ENAFM Cameroon common mistakes
ENAFM Cameroon · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering culture générale questions with a single fact and no development, when the rubric expects a structured paragraph naming the institution, date and significance.
Candidates memorise isolated facts (e.g. a date or an acronym) and assume naming it is enough, because secondary-school revision rewarded recall over exposition.
What to do instead
Practise writing 8–12 line answers that open with a definition, give one dated example, and close with a one-sentence significance statement; time yourself at 6 minutes per answer.
Confusing Cameroonian institutions with their pre-1996 or pre-1984 names and functions (e.g. attributing current powers to the National Assembly and Senate as if they were a single chamber).
Older textbooks and family anecdotes circulate outdated civic facts, and candidates never cross-check against the current constitution.
What to do instead
Build a one-page table of institutions with three columns: current name, constitutional basis (law/date), and main function; recite it weekly and correct any source that disagrees.
Writing French compositions that are grammatically correct sentences but lack a visible plan, so the argument wanders and the conclusion repeats the introduction.
Candidates draft directly onto the answer sheet without an outline, because they fear running out of time.
What to do instead
Spend the first 5 minutes writing a two-part plan (thèse/antithèse or causes/conséquences) with one keyword per paragraph, then write; reserve the last 5 minutes to check that each paragraph matches its keyword.
Losing points on French grammar traps: past participle agreement with avoir, agreement of 'tout', and homophones (a/à, ou/où, ce/se).
These rules are learned in isolation and rarely drilled under time pressure, so automatic writing habits override the rule.
What to do instead
Keep a personal error log of every agreement or homophone slip from practice essays, and do a 10-sentence targeted drill on the three most frequent traps each week.
In English, translating French idioms word-for-word (e.g. 'I have 20 years' instead of 'I am 20 years old') and misusing present perfect where simple past is required.
Direct transfer from French structures feels natural and is rarely corrected in large classes with little speaking time.
What to do instead
Memorise 30 high-frequency false-friend and idiom pairs, and do transformation drills converting French sentences into English with a focus on tense choice (since/for, ago, already).
In mathematics, applying a formula without checking its conditions (e.g. using the quadratic discriminant on a non-quadratic expression, or Pythagoras on a non-right triangle).
Drilling is done on exercises already set up for one method, so candidates never learn to test preconditions.
What to do instead
For every worked problem, write a one-line 'conditions of use' note before substituting; in revision, take mixed exercises and classify which theorem applies before calculating.
Dropping units and significant figures in physics calculations, giving a numerical answer with no unit or with the wrong power of ten.
Candidates treat the calculation as the goal and the unit as decoration, and they skip estimation that would catch order-of-magnitude errors.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed layout: formula, substitution with units, result with unit, then a sanity check ('is this speed plausible for a car?'); lose no marks to missing units in practice.
Describing a biological process (photosynthesis, digestion, blood circulation) as a list of organs or words rather than a sequenced mechanism with inputs and outputs.
Revision relies on labelled diagrams memorised visually, without rehearsing the causal chain in words.
What to do instead
For each process, write a numbered chain of 5–7 steps stating what enters, what is transformed, where, and what leaves; then close the book and reproduce it from memory.
In history and geography, confusing dates and causal order (e.g. placing Cameroonian independence, reunification and the 1972 referendum in the wrong sequence) or confusing map-reading tasks with description.
Facts are learned as isolated dates, and map questions are answered with general commentary instead of reading the legend and scale.
What to do instead
Build timelines with cause-and-effect arrows rather than bare dates, and practise map questions by first stating what the legend and scale show before drawing any conclusion.
Treating the civic and moral education paper as general opinion, giving personal views instead of referring to the constitution, the law, and the duties of the citizen.
Candidates believe moral questions reward sincerity, and they have not learned to anchor answers in legal or institutional references.
What to do instead
Prepare a short list of anchor references (constitution, rights and duties of the citizen, role of the family and school) and practise framing each answer as 'principle, example, consequence' rather than personal opinion.
Failing the medical or physical aptitude stage through avoidable causes: arriving without the required vaccination or medical certificate, or being unable to complete the basic endurance test because of no prior training.
Candidates focus entirely on written subjects and treat the physical and medical stage as a formality, discovering requirements only days before.
What to do instead
Obtain the official list of medical documents and vaccinations at least two months ahead, and start a progressive running and bodyweight programme 8–10 weeks before the test date.