Grade 8 Kiswahili End Term 3 Exam With Answers

The first five questions are free. Learners unlock the full exam, the timer and the complete review.

Junior school end-of-term exams are set by schools, zones and publishers, so formats differ. Most Kiswahili papers in Grade 8 have three parts: ufahamu (comprehension), sarufi na msamiati (grammar and vocabulary) and insha (composition). Our online paper covers the first two in multiple-choice form, in the same style as the Grade 9 KJSEA Kiswahili paper. Insha can’t be marked fairly by a computer, so it is not included. Ask your child to write one short insha a week, such as a letter, a story or a speech, and have a teacher or a confident Kiswahili speaker read it.

• Ufahamu (10 marks): a passage about protecting Lake Victoria, with questions on facts, reasons, vocabulary in context and the best title.
• Sarufi (about 12 marks): noun classes including I-ZI, U-ZI and the PA locative class, verb extensions (kauli za kutendea, kutendwa and kutendeshwa), the perfect tense with -me-, negation, reported speech (usemi wa taarifa), conjunctions, opposites and synonyms, similes (tashbihi) and punctuation.
• Methali na nahau (about 4 marks): completing and explaining proverbs such as “Usipoziba ufa utajenga ukuta”, and the meanings of common idioms.
• Msamiati (about 4 marks): everyday vocabulary for people, places and tools.

Verb extensions are where many Grade 8 learners lose marks. Start from the root and add the ending: pika becomes pikia (kutendea: to cook for), pikwa (kutendwa: to be cooked), pikisha (kutendesha: to cause to cook). The reciprocal form (kutendana) is clearest with piga: pigana means to fight each other. Practise with five common verbs a day, such as soma, andika, piga, lima and fua, and say a short sentence for each form. Reported speech follows a similar habit: change -ta- to -nge-, and kesho to siku iliyofuata.

Learn proverbs in pairs of meaning and lesson. “Fimbo ya mbali haiui nyoka” is literally about a stick that is far away, and the lesson is that help close at hand is what counts in a crisis. Similes (tashbihi) such as “mweupe kama theluji” and “mweusi kama makaa” make insha livelier, and examiners reward them.

• Using the wrong agreement prefix for the noun class.
• Negating tenses wrongly, for example “sikupenda” (past) instead of “sipendi” (present).
• Answering comprehension questions from general knowledge instead of the passage.
• Mixing up kutendwa (andikwa) and kutendea (andikia).
• Confusing rubani (pilot) and nahodha (ship captain).

The passage and its first five questions are free for everyone. Learner members unlock all 30 questions, timed mode and an explanation in Kiswahili for every answer. Results are saved so you can see progress between attempts. Membership is free for 7 days, then KES 500 a month.

See the other exams on the Grade 8 revision papers page, and look ahead to the KJSEA Grade 9 Kiswahili practice paper. The Grade 8 guide explains the full curriculum.