Some students of Accra Senior High School (SHS) and St Thomas Aquinas SHS have expressed concerns about the level of difficulty of this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) Core Mathematics paper.

According to the students, the paper contained numerous word problems involving real-life applications, financial mathematics, and linear equations, which they found challenging to solve.

They noted that although their teachers had prepared them for such questions, they did not anticipate that a large portion of the paper would focus on application-based problems.

The students shared their experiences in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after writing the examination on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Chief Examiner’s Report for the 2025 WASSCE indicated that over 50 per cent of candidates failed the Mathematics paper. The report highlighted that many candidates struggled to translate word problems into mathematical expressions, interpret real-life scenarios, represent information using diagrams, and solve simple interest and other application-based questions.

These challenges have been partly attributed to recent changes in the school curriculum, which placed greater emphasis on problem-solving and real-world applications.

Frank Monyari, a Form Three Science student, said teachers had informed them about the changes in the examination format due to the new curriculum, and they had prepared accordingly.

“We expected such questions, but not in such large numbers,” he said, adding that although the paper was difficult, he remained hopeful of passing.

“I was able to attempt all the questions to the best of my ability, even though it was not easy.”

Another Science student, Shadrack Osei, also acknowledged the difficulty but praised their teacher’s preparation.

“For my class, I would say our Core Maths teacher prepared us well, so we are confident we will do well,” he said.

Sheila Addo, a Form Three Arts student, described the questions as tricky and more difficult than expected.

“I am confident of getting a good grade, although I could not answer some questions the way I wanted,” she said.

At St Thomas Aquinas SHS, Joseph Ashong, a candidate, noted that the questions were quite different from those found in past examinations.

He said he was only able to answer seven out of the 10 questions due to their level of difficulty.

Similarly, Othniel Amoah said he attempted all 10 questions but fully answered only eight of them.

Evans Odei, a Mathematics teacher at Achimota SHS, explained that teachers had intensified preparations this year in response to the changing nature of the examination.

He expressed confidence that candidates would perform better than last year, thereby reducing the failure rate.

“Last year, the paper contained many word problems, and the language was more complex than students were used to, which contributed to poor performance,” he said.

“However, this year, we expect an improved pass rate because students have been better prepared.”