The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has begun the conduct of the mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, for no fewer than 211,000 candidates across the country on Thursday.
The mock, according to JAMB authorities, is meant to familiarize prospective candidates with the Computer-Based Testing mode deployed by the examination body.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who disclosed this while monitoring the exercise at a CBT center in Bwari, Abuja, stated that the results of the mock examination will be released on Friday.
“They will have the results tomorrow. The results will be ready. Those who finished, we are working now on their results, but we want to compare with the second batch, the third batch, and so on. And see that everything is working well. But later by tomorrow, they will have the results,” he said.
Oloyede also explained that the conduct of the mock was to test the board’s readiness for the main examination and experiment with new strategies to improve the process.
“The word is mock, and we want to say so far so good. What we want to do is to try some things. As students are getting wiser, we are also getting better…
“Because we are doing certain things to ensure that those things are done. So we are trying to make sure that when we go for the exam, we will have taken experience and learned some lessons from our experience at the mock level. So, so far, so good,” he said.
The Registrar, who stated that the only way to pass UTME is by studying hard, expressed concerns that some candidates are patronizing rogue websites to cheat in the exam. He added that JAMB has also opened a decoy website targeting such individuals.
“We need to let the students know that the best way to pass the examination, UTME in particular, is to study. We are aware of some rogue websites asking people to come and pay that they can help.
“It cannot work. We have also opened our own rogue website. And as of this morning, about 180 students have paid.
“So those students, because attempting to cheat is already an infraction, we are going to deal firmly with them. And many of the institutions, UTME is not a school-based examination.
“We register students individually. And that is why we tell the students, do not give out your registration number. Do not register by proxy.
“Do not give your registration number to anybody. Because some of these schools want to be able to brag that, oh, my 10 students from my school scored 280. There was a state where even the governor of a state was misinformed, and they were celebrating nothing. So this type of thing that people want to cut corners, we are aware of all this. And we are doing everything possible to stop it.
“We have about 180 of them. And we are going to deal with them firmly. We are going to cancel their results, both UTME and DE,” Oloyede said.
He cautioned candidates against seeking fraudulent websites for information, including individuals claiming to offer assistance during the examination.
“Some of them are paying N30,000 for something that will never work. And to some, when I look at those who have paid us this money, I smile,” he added.
Our correspondent can recall that the 2025 UTME is scheduled to commence on April 25 this month at approved CBT centers across the country.
