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First Language Setswana — IGCSE

Deliberately held back: this bank will be written by a first-language Setswana teacher and paid properly for the work. Publishing machine-written Setswana would be a disservice to the learner.

BGCSE subjects carry no four-digit code · no verification date claimed yet · 4 questions available on this subject's topics (22 marks)

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Practice available now (4 questions)

Read the passage about the community garden. The writer says the gardeners did not claim credit for the rise in school attendance, and then reports what they did claim. Explain, in your own words, what the writer is suggesting about how the gardeners see their own success.

3 marks · Explain · Comprehension and inference

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Answer: The gardeners are careful not to overstate what they caused. They present the attendance figures as information rather than proof, and define their achievement modestly and practically — as learning to prepare rather than to hope.

  1. They refuse to claim a causal link they cannot prove
  2. They describe a smaller, more defensible achievement
  3. The contrast suggests modesty about results and confidence about method

When a question quotes a contrast ("did not claim… did claim"), the answer is usually about the two things being deliberately set against each other. Say what the contrast achieves.

Which sentence is correctly punctuated?

1 mark · Choose · Grammar, punctuation and sentence control

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Answer: A

  1. The clause "which had trained for six months" can be lifted out
  2. It is bracketed by a comma at each end

Punctuation pairs: brackets, dashes and paired commas all need two ends. Scanning a sentence for unmatched pairs catches most of these before you have thought about meaning.

Write a composition of about 400 to 600 words on one of these titles:

12 marks · Write · Composition and narrative writing

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Answer: Self-mark against the four bands below, and be harder on yourself than a teacher would be. A composition is marked on the whole piece, not line by line.

  1. Structure and shape (3 marks) — a clear opening, a middle that develops one idea rather than five, and an ending that lands; paragraphing used to control time or mood
  2. Content and detail (3 marks) — specific, sensory, believable detail rather than general statements; the reader can see the place and the people
  3. Sentence control and effects (3 marks) — deliberate variety: short sentences for tension, longer ones for reflection; at least one technique used for a purpose, not sprinkled in
  4. Accuracy (3 marks) — tense consistency, punctuation of speech and clauses, spelling of common words, agreement between subject and verb

Spend the first two minutes planning three paragraphs and the last three proofreading. A composition that runs out of time mid-sentence loses structure marks no amount of good vocabulary can recover.

A composition title asks you to write about a time you were lost in a familiar place.

6 marks · Explain · Composition and narrative writing

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Answer: A plan that fixes the ending first, chooses one main incident, and names the detail that will carry the mood.

  1. Fix the ending before writing: it decides whether the piece builds or wanders (1 mark)
  2. Choose one incident, not three: a single developed scene earns more than a rushed sequence (1 mark)
  3. Pick the opening image: something concrete the reader can see in the first sentence (1 mark)
  4. Name the detail that carries the mood, so it is not invented at paragraph four (1 mark)
  5. Decide the tense and stick to it — flashback only if the plan can hold it (1 mark)
  6. Match the plan to the title, so every paragraph earns its place (1 mark)

The plan is not marked, which is exactly why most candidates skip it. Two minutes of planning is the cheapest mark-fixing tool in the whole paper.