Home » NABTEB Syllabus » If you are seeing this, it means you are one of the NABTEB Literature-in-English candidates. You are welcome.
This article is here to provide you with information on the upcoming NABTEB Literature-in-English exams. Information like the list of topics you should read for the first exams, the recommended textbooks and answers to some questions you may have about the exam so make sure you read to the end, study this syllabus daily and answer past questions.
With this valuable material, you will be one step ahead of your tutors and your peers and score high so you don’t have to be scared of failure or re-write your exams.
Goodluck in your exams.
There are 3 papers in the NABTEB Literature-in-English examination.
PAPER I –
will comprise fifty objective questions based on:
i. General literary principles
ii. Literary Appreciation and Techniques
iii. Contextual questions on African and non-Africa drama set books.
iv. Unseen Prose and Poetry Passages.
PAPER 2: DRAMA AND POETRY
Will have four sections: A, B, C, and D
SECTION A: AFRICAN DRAMA
Questions will be asked in one of the following texts:
i. Wole Soyinka: The Trials of Brother Jero
ii. Athol Fugard: Sizwe Bambi is Dead
SECTION B: NON-AFRICAN DRAMA:
Questions will be asked on one of the following texts:
i. Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
ii. George B. Shaw: The Taming of the Shrew.
SECTION C: AFRICAN POETRY
Questions will be asked on one of the following texts:
i. Traditional: “My Song Bursts”
ii. Traditional: Salute to the Elephant
iii. Oswald Mitshali: “Nightfall in Soweto”
iv. Henry Barlow: “Building the Nation.”
v. David Rubadiri: “ An African Thunderstorm”
vi. Niyi Osundare: “Ours to Plough not to Plunder”
SECTION D: NON-AFRICAN POETRY
Questions will be asked from one of the following texts:
i. John Kent: “Ode to Nightingale”
ii. Robert Burns: “Red Red Rose”
iii. John Donne: “ Death be not Proud”
iv. T.S. Eliot: “Journey of the Magi”
v. William Blake: “A Poison Tree”
vi. Alfred Tennyson: “Ulysses”.
PAPER 3 – PROSE
SECTION A: AFRICAN PROSE
Questions will be asked from one of the following texts:
i. Buchi Emecheta: Slave Wife
ii. Ngugiwa Thiong: Weep Not Child
SECTION B: NON-AFRICAN PROSE
Questions will be asked from one of the following texts:
i. Charles Dickens:
A Christmas Carol
ii. Sir Rider Haggard: King Solomon’s Mines
| NABTEB LITERATURE-IN-ENGLISH SYLLABUS | ||
| SN | TOPICS | OBJECTIVES |
| 1 | COMPREHENSION | i. Identify new words and expressions from any given test ii. Read and answer questions on a given literary material. |
| 2 | LITERARY APPRECIATION | i. Appreciate figurative expressions, imagery and style in literary texts. ii. Identify qualities of a good text. |
| 3 | LITERATURE | i. To identify different types of literary genres. ii. To identify elements of prose literature. iii. To identify elements of drama iv. Identify figures of speech and literary styles in any given literary piece |
| 4 | APPRECIATION | i. Write own simple literary pieces |
1. A Section of African Poetry introduced and annotated by K.E. Sehanu and T. Vincent (Longman)).
2. The Penguin Book of English Verse, edited by John Hayward (Penguin).
3. Any poetry Anthology containing the recommended poems.
4. Eustace Palmer: An Introduction to the African Novel (HEB).
5. E.N. Obiechina – Culture, Tradition, and Society in the West African Novel (Cambridge).
6. Boris Ford – The Pelican Guide to English Literature: (7 volumes).
7. Niyi Osundare: The Eye of the Earth (Poems) Heinemann Frontline Series Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria Limited. Ibadan 1986.
8. Ben Omonode: Introduction to Literature; University of Benin Press, Benin City.
The NABTEB Literature-in-English exam typically consists of three sections: the objective section, the drama/poetry section, and the prose section. The objective section contains multiple-choice questions, while the drama, poetry, and prose sections require longer, written responses.
You should be familiar with literary terms like imagery, symbolism, metaphor, simile, irony, theme, plot, characterization, setting, and point of view. Understanding these terms will help you analyze and interpret literary texts effectively.
Start with a clear point. Next, support it with evidence from the text, and finally provide explanations and analysis to support your argument.
You can’t meet any unfamiliar literary work as long as you have gone through your syllabus.
Create a study schedule to revise literature texts, study your syllabus daily, and practice past exam questions and essay writing.
If you’re unsure about a question, skip it and move on to other questions you understand and can answer. Then come back to those you don’t understand.. Don’t spend a lot of time on a question you don’t understand. It’s better to focus on questions that you are confident about.
No. Candidates are not allowed to use dictionaries or other aids during the English NABTEB exam.
