WAEC Geography 2023 past questions and answers

The highest labelled contour, near Umughara in the north-west, is 500 m.

The quarry symbol is beside Umughara, so stone is quarried and crushed there.

Nsuba lies south of the hill rising above 300 m, which blocks the view from Agubia.

Ameka lies north-east of the junction near Aba Omege; measured clockwise from north the angle is about 45°, nearest 40°.

Rice farm symbols surround Ndifu Achara on the river's flood plain.

Highest 32°C (April) − lowest 22°C (January) = 10°C.

April has the highest temperature, 32°C.

August has the most rain, 307 mm.

Rotation is spinning on the axis (one day); revolution is moving round the sun in an elliptical orbit (one year).

Solar energy produces no smoke, waste or flooding of land; it is clean and renewable.

A rift valley forms when the block between two parallel faults sinks.

The hygrometer (wet and dry bulb) measures relative humidity.

At the December solstice (22 December) the overhead sun is at 23½°S.

Zeugens and rock pedestals are both carved by wind in deserts.

The hydrosphere is all the water on the earth: oceans, seas, lakes and rivers.

They are on opposite sides of the equator: 30 + 30 = 60° × 111 km = 6,660 km.

Temperature falls 6.5°C per 1,000 m: 4 × 6.5 = 26°C; 40 − 26 = 14°C.

Block mountains are raised between faults.

A dormant ('sleeping') volcano is inactive now but may erupt again.

Wind pushes sand up the gentle windward slope and over the crest, so the whole barchan creeps forward in the direction the wind blows, with its horns pointing downwind.

Magma that cools slowly deep in the crust forms plutonic (intrusive) rocks such as granite.

45° difference × 4 minutes = 180 minutes = 3 hours; D is further east so it is ahead: 7.00 am + 3 h = 10.00 am.

Loess is fine dust carried and deposited by wind; the others are wind-erosion features.

Broken rock fragments collecting at the foot of a slope form scree (talus).

The sea warms and cools slowly, keeping coastal temperatures even.

The Prime (Greenwich) Meridian, 0°, is a line of longitude; the others are lines of latitude.

Waterfalls form where a fast young river crosses hard rock in its upper course.

Tourists come when attractive scenery is well advertised.

Rye is a temperate cereal grown on ordinary farms; rubber, oil palm and cocoa are plantation crops.

Wars, slave raids and tsetse flies drove people away; industries would attract people.

Coastal cities have many people with money to buy goods, so firms locate near this market (and the ports).

Most migrants move from villages to towns in search of jobs and amenities.

Both countries are in Western Europe.

Heavy industries need huge investment in plant and machinery: they are capital intensive.

Rural settlements perform mainly primary functions, urban ones secondary and tertiary functions.

140,000,000 ÷ 500,000 = 280 persons per km².

Difficult terrain, shortage of capital and poor planning are the major problems; climatic variation is the least direct of the four.

Demand for electricity is rising fast with population and industry.

Trade within one country's borders is internal (home) trade.

Most rural people are farmers, so agriculture is the main rural function.

(a) Inadequate capital; erratic power supply; shortage of skilled labour and technology; poor transport and infrastructure; inadequate or irregular raw materials; small home market/low purchasing power; competition from imported goods; political instability and insecurity; high taxes and inconsistent policies; poor management and corruption.
(b) Provide credit and industrial development banks; improve power supply; train technical manpower; build roads, railways and other infrastructure; use local raw materials and encourage research; protect infant industries (tariffs, bans on some imports); tax holidays and incentives; stable government and good policies; security.

Each measure should answer a problem.

(a) Small population; mainly primary activities (farming, fishing, lumbering); few social amenities; dispersed or linear layout with no planning; houses built of local materials; homogeneous people with strong traditions; poor roads and communication; simple, quiet life.
(b) Market for farm produce; supply of manufactured goods and farm inputs; jobs for rural people; higher-order services (hospitals, banks, higher education); administrative headquarters; source of new ideas and information; remittances and investment from town dwellers.

Five points for each part.

(a) Cheap for bulky goods over long distances; carries heavy loads (minerals, crops); fairly safe; little affected by weather; no traffic congestion; opens up the interior.
(b) Narrow gauge and single tracks; old locomotives and slow speed; poor maintenance and shortage of spare parts; inadequate funding; poor management; competition from road transport; vandalism and insecurity.
(c) Change to standard gauge and double tracks; buy modern locomotives; regular maintenance and local fabrication of parts; more funding and private participation; better management and training; security patrols and punishment of vandals.

Pair each solution with its problem.

(a) Internal trade is the buying and selling of goods and services within the borders of a country.
(b) Poor roads and transport; insecurity (robbery, kidnapping); multiple taxes and road blocks; poor storage and preservation facilities; inadequate capital and credit; similarity of products in many areas; poor communication and market information; low purchasing power; inflation and unstable prices.
(c) Brings goods from areas of surplus to areas of need; encourages specialisation in production; creates jobs; raises government revenue; promotes growth of towns and markets; promotes national unity and exchange of ideas.

Define first, then list.

(a) Outline of Nigeria with title, key and north arrow; Sudan savanna as a belt across the north (Sokoto, Kano, Katsina); tropical rainforest as a belt across the south, north of the coastal swamps; a rainforest town such as Benin City, Ibadan, Akure, Onitsha or Calabar.
(b) Tall evergreen trees (up to 60 m) in three layers (canopy); many species mixed together; hardwoods (mahogany, obeche, iroko); dense undergrowth, climbers and epiphytes; buttress roots; little light reaches the floor.
(c) Timber for building and export; raw materials for industries (paper, furniture, plywood); fuel wood and charcoal; cash crops grown there (cocoa, oil palm, rubber); medicinal plants and food (fruits, bush meat); tourism; employment; protects soil and water catchments.

Give named tree species.

(a) Outline of Nigeria with title and north arrow; River Benue entering from Cameroon in the east and joining the Niger at Lokoja; River Sokoto in the north-west flowing into the Niger; Makurdi on the River Benue.
(b) Volume varies with seasons (floods in the rainy season, low in the dry season); many have rapids and waterfalls; the Niger and Benue are the main rivers and most others drain into them or into the Atlantic; northern rivers drain into Lake Chad (inland drainage); many carry much silt; some dry up in the dry season.
(c) Hydroelectric power (Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro); water for irrigation and domestic use; fishing; inland water transport; boundaries; tourism and recreation (Argungu festival); sand for building; fertile flood plains for farming.

Four uses with examples.

(a) Tropical continental (Sudan/savanna) climate.
(b) Northern hemisphere: the rainy season and highest temperatures come in the middle of the year (May-September) and the coolest months are December-January.
(c) Total about 739 mm, fairly low; single maximum (peak in July-August); rain falls in about seven or eight months and there is a long dry season (November-April); rain is mostly convectional, in heavy showers; rainfall is unevenly distributed through the year.
(d) Sum = 25 + 27 + 32 + 34 + 35 + 33 + 29 + 28 + 28 + 29 + 28 + 25 = 353°C; mean = 353 ÷ 12 ≈ 29.4°C.

Show the sum before dividing.

(a) Spring; summer; autumn; winter.
(b) Local time is the time of a place based on the sun's position on its own meridian (noon when the sun is highest), standard time is the time adopted for a whole country or time zone; local time changes by 4 minutes for every degree of longitude, standard time changes in whole hours (15°); local time differs from place to place within a country, standard time is the same throughout a zone.
(c) Diagram: sun, moon and earth in a straight line with the moon in the middle, umbra and penumbra on the earth. The moon revolves round the earth; at new moon it sometimes passes directly between the sun and the earth; it blocks the sun's light and casts a shadow on part of the earth; places in the umbra see a total eclipse, places in the penumbra a partial eclipse; it lasts only a few minutes.

The moon is in the middle for a solar eclipse.

(a)(i) Swallow holes (sinkholes); dolines; uvalas; poljes; clints and grikes (limestone pavement); dry valleys; gorges.
(ii) Caves and caverns; stalactites; stalagmites; pillars (columns); underground rivers and lakes.
(b) Raw material for cement; lime for agriculture and industry; building stone; tourist attractions (caves); grazing land; underground water supply; marble from metamorphosed limestone.

Separate surface from underground features.

(a) Traction; saltation; suspension; solution.
(b) Gentler gradient than the upper course; wider, open V-shaped valley; lateral erosion becomes important; meanders begin to form; more volume of water from tributaries; deposition begins, forming small flood plains; river cliffs and slip-off slopes.
(c) Diagram: plan of a winding river between alternating spurs. In the upper course the river cuts downward rapidly (vertical erosion); it is too small and weak to erode sideways, so it winds round areas of harder rock; the projecting ridges (spurs) on alternate sides overlap one another and appear to lock together, so one cannot see far up the valley.

Stress vertical erosion.

(a) Weathering is the breaking down and decay of rocks in their original place by physical, chemical and biological processes.
(b)(i) Frost action: water fills cracks in rock; at night it freezes and expands; the pressure widens the cracks; repeated freezing and thawing splits off angular fragments (scree).
(ii) Exfoliation: in hot deserts rocks heat strongly by day and cool quickly at night; the outer layer expands and contracts more than the inside; stresses create cracks parallel to the surface; outer shells peel off like onion skins, leaving rounded rocks.

Mention heating and cooling for exfoliation.

(a) Solar energy is energy from the sun's radiation (light and heat), which can be converted into electricity or heat by solar panels and collectors.
(b) Renewable and inexhaustible; clean, no pollution; available almost everywhere, good for remote areas; low running cost; quiet.
(c) High initial cost of panels and batteries; low output at night and in cloudy or dusty weather; needs storage; needs large areas for panels; shortage of skilled technicians; theft of panels.

Advantages and problems as short phrases.