West African Examinations Council
WASSCE Physics · Paper 2 — Essay
Written answers, marked against a rubric.
8 exam-style questions, written to the West African Examinations Council format and free to read. The answers are here too — what they do not tell you is how many you would get right with a clock running.
1. (a) State Ohm's law and the conditions under which it holds. [4 marks]
(b) Three resistors of 2 Ω, 3 Ω and 6 Ω are connected in parallel across a 12 V supply. Calculate (i) the effective resistance and (ii) the total current drawn. [10 marks]
(c) State two advantages of connecting household appliances in parallel rather than in series. [6 marks]
2. (a) Distinguish between transverse and longitudinal waves, giving one example of each. [6 marks]
(b) Define wavelength, frequency and amplitude, and state the relationship between wave speed, frequency and wavelength. [8 marks]
(c) A wave of frequency 50 Hz travels at 340 m/s. Calculate its wavelength. [6 marks]
3. (a) State Newton's three laws of motion. [6 marks]
(b) A car of mass 1200 kg accelerates uniformly from rest to 20 m/s in 8 seconds. Calculate (i) its acceleration and (ii) the resultant force acting on it. [8 marks]
(c) Explain, using Newton's first law, why a passenger lurches forward when a moving vehicle brakes suddenly. [6 marks]
4. (a) Distinguish between fundamental and derived quantities, giving two examples of each. [6 marks]
(b) State the SI units of force, work, power and pressure, and express each in terms of the fundamental units. [8 marks]
(c) A student measures the length of a wire as 25.4 cm using a metre rule graduated in millimetres. State the reading's precision and one source of error in the measurement. [6 marks]
5. (a) Distinguish between heat and temperature. [4 marks]
(b) Define specific heat capacity and calculate the heat required to raise the temperature of 3 kg of water from 25 °C to 75 °C. (c = 4200 J/kg·K) [10 marks]
(c) Explain why coastal towns experience smaller daily temperature changes than inland towns. [6 marks]
Reading these is not the same as sitting them.
Every question above is answerable given time. The exam does not give you time. Sit the whole paper on the real clock and the number you get back is the one that means something.
Sit it against the clock — freeExampaper is an independent study service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to WAEC, NECO, JAMB or any examination body. Exam names and subject titles are used only to describe what each paper is for.