Prepare for Arabic as a language you must understand and use, not a list of rules. Work through the five official sections below and practise reading, translation and writing every week.
Download the official JAMB Arabic syllabus PDF
Complete JAMB Arabic topics
| Section | Everything to cover |
|---|---|
| A. Comprehension | Two unseen passages of about 70 words; vocabulary, main ideas, details, inference and contextual meaning. |
| B. Translation | English-to-Arabic and Arabic-to-English translation using clear, idiomatic and grammatically acceptable language. |
| C. Grammar | 1. Demonstrative, relative, conditional and interrogative pronouns 2. Gender 3. Characteristics of nouns 4. Dual 5. Plurals: sound masculine, sound feminine and broken 6. Construct phrase 7. Separable and inseparable pronouns 8. Appendants: adjective, conjunction, permutative and emphasis 9. Prepositions 10. Transitive and intransitive verbs 11. Perfect verb 12. Imperfect verb and moods 13. Imperative verb 14. Modifiers/adverbs of time, place, condition, reason, degree and manner 15. Trilateral and derived verbs 16. Verbal noun 17. Exception 18. Conditional sentence 19. Numerals 1-1000 20. Active and passive voice 21. Subject and predicate 22. Nouns in the accusative. |
| D. Composition | Guided and free composition, letters, narration, description, argument, organisation, vocabulary and grammatical accuracy. |
| E. Arabic Literature | Pre-Islamic, Islamic, Umayyad, Abbasid and modern periods; selected prose and poetry, themes, styles, authors, context and appreciation. |
Build reading ability first
Read a short passage daily. First identify the topic and main point, then underline connectors, pronoun references and unfamiliar words. Guess meaning from context before using a dictionary. Answer in the form requested and do not translate every sentence when the question only asks for a detail.
Translate meaning, not word order
Read the whole sentence, identify subject, verb, object and modifiers, then produce natural wording in the target language. Keep a notebook of recurring expressions, collocations and false literal translations. After translating, check agreement, tense, pronouns, definiteness and prepositions.
Study grammar through sentence production
For every rule, write five original sentences. Compare singular, dual and plural forms; masculine and feminine; nominal and verbal sentences; perfect, imperfect and imperative verbs. Parse examples to identify grammatical function. Give extra attention to broken plurals, attached pronouns, derived verb forms, numerals and accusative nouns because they combine several rules.
Improve composition systematically
Plan in three minutes: introduction, two or three main points and conclusion. Use sentences you can control rather than translating complicated English thoughts. Build reusable vocabulary around education, family, health, travel, technology, citizenship and social issues. Edit your work for spelling, agreement, tense and punctuation.
Approach literature by period and text
Create a timeline of literary periods. For each prescribed author or text in the official PDF, record genre, period, theme, style, key vocabulary and social setting. Read the actual Arabic extracts aloud and explain their meaning in simple Arabic or English.
Eight-week preparation plan
- Comprehension method and core vocabulary.
- Nouns, gender, dual, plurals and pronouns.
- Verbs, moods, voices and derived forms.
- Phrases, appendants, prepositions, modifiers and exception.
- Numerals, conditional sentences and accusative nouns.
- Translation in both directions.
- Composition and literary periods/texts.
- Timed mixed questions and error revision.
Use A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language or another text listed in the PDF, Arabic newspapers for reading and a good bilingual dictionary. Return to the complete JAMB syllabus library.
Official source
This page follows the current JAMB IBASS e-syllabus.
