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Tips on How to Gain Admission this Year.

For one to succeed in any task, he has to know what he is to do and then work towards achieving it. Success in any endeavour comes only through hard work; there is no shortcut to genuine success. The same goes for examination.

In this write up, I‘ll share with you useful success tips that will guide you before, during and after your JAMB UTME.

Firstly, Prepare ahead of Time. Time management and organization is an inevitable step towards exam success. Most of us will always wish we had started revision earlier and that we had more time. If the thought of an examination makes you jittery, then you are probably not fully prepared. Of course everybody will be a bit nervous about an important examination, but there is no reason why you should fall apart and fail to do yourself justice if you know what to expect before you go in. There are ways of using the days, weeks and months available before the exam more wisely.

Make a timetable that includes all your subjects, and think about combining the subjects you find difficult with those that come more naturally to you, so you have something to look forward to. Use your JAMB syllabus to make sure you have covered everything and be sure to reserve in your time table at least two weeks prior to the exam for your revision.

Do the registration yourself, If Possible: According to JAMB, “REGISTRATION FOR THE UNIFIED TERTIARY MATRICULATION EXAMINATION (UTME) IS ONLINE (VIA INTERNET) AND ALL APPLICANTS ARE ADVISED TO REGISTER BY THEMSELVES”.

It is advised that you make yourself available at the CBT centre in which you are registering for the UTME. This will go a long way in checkmating any form of error that might be made by whoever that is doing the registration for you. It will also help those that may be regarded as computer illiterates to get acquainted with the computer system, and this is very important as the exam is now fully conducted through the Computer Based mode.

It is very unfortunate that in the modern world, there are still many adult Nigerians that take the desktop monitor for the computer and of course others that are too scared to even touch the computer system as if it will explode at their touch.

Every JAMBites should be able to at least have a personal e-mail address he/she operates him/ herself. If you don’t, ask your friends to teach you how to get one. Go to the Cyber café with those friends of yours that uses the internet. If you can operate your mobile phone without going through any operation manual or asking anyone to help you operate your phone then you can as well operate a computer system. You only need a little guidance.

Thoroughly Go through the JAMB Brochure: Make sure you carefully read the JAMB brochure before doing the online registration. This will help you in making a perfect choice of the courses you are best suited for. Most JAMBites has never opened a JAMB brochure and this is why they always end up applying for the few popular courses without knowledge of other less popular courses which they may be better suited for.

The former JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu’ Ojerinde, during a presentation at an examinations summit sometime ago pointed out that one of the few reasons why many students fail to gain admission is the fact that they often opt for certain courses like Medicine, Pharmacy, Architecture, Science Laboratory Technology, Business Administration, Law, Theatre Arts for admission due to their marketability.

Last year alone over 11,500 candidates applied to study Medicine in the University of Nigeria while only about 110 were admitted via the primary admission list. Now, we know that a good number of candidates that apply for medicine are considered very brilliant in their respective schools, so it ends up being a big fight and a survival of the fittest where most candidates with high scores still end up not admitted. These wrong choices may also be traced to the dearth of guidance and counselling in our high schools.
The JAMB brochure can be assessed online on the following link; http://www.jamb.org.ng/unifiedtme/brochure/Brochure.aspx

Make Use of Past Question Papers: Get hold of and study regularly past JAMB exams question papers to get a feel of what’s required and to see how well you could cope with the previous exams. The best preparation is working through past papers and looking at your syllabus to avoid any surprises.

In my time, I used the One Time Success series and they were very helpful. You can get any of the numerous past JAMB question paper series in the bookshops. It will do you a lot good.

Minimize The Use of Social networks: It is advisable to reduce to the bare minimum your use of social network sites and tools when you are preparing for exams as they KILL an unimaginable amount of your study time. If you are the type that can’t help always getting online these social networks, try as much as you can to strike a balance between the time you spend on these social networks and your study time.
Invest most of your time on your studies rather than chatting away your time on WhatsApp and Facebook. A word is enough for the wise.

Adhere to instructions: During the exam, carefully read the instructions on your computer all the way through and make sure you know exactly what you have to do before you start. When you are ready to start, read each question more than once to make sure it really does say what you think it says. If you encounter any difficulty with your computer, call the attention of the CBT centre operator or the JAMB supervisor.

Don’t Hope on “Runs”: One serious problem plaguing the Nigeria’s Education system is wide spread exam malpractice which seems to have eaten deep into the university matriculation examination organized by JAMB. Because of the way some of the beneficiaries of this misconduct go scot free and the way these “runs” are publicly advertised, more and more JAMBites are tempted to join the cheating game. But mind you, apart from the long term effects of exam malpractice, most candidates that involve in such act end up disappointed when the result is released and they realised they were duped.

Take note, anybody that encourages you to subscribe to any illegal business is only after your money. They are majorly scammers!
Don’t hope or depend on expo or any other form of JAMB runs to be successful in your JAMB exam. Just go for the exam well prepared and with confidence, you‘ll surely sail through.

With God All Things are Possible: At the end of the exam, don’t trouble yourself trying to verify the correctness of the answers you supplied during the exam as it will do you no good.
Always put God first in anything you do. Be in touch with him when you prepare for your exams, during the exam, after the exam and always. You‘ll surely not regret you did.

Other Recommendations: The Use of English is the only subject that is compulsory for every candidate that writes JAMB and a good performance in the Use of English will surely influence ones overall score. Therefore, make sure you read the recommended text, “Last Days At Forcados School” by A. H. Mohammed as questions will be asked from it.

I also recommend “Catch-Up English Language for SSCE/UME” by Prof. Peter Okebukola et al. as a perfect guide and companion for all JAMBites.

I hope to expand this article in the future. All comments/ contributions are welcomed.