Sets
Cumulative frequency	E9.6 Cumulative frequency diagrams
Latitude and longitude	Not covered
Logic statements and validity	Not covered

For the overlapping topics, IGCSE practice questions are extra practice at the same skills. For the earth as a sphere and logic statements, use WASSCE past questions and your class notes. Always finish with real WASSCE papers, because the question style and marking are WAEC’s own. For more on how these topics are examined in IGCSE, see our IGCSE Mathematics 0580 exam trends for 2026 and the guide to cumulative frequency practice.

If you are deciding between WASSCE and the Cambridge route for a younger brother or sister, our comparison of IGCSE vs WASSCE in Ghana covers what universities ask for.

What a resit costs

Resitting Core Maths as a private candidate is a real cost. For the 2026 WASSCE for private candidates (second series), WAEC Ghana charged GH¢766.82 to register for one subject (WAEC Ghana registration manual). Fees change each series, so check the current manual.

A year of Tutopiya Premium costs S$50, about GH¢450, which is less than that one-subject entry, and S$10 a month is about GH¢90. It is only worth it if the overlapping IGCSE topics are the ones you need. (Conversions use the Bank of Ghana rate of GH¢11.64 to the US dollar on 9 November 2026, reported by GNA, and S$1 ≈ US$0.78.)

Start free

• Read the latest Chief Examiners’ reports on waecgh.org alongside the WASSCE past papers your school uses.
• Create a free account on the Tutopiya Learning Portal and open Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics for practice on the overlapping topics. A large section is free.
• Premium unlocks every subject for one price: S$10 a month (about GH¢90) or S$50 a year (about GH¢450).

Frequently asked questions

What was the WASSCE Core Maths pass rate in 2025 and 2026? +

In the 2025 WASSCE for school candidates, 48.73% got A1 to C6 in Core Mathematics, down from 66.86% in 2024. In the 2026 WASSCE the figure rose to 60.75%, according to WAEC figures reported by the Ghana News Agency.

Which Core Maths topics do WASSCE candidates find hardest? +

WAEC's Chief Examiners' reports for 2024 and 2025 both list drawing diagrams from written information and 'global mathematics' (problems on the earth as a sphere) as weaknesses. The 2025 report adds simple interest, cumulative frequency tables, turning word problems into equations and drawing conclusions; the 2024 report adds business mathematics and plane geometry.

Was the 2025 Core Maths paper harder than usual? +

No, according to WAEC. The 2025 Chief Examiners' report says the standard of the paper compared favourably with previous years, and WAEC's head of public relations said the challenge came from candidates' weaknesses rather than the quality of the paper.

Where can I read the WASSCE Chief Examiners' reports? +

WAEC Ghana publishes the reports on its Chief Examiners' Report page at waecgh.org. The 2025 WASSCE for school candidates report covers every subject, including Mathematics (Core), with comments on each question and suggested answers.

Does IGCSE Mathematics practice help with WASSCE Core Maths? +

For some topics, yes. Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics (0580) covers simple interest, percentages, ratio, forming equations, angles of elevation and depression, circle theorems, Venn diagrams and cumulative frequency. It does not cover latitude and longitude or the logic-statement questions WASSCE sets, and it is not a substitute for WASSCE past papers.

How much does it cost to resit Core Maths as a private candidate? +

For the 2026 WASSCE for private candidates (second series), WAEC Ghana charged GH¢766.82 to register for one subject. Check the current registration manual on waecgh.org, as fees change each series.

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