100+ Free Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature Practice Questions
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Key Facts: Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature Exam
Subject 0735
Official CGCEB Literature in English Syllabus Code
Cameroon GCE Board (CGCEB) Regulations & Syllabuses
3 Papers
Comprehensive Examination Suite (MCQ, Drama, Prose & Poetry)
CGCEB Examination Scheme
Grades A–E
Official Advanced Level Passing Scale
CGCEB Grading Criteria
6h 30m
Total Cumulative Examination Duration
Cameroon GCE Board Timetable
The Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature in English (0735) is the premier pre-university humanities exam administered by CGCEB, testing literary terms, Shakespeare, modern drama, African/world prose, and poetry.
Sample Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature Practice Questions
Try these sample questions to test your Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature exam readiness. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.
1In Alfred Noyes's poem 'The Highwayman', the line 'The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas' uses which figure of speech to describe the moon?
2In the famous aphorism 'The pen is mightier than the sword', which figurative device is demonstrated by using 'pen' for the written word and 'sword' for military force?
3What is the standard metrical definition of iambic pentameter in English prosody?
4Consider the rhythmic pattern in the Weird Sisters' incantation from Shakespeare's Macbeth: 'Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble.' What metrical foot and structure predominates in these lines?
5Which literary device is prominently used in the phrase 'The stubborn door groaned on its rusty hinges as the wind howled through the corridor'?
6In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet's farewell remark 'Parting is such sweet sorrow' represents which rhetorical figure?
7In John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV ('Batter my heart, three-person'd God'), the speaker asserts: 'for I / Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.' What device defines these concluding lines?
8In Edgar Allan Poe's poem 'The Bells', the line 'Hear the mellow wedding bells, / Golden bells!' primarily creates its musical resonance through which sound device?
9Which of the following sets of words consists entirely of true onomatopoeic words?
10In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Oedipus pronounces a terrifying curse and banishment upon the murderer of King Laius, unaware that he himself is the perpetrator. What dramatic concept does this exemplify?
About the Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature Exam
The Cameroon General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level Literature in English (Subject Code 0735) is the premier national humanities examination administered by the Cameroon GCE Board (CGCEB), based in Buea, South West Region. Designed for students completing the two-year High School / Upper Sixth cycle (Form 6 and Form 7) in the Anglophone subsystem of education, the examination evaluates advanced literary competence, critical analysis, textual explication, and aesthetic appreciation. The official syllabus is structured across three rigorous papers: Paper 1 evaluates candidate mastery of unseen poetry, unseen prose, stylistic terminology, metrics, and literary theory through 50 multiple-choice questions; Paper 2 assesses dramatic literature across classical Shakespearean drama and modern/African playwrights (including Arthur Miller, Wole Soyinka, Bole Butake, and John Nkengasong); and Paper 3 examines prose fiction and poetic traditions from British Romanticism and Modernism to African oral and post-colonial poetry (including Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ferdinand Oyono, Kofi Awoonor, and Gabriel Okara). Success in GCE A-Level Literature is a foundational qualification for entry into university faculties of Arts, Letters, Law, Political Science, Journalism, and Education across Cameroon, the Commonwealth, and global academic institutions. Format note: this site's practice bank is 100 four-option multiple-choice questions covering the whole official syllabus. Paper 1 of the real examination is genuinely multiple choice (50 compulsory questions), so the format matches that paper, but the bank is a study aid only — it does not simulate the written theory/essay paper(s) or any practical examination, and its length does not describe the official exam.
Assessment
Official Advanced Level structure for subject code 0735 (Literature in English) per the Cameroon GCE Board June 2026 timetable (Form G6): Paper 1: 50 compulsory multiple-choice questions (1 hour 30 minutes); Paper 2: written theory/structured questions (3 hours); Paper 3: written paper (3 hours). Total written time is 7 hours 30 minutes. The Board does not publish per-paper mark weightings for individual subjects.
Time Limit
Paper 1: 1 hour 30 minutes; total written time 7 hours 30 minutes.
Passing Score
Grade E or better (Cameroon GCE Advanced Level grades A, B, C, D and E are passes; O is a subsidiary pass and F is a fail)
Exam Fee
12,000 FCFA (Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board (CGCEB), Buea)
Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature Exam Content Outline
Literary Terms, Poetic Devices & Critical Analysis
Examines figurative language (metaphor, simile, conceit, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, synesthesia, oxymoron, paradox, litotes, hyperbole), sound patterns (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, euphony, cacophony), metric structures (iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, blank verse, heroic couplets, caesura, enjambment), narrative perspectives (first-person, third-person omniscient, limited omniscient, stream of consciousness, free indirect discourse), dramatic irony, and structural devices (foreshadowing, flashback, motif, foil).
Shakespearean & Renaissance Drama
Explores classical Aristotelian and Renaissance dramatic theory: hamartia (tragic flaw), hubris (excessive pride), catharsis (emotional purgation), peripeteia (reversal of fortune), anagnorisis (critical discovery), and nemesis (retribution). Covers Elizabethan stage conventions (soliloquy, aside, comic relief, disguise) and textual critique of Shakespearean tragedies and comedies (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Twelfth Night).
Modern Drama & World Theater
Covers modern 19th- and 20th-century world drama and contemporary African theatre: Arthur Miller's concept of the common man tragic hero (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible), Henrik Ibsen's bourgeois realism (A Doll's House), Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre and the alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt), Wole Soyinka's ritual drama (Death and the King's Horseman), and Cameroonian sociopolitical drama (Bole Butake, John Nkengasong, Bate Besong).
African & World Prose Fiction
Analyzes novelistic form, narrative points of view, characterization, and thematic critique in African and global prose: cultural collision and colonial encounters (Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God), political betrayal and neo-colonial exploitation (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood, A Grain of Wheat), domestic tyranny and religious fanaticism (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus), colonial hypocrisy (Ferdinand Oyono's Houseboy), and post-colonial disillusionment.
Poetry — African & Non-African Traditions
Covers British Romanticism (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Blake), Victorian and Modernist poetry (Eliot, Yeats, Owen), and African written and oral traditions (Kofi Awoonor, Gabriel Okara, Mbella Sonne Dipoko, Niyi Osundare, David Diop, Leopold Sedar Senghor, J.P. Clark), investigating themes of exile, cultural alienation, negritude, ecological consciousness, mortality, and anticolonial struggle.
How to Pass the Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature Exam
What You Need to Know
- Passing score: Grade E or better (Cameroon GCE Advanced Level grades A, B, C, D and E are passes; O is a subsidiary pass and F is a fail)
- Assessment: Official Advanced Level structure for subject code 0735 (Literature in English) per the Cameroon GCE Board June 2026 timetable (Form G6): Paper 1: 50 compulsory multiple-choice questions (1 hour 30 minutes); Paper 2: written theory/structured questions (3 hours); Paper 3: written paper (3 hours). Total written time is 7 hours 30 minutes. The Board does not publish per-paper mark weightings for individual subjects.
- Time limit: Paper 1: 1 hour 30 minutes; total written time 7 hours 30 minutes.
- Exam fee: 12,000 FCFA
Keys to Passing
- Work through all 100 available questions
- Review every answer and explanation
- Track weak areas and revisit them
- Use our AI tutor for tough concepts
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the structure of the Cameroon GCE A-Level Literature in English (0735) examination?
The examination consists of three compulsory papers: Paper 1 is an objective test with 50 multiple-choice questions (1 hour 30 minutes) testing unseen poetry, unseen prose, literary theory, and stylistics. Paper 2 is a 3-hour essay paper covering Shakespearean drama (Section A) and Modern/African drama (Section B). Paper 3 is a 3-hour essay paper covering African and World Prose Fiction (Section A) and Poetry traditions (Section B).
How is the Cameroon GCE Advanced Level graded by the CGCEB?
The Cameroon GCE Board reports Advanced Level results on the letter scale A, B, C, D, E, O and F. Grades A to E are passes, Grade O is recorded as a subsidiary (Ordinary Level) pass and Grade F is a fail. The Board does not publish the percentage mark ranges behind these grades.
What key Cameroonian and African authors are featured on the GCE A-Level Literature syllabus?
The CGCEB Literature in English syllabus features prominent Cameroonian dramatists and novelists including Bole Butake (Lake God, And Palm-Wine Will Flow), John Nkengasong (Black Caps and Red Feathers, Across the Mongolo), Ferdinand Oyono (Houseboy, The Old Man and the Medal), Bate Besong (Beasts of No Nation), and Mbella Sonne Dipoko. It also extensively features African continental giants like Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kofi Awoonor, Gabriel Okara, and David Diop.
How should candidates approach Paper 1 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)?
Paper 1 requires rigorous understanding of literary terminology (tropes, figures of speech, metrical patterns, sound devices), narrative point of view, and the ability to perform close reading on unseen poetic and prose extracts. Candidates should practice scansion (identifying iambic pentameter, trochaic meters, caesuras), recognize nuanced dramatic irony and tone, and eliminate plausible distractors based on textual evidence.