36-Week WAEC Revision Programme — Commerce
September to the May WAEC sitting. SS3 is not a year of new material so much as a year of pressure on material already met, so this is not a course to work through from the beginning — it is a testing programme. Each week you answer cold, work the ones you got wrong, and have the AI explain why you got them wrong. Anything you turn out never to have been taught, you learn there and then, and meet again three weeks later.
A week is one block of the syllabus and the prompts that cover it. You are not meant to do all of them: answer the questions first, and let what you get wrong decide which of the rest you need. Fifteen or twenty minutes a subject is a real week's work — nine subjects do not fit any other way.
Every week, in this order
Start with the questions, not the explanation. The first two steps are in every week; a purpose-written mistake or pitfalls prompt appears in about half of them, and where it does not, your own wrong answers are the material for step three.
- 1. Retrieve — Answer cold, with nothing in front of you. Wrong answers are the point — they show you where the week's work is.
- 2. Drill — Work the ones you missed properly, showing every step, so you and the AI can both see where it went wrong.
- 3. Explain my error — Ask why your answer was wrong, not just what the right one is. Where the week offers a Spot My Mistake or WAEC Pitfalls prompt, use it.
- 4. Teach me — Only if the error turns out to be something you were never taught. Then come back and retrieve it again.
Foundations of Commerce
↑ Jump to week- Week 1
- Quiz: The functions commerce performs in linking producer to consumer
- WAEC prep: The scope of commerce and the activities it embraces
- Spot my mistake: Confusing commerce with business as a whole
- Let me explain: E-commerce and the forms it takes in Nigeria
- Teach me: What commerce means, and how it differs from trade and from industry
- Week 2
- Quiz: Industrial occupations and the work they involve
- WAEC prep: Service occupations, both direct and indirect
- Practice set: Placing named Nigerian jobs in the right occupational class
- Spot my mistake: Treating every job that is not manufacturing as a service occupation
- Let me explain: Commercial occupations and the services they render
- Teach me: What an occupation is and how occupations are classified
- Week 3
- Quiz: Division of labour and the forms it takes
- WAEC prep: The disadvantages and the limits of division of labour
- Practice set: How the size of the market limits specialisation
- Spot my mistake: Assuming division of labour can be carried as far as a firm likes
- Let me explain: The advantages division of labour brings a firm
- Teach me: The four factors of production and the reward paid to each
Forms of Business Organisation
↑ Jump to week- Week 4
- Quiz: The advantages and disadvantages of sole proprietorship
- WAEC prep: The types of partner and the liability each carries
- Practice set: Choosing between sole trading and partnership for a venture
- Spot my mistake: Assuming every partner in a partnership carries unlimited liability
- Let me explain: How a partnership is formed, and what the deed contains
- Teach me: The features of a sole proprietorship
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 5
- Quiz: The types of co-operative society found in Nigeria
- Quiz: The features of a public corporation
- WAEC prep: Thrift societies and the esusu tradition
- WAEC prep: Private and public limited companies compared
- Practice set: The control and accountability of public enterprises
- Spot my mistake: Confusing a co-operative with an ordinary company
- Spot my mistake: Confusing a public limited company with a public corporation
- Let me explain: Credit unions and how they serve their members
- Let me explain: How a limited liability company is formed
- Teach me: The principles a co-operative society is run on
- Teach me: Why government establishes public enterprises
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 6
- Quiz: Mergers and acquisitions distinguished
- WAEC prep: Trusts, cartels and consortiums
- Practice set: The effects of business combination on the consumer
- Spot my mistake: Treating a cartel and a merger as the same form of business combination
- Let me explain: Holding companies and their subsidiaries
- Teach me: Amalgamation, and why firms combine
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 7
- Quiz: The functions of the Chamber of Commerce
- Quiz: Called-up capital and paid-up capital
- WAEC prep: Consumer associations and the protection they offer
- WAEC prep: Fixed capital set against circulating capital
- Practice set: Identifying types of capital from a given balance sheet
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a trade association exists to serve customers
- Spot my mistake: Treating authorised capital as the money a company actually holds
- Let me explain: Employers' associations and the aims they pursue
- Let me explain: Working capital and how it is calculated
- Teach me: What a trade association is, and why firms join one
- Teach me: Authorised capital and issued capital
Revisit from three weeks ago
Business Finance
↑ Jump to week- Week 8
- Quiz: The sources of credit open to a Nigerian trader
- WAEC prep: The dangers of relying too heavily on credit
- Practice set: Deciding whether to grant credit to a customer
- Spot my mistake: Assuming hire purchase passes ownership as soon as the first instalment is paid
- Let me explain: The advantages of trading on credit
- Teach me: What credit is, and the instruments used to grant it
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 9
- Quiz: Net profit and the expenses deducted to reach it
- WAEC prep: The factors that affect a business's turnover
- Practice set: Computing profit and turnover from given figures
- Spot my mistake: Confusing turnover with profit
- Let me explain: Turnover and the rate of stock turnover
- Teach me: Gross profit and how it is arrived at
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 10
- Quiz: Small-scale retail outlets in Nigeria
- WAEC prep: The factors to weigh before starting a retail business
- Practice set: Modern trends in retailing, including self-service
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a retailer's mark-up is the same as the profit made
- Let me explain: Large-scale outlets: supermarkets, chain stores and department stores
- Teach me: The functions a retailer performs
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 11
- Quiz: Identifying current assets and current liabilities
- WAEC prep: Managing working capital well
- Practice set: Computing working capital from a given set of figures
- Spot my mistake: Treating working capital as the cash a business holds
- Let me explain: Why a profitable business can still be short of working capital
- Teach me: The working capital formula
Revisit from three weeks ago
Home Trade
↑ Jump to week- Week 12
- Quiz: The types of wholesaler
- Quiz: Direct and indirect channels compared
- WAEC prep: The arguments for eliminating the middleman
- WAEC prep: Channel choice for perishable goods against durable goods
- Practice set: Designing a distribution channel for a named Nigerian product
- Spot my mistake: Assuming that removing middlemen always lowers prices
- Spot my mistake: Assuming the shortest channel of distribution is always the cheapest for the producer
- Let me explain: The services a wholesaler renders the retailer
- Let me explain: The factors that determine the choice of channel
- Teach me: The functions of a wholesaler
- Teach me: The common channels through which goods reach the consumer
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 13
- Quiz: Export trade and its importance to Nigeria
- WAEC prep: The advantages and disadvantages of foreign trade
- Practice set: The problems of foreign trade in West Africa
- Spot my mistake: Treating a bill of lading as a document of payment rather than a document of title
- Let me explain: Entrepot trade, and where it is practised
- Teach me: Import trade and the procedure it follows
Revisit from three weeks ago
Foreign Trade
↑ Jump to week- Week 14
- Quiz: The balance of payments and the accounts within it
- WAEC prep: The terms of trade and what causes them to move
- Practice set: Correcting an unfavourable balance of payments
- Spot my mistake: Confusing the balance of trade with the terms of trade
- Let me explain: Visible and invisible items distinguished
- Teach me: The balance of trade, favourable and unfavourable
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 15
- Quiz: Quotas, embargoes and exchange control
- Quiz: The invoice, the credit note and the debit note
- WAEC prep: The effects of trade barriers on consumers and on producers
- WAEC prep: The consular invoice and the insurance certificate
- Practice set: Putting trade documents in the order they are used
- Spot my mistake: The infant industry argument and the limits of it
- Spot my mistake: Treating a quotation as a binding contract of sale
- Let me explain: The reasons governments restrict trade
- Let me explain: The bill of lading and the certificate of origin
- Teach me: Tariffs and the purposes they are meant to serve
- Teach me: The enquiry, the quotation and the order in home trade
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 16
- Quiz: The meaning of COD, CIF and FOB
- WAEC prep: The meaning of ex-works, carriage paid and franco
- Practice set: Calculating a net price from a quotation and its discounts
- Spot my mistake: Confusing trade discount with cash discount
- Let me explain: Cash terms and deferred terms of payment
- Teach me: Trade discount and cash discount
Revisit from three weeks ago
Money, Banking and Financial Services
↑ Jump to week- Week 17
- Quiz: Legal tender and the forms currency takes
- Quiz: Commercial banks and the services they offer
- WAEC prep: Mail transfer, telegraphic transfer and electronic payment
- WAEC prep: Mortgage banks and micro-finance institutions
- Practice set: Choosing a bank and an account to suit a stated need
- Spot my mistake: Confusing a cheque with legal tender
- Spot my mistake: Assuming the Central Bank takes deposits from the general public
- Let me explain: Cheques, bank drafts and bills of exchange
- Let me explain: Development banks and the sectors they serve
- Teach me: The functions of money and the qualities it must have
- Teach me: The functions of the Central Bank of Nigeria
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 18
- Quiz: Utmost good faith and insurable interest
- WAEC prep: Life and non-life insurance: motor, fire and marine
- Practice set: Making an insurance claim after a loss
- Spot my mistake: Assuming insurance removes a risk rather than spreading its cost
- Let me explain: Indemnity, subrogation and contribution
- Teach me: What insurance is, and how pooling of risk works
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 19
- Quiz: The functions of the capital market
- Quiz: Bulls and bears
- WAEC prep: Raising funds by offer for sale and by rights issue
- Practice set: The operators who work on the floor of the exchange
- WAEC prep: The effects of speculation on the market
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a company receives money each time its shares change hands on the exchange
- Spot my mistake: Confusing speculation with investment
- Let me explain: Shares, stocks and debentures distinguished
- Let me explain: Stags, and the part they play at a new issue
- Teach me: What the stock exchange does
- Teach me: What a speculator does on the exchange
Revisit from three weeks ago
Aids to Trade
↑ Jump to week- Week 20
- Quiz: The factors that determine the choice of transport
- WAEC prep: The types and importance of communication in business
- Practice set: Choosing a transport mode for a named consignment
- Spot my mistake: Choosing a mode of transport on its freight charge alone
- Let me explain: The importance of tourism to an economy
- Teach me: The forms of transport and the goods each one suits
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 21
- Quiz: The types of warehouse
- Quiz: The objectives a business sets out to pursue
- WAEC prep: Advertising media and their relative merits
- WAEC prep: The social objectives of a business
- Practice set: Ranking objectives for a stated Nigerian firm
- Spot my mistake: Advertising that misleads, and the rules against it
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a business exists only to make a profit
- Let me explain: The meaning and objectives of advertising
- Let me explain: Profit maximisation weighed against other objectives
- Teach me: The functions warehousing performs
- Teach me: What a business is, and how it differs from a hobby
Revisit from three weeks ago
Mixed WAEC Practice
↑ Jump to week- Week 22
- Quiz: The order in which claims are paid on dissolution
- Quiz: The rights belonging to a consumer
- WAEC prep: The role of the liquidator
- WAEC prep: The responsibilities a consumer owes in return
- Practice set: Pursuing a complaint about a faulty product
- Spot my mistake: Confusing dissolution with insolvency
- Spot my mistake: Treating consumerism as another word for consumption
- Let me explain: Voluntary and compulsory liquidation of a company
- Let me explain: The work of consumer protection agencies in Nigeria
- Teach me: The grounds on which a partnership is dissolved
- Teach me: What consumerism means
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 23
- Quiz: The instruments through which e-payment is made
- WAEC prep: The risks and problems of e-payment
- Practice set: Choosing an e-payment method for a given transaction
- Spot my mistake: Assuming an electronic transfer and a cheque clear in the same way
- Let me explain: The advantages e-payment brings to trade
- Teach me: What e-payment is, and how it developed in Nigeria
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 24
- Quiz: The savings account and its features
- WAEC prep: Opening an account and the documents required
- Practice set: Advising a customer on the right account to open
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a current account earns interest in the way a savings account does
- Let me explain: The fixed deposit account and the terms attached
- Teach me: The current account and the customer it suits
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 25
- Quiz: Online and mobile banking transfers
- Quiz: The work of the underwriter in assessing a risk
- WAEC prep: The benefits and the risks of e-banking
- WAEC prep: Co-insurance, and how it differs from re-insurance
- Practice set: Deciding whether a given risk should be re-insured
- Spot my mistake: Common e-banking frauds, and how to avoid them
- Spot my mistake: Confusing co-insurance with re-insurance
- Let me explain: POS terminals and their use in retail trade
- Let me explain: Re-insurance, and why insurers resort to it
- Teach me: The ATM and the services it provides
- Teach me: What underwriting means in insurance
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 26
- Quiz: The listing requirements it sets
- WAEC prep: The advantages it offers a smaller company
- Practice set: Advising a growing firm on whether to list
- Spot my mistake: Assuming the second-tier securities market lists only failing companies
- Let me explain: How it differs from the first-tier market
- Teach me: What the second-tier securities market exists for
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 27
- Quiz: The commodities traded on it
- WAEC prep: The benefits a commodity exchange brings farmers
- Practice set: The requirements for trading on a commodity exchange
- Spot my mistake: Treating a commodity exchange as a place where the goods themselves are displayed for sale
- Let me explain: Spot contracts and futures contracts
- Teach me: What a commodity exchange does
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 28
- Quiz: The sources of capital open to a partnership
- Quiz: Privatisation and the methods used to carry it out
- WAEC prep: The sources of capital open to a co-operative society
- Practice set: Matching a source of capital to a form of business
- WAEC prep: The arguments for and against privatisation
- Practice set: Assessing a named Nigerian privatisation
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a co-operative society raises capital by selling shares on the stock exchange
- Spot my mistake: Treating commercialisation and privatisation as the same policy
- Let me explain: The sources of capital open to a limited company
- Let me explain: Deregulation and its effect on competition
- Teach me: The sources of capital open to a sole proprietor
- Teach me: Commercialisation, and what it changes
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 29
- Quiz: The departments found in a typical firm
- Quiz: Delegation, and what it achieves for a manager
- WAEC prep: The advantages of a clear organisational structure
- Practice set: Drawing a chart for a described business
- WAEC prep: The problems that follow from poor delegation
- Spot my mistake: Reading an organisational chart as a picture of who does the most work
- Spot my mistake: Delegating responsibility without the authority to match
- Let me explain: Line, functional and line-and-staff structures
- Let me explain: Span of control, and what determines its width
- Teach me: Reading an organisational chart
- Teach me: Authority and responsibility distinguished
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 30
- Quiz: Responsibilities owed to employees and to customers
- WAEC prep: The costs and the benefits of acting responsibly
- Practice set: Judging a firm's record on social responsibility
- Spot my mistake: Assuming social responsibility is simply money given away
- Let me explain: Responsibilities owed to the community and the environment
- Teach me: What social responsibility asks of a business
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 31
- Quiz: Consideration, and the intention to create legal relations
- WAEC prep: The ways a contract is discharged
- Practice set: Deciding whether a described agreement is a valid contract
- Spot my mistake: Treating an invitation to treat as an offer
- Let me explain: Capacity to contract and free consent
- Teach me: Offer and acceptance
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 32
- Quiz: The types of agent
- Quiz: Conditions and warranties in a contract of sale
- WAEC prep: How an agency relationship is terminated
- Practice set: The liability of principal and agent towards third parties
- WAEC prep: Ownership and possession under a hire purchase agreement
- Spot my mistake: Assuming an agent is personally liable on every contract made for the principal
- Spot my mistake: Confusing hire purchase with a credit sale
- Let me explain: The duties an agent owes the principal
- Let me explain: The Hire Purchase Act and the protection it gives a buyer
- Teach me: What an agent is, and how agency is created
- Teach me: The main provisions of the Sale of Goods Act
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 33
- Quiz: The duties an employee owes the employer
- WAEC prep: The grounds and procedure for lawful dismissal
- Practice set: Resolving a described workplace dispute
- Spot my mistake: Treating any dismissal a worker dislikes as wrongful dismissal
- Let me explain: The contract of employment and its terms
- Teach me: The duties an employer owes the employee
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 34
- Quiz: Copyright and the works it covers
- Quiz: The procedure for registering with the CAC
- WAEC prep: Why the state protects intellectual property at all
- Practice set: Advising a business on protecting an invention
- WAEC prep: The consequences of trading with an unregistered name
- Practice set: Working through the registration steps for a small enterprise
- Spot my mistake: Confusing a patent with a trade mark
- Spot my mistake: Assuming registering a business name creates a separate legal person
- Let me explain: Trademarks and how they are registered
- Let me explain: The documents and fees the registration requires
- Teach me: What a patent protects, and for how long
- Teach me: Why a business name must be registered
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 35
- Quiz: The Standards Organisation of Nigeria and its work
- Quiz: After-sales service and the forms it takes
- WAEC prep: The penalties an agency can impose on a trader who breaches standards
- WAEC prep: Handling a customer complaint well
- Practice set: Designing a customer service policy for a shop
- Spot my mistake: Assuming a certification mark guarantees quality forever
- Spot my mistake: Treating pre-sales service and after-sales service as the same activity
- Let me explain: The Weights and Measures Act
- Let me explain: Why good service keeps custom
- Teach me: The Food and Drugs Act and what it forbids
- Teach me: What pre-sales service involves
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 36
- Quiz: The achievements of ECOWAS in trade
- WAEC prep: The Lake Chad Basin Commission and its aims
- Practice set: The problems facing West African economic groupings
- Spot my mistake: Assuming ECOWAS and the African Union have the same membership
- Let me explain: The Niger Basin Commission and the work it does
- Teach me: The formation and objectives of ECOWAS
Revisit from three weeks ago