Burkina Agrégation Secondaire cheat sheet

Burkina Faso gained independence on 5 August 1960; the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 under Thomas Sankara.

The national motto is 'Unité – Progrès – Justice'; the anthem is the 'Ditanyè' (Hymne de la Victoire).

The 1991 Constitution (revised 2012) establishes a semi-presidential regime with a President elected for five years, renewable once.

The flag is two horizontal bands, red over green, with a yellow five-pointed star at the centre; red = revolution, green = hope, star = guiding light.

Burkina Faso is a member of ECOWAS, the African Union, the UN, the OIF (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie) and the Sahel G5.

The main civic duties are respect for the Constitution and laws, payment of taxes, defence of the nation, and protection of public property.

Key national days: 11 December (Proclamation of the Republic, 1958), 4 August (Revolution Day), 5 August (Independence Day).

The capital is Ouagadougou; the two largest cities after it are Bobo-Dioulasso and Koudougou.

Genres littéraires: le roman, la nouvelle, le conte, la poésie, le théâtre, l'essai; le théâtre se subdivise en tragédie, comédie et drame.

Les registres de langue: soutenu, courant, familier; le registre littéraire se reconnaît à la richesse lexicale et aux figures de style.

Figures de style essentielles: métaphore (analogie sans outil), comparaison (avec 'comme'), métonymie (rapport de contiguïté), hyperbole (exagération), oxymore (alliance de contraires).

Le récit se structure autour du schéma narratif: situation initiale, élément perturbateur, péripéties, dénouement, situation finale.

Les temps du récit: imparfait (description, arrière-plan) et passé simple (actions de premier plan); le présent de narration actualise les faits.

Auteurs africains majeurs: Léopold Sédar Senghor (Négritude), Aimé Césaire (Cahier d'un retour au pays natal), Mongo Beti, Ahmadou Kourouma (Les Soleils des indépendances), Mariama Bâ (Une si longue lettre).

Auteurs burkinabè: Nazi Boni (Crépuscule des temps anciens), Norbert Zongo (Le Parachutage), Bernadette Sanou Dao, Jean-Pierre Guingané (dramaturge).

Le commentaire composé exige: introduction (situation du texte, projet de lecture), deux ou trois axes de lecture, conclusion (bilan et ouverture).

The English tense system distinguishes simple, progressive, perfect and perfect progressive aspects; 'since' + present perfect marks a point of origin, 'for' + duration.

Modal verbs express degrees of certainty: must (strong obligation/deduction), should (advice), may/might (possibility), can/could (ability/permission).

Conditionals: zero (if + present, present), first (if + present, will), second (if + past, would), third (if + past perfect, would have + past participle).

Literary periods: Old English (Beowulf), Middle English (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales), Renaissance (Shakespeare), Romanticism (Wordsworth, Keats), Modernism (Joyce, Woolf, Eliot).

Postcolonial writers in English: Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart), Wole Soyinka (Nobel 1986), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Buchi Emecheta.

Phonetics: English has 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs; stress placement distinguishes noun/verb pairs such as 'record' (n.) / 'record' (v.).

Essay structure for the agrégation: introduction with thesis, body paragraphs with topic sentence + evidence + analysis, conclusion restating the thesis.

Common false friends for francophone learners: 'actually' (en fait), 'eventually' (finalement), 'assist' (aider), 'sensible' (raisonnable).

Quadratic formula: for ax² + bx + c = 0 (a ≠ 0), x = (−b ± √(b² − 4ac)) / 2a; the discriminant Δ = b² − 4ac determines the number of real roots.

Derivative rules: (uv)' = u'v + uv'; (u/v)' = (u'v − uv')/v²; (f∘g)' = g'·f'(g).

Integration by parts: ∫u dv = uv − ∫v du; useful when the integrand is a product of a polynomial and an exponential or trigonometric function.

Arithmetic sequence: u_n = u_0 + nr; sum S_n = n(u_0 + u_n)/2. Geometric sequence: u_n = u_0·q^n; S_n = u_0(1 − q^(n+1))/(1 − q) for q ≠ 1.

Binomial theorem: (a + b)^n = Σ_{k=0}^{n} C(n,k) a^(n−k) b^k, with C(n,k) = n!/(k!(n−k)!).

Limit definition of the derivative: f'(a) = lim_{h→0} [f(a+h) − f(a)]/h; a function is differentiable at a only if it is continuous there.

Probability: P(A ∪ B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A ∩ B); for independent events P(A ∩ B) = P(A)P(B).

Thales and Pythagoras: in a right triangle, a² + b² = c²; in similar triangles, corresponding sides are proportional.

Newton's second law: ΣF = ma; weight W = mg with g ≈ 9.8 m·s⁻² near Earth's surface.

Ohm's law: U = RI; electrical power P = UI = RI² = U²/R; in series R_eq = R₁ + R₂, in parallel 1/R_eq = 1/R₁ + 1/R₂.

Ideal gas law: PV = nRT; at STP one mole occupies about 22.4 L.

Acid–base: pH = −log[H₃O⁺]; a strong acid dissociates completely, a weak acid only partially (Ka).

Photosynthesis: 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂; occurs in chloroplasts, with light reactions in the thylakoids and the Calvin cycle in the stroma.

Cell division: mitosis produces two genetically identical diploid cells; meiosis produces four haploid gametes with crossing-over in prophase I.

Mendelian genetics: monohybrid cross Aa × Aa yields a 3:1 phenotypic ratio; dihybrid AaBb × AaBb yields 9:3:3:1 when genes assort independently.

Blood groups (ABO): A and B alleles are codominant, O is recessive; the Rh factor is inherited independently.

The Scramble for Africa culminated in the Berlin Conference (1884–1885), which set rules for European partition without African representation.

Upper Volta was created as a French colony in 1919, dissolved in 1932 and reconstituted in 1947; it became independent in 1960.

Major post-independence leaders: Maurice Yaméogo (1960–1966), Sangoulé Lamizana, Thomas Sankara (1983–1987), Blaise Compaoré (1987–2014).

The 2014 insurrection ended the 27-year rule of Blaise Compaoré; a transition led to the 2015 elections won by Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.

Burkina Faso lies in the Sahel and Sudanian zones; the climate is tropical with a rainy season roughly from June to October and a dry season dominated by the harmattan.

Major rivers: the Mouhoun (Black Volta), Nakambé (White Volta) and Nazinon (Red Volta); Lake Bam is an important inland water body.

Population geography: the 2019 census recorded about 20.5 million inhabitants, with a young age structure and high urbanisation of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso.

ECOWAS was founded in 1975 (Treaty of Lagos); its headquarters are in Abuja, Nigeria.

Socrates' method is maieutics (midwifery of ideas) through questioning; Plato's theory of Forms distinguishes the sensible world from the intelligible world.

Descartes' cogito: 'I think, therefore I am' establishes the thinking subject as the first certainty; methodical doubt is provisional, not sceptical.

Kant's categorical imperative: act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

Empiricism (Locke, Hume) holds that all knowledge derives from experience; rationalism (Descartes, Leibniz) holds that reason can yield knowledge independently of experience.

Existentialism (Sartre): existence precedes essence; humans are condemned to be free and fully responsible for their choices.

African philosophy: Ubuntu ('I am because we are'), negritude (Senghor, Césaire) and ethnophilosophy (Tempels, Kagame) versus critique by Paulin Hountondji and Marcien Towa.

Logic: modus ponens (P→Q, P ⊢ Q) is valid; affirming the consequent (P→Q, Q ⊢ P) is a fallacy.

Ethics distinguishes deontological theories (duty-based) from consequentialist theories (outcome-based, e.g. utilitarianism).

GDP = C + I + G + (X − M); nominal GDP uses current prices, real GDP uses constant prices.

Law of demand: quantity demanded falls as price rises, ceteris paribus; supply typically rises with price.

Market structures: perfect competition (many firms, homogeneous product), monopoly (single seller), oligopoly (few firms), monopolistic competition (differentiated products).

Durkheim distinguishes mechanical solidarity (traditional, homogeneous societies) from organic solidarity (modern, division of labour).

Weber's types of legitimate authority: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal.

Burkina Faso's legal system is civil-law based (French tradition) combined with customary law in personal-status matters.

Sources of law in Burkina Faso: the Constitution, ratified treaties, statutes (lois), regulations (décrets, arrêtés) and custom.

Inflation is measured by the consumer price index; central bank of the WAEMU is the BCEAO, and the currency is the CFA franc.

Bloom's taxonomy (revised): remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating; used to write measurable learning objectives.

Socio-constructivism (Vygotsky) centres on the zone of proximal development and mediation by more capable peers or the teacher.

The competency-based approach (APC) organises learning around real-life situations and integrated competencies rather than isolated content.

Formative assessment informs teaching during learning; summative assessment certifies achievement at the end of a unit or cycle.

Didactic transposition (Chevallard) transforms scholarly knowledge into teachable content; the didactic contract sets implicit expectations between teacher and learners.

Lesson planning components: prerequisites, objectives, materials, motivation, development (teacher and learner activities), evaluation, remediation.

Differentiation adapts content, process or product to learner readiness, interests and profiles.

The BEPC and BAC examinations in Burkina Faso are national certifications; the agrégation is a higher-education recruitment competition.

The Burkina Faso Constitution guarantees the right to education; the 2007 law (loi d'orientation de l'éducation) frames the education system.

The education system is structured as: préscolaire, primaire (6 years, CEP), post-primaire (BEPC) and secondaire (BAC), plus vocational and higher education.

The 'Loi d'orientation' promotes free and compulsory basic education and the gradual transfer of competencies to local authorities.

Professional duties of the teacher: punctuality, impartiality, confidentiality of learner data, respect for learners' dignity, and refusal of corporal punishment.

School administration roles: directeur (primary), proviseur (lycée), censeur, surveillant général, intendant; the CPE handles discipline.

The 'conseil d'établissement' and 'conseil de classe' are the main collegial bodies; the 'conseil de discipline' applies graduated sanctions.

Ethical principles: integrity, fairness, non-discrimination, professional secrecy, and avoidance of conflict of interest.

Education policy priorities include girls' education, teacher training (ENEP), decentralisation and the fight against school dropout.