NEW FACE OF JAMB

Some of the frequently asked questions about Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) Computer-Based Test (CBT) of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), read:

How do I start the test?
Answer: You are expected to first key in the registration number into the computer and click on NEXT. You are to read and follow the instruction that came up. Next, click on START EXAM.
How do I key in my answers on a Computer-Based Test?
Answers to questions may be entered into the computer in either of two ways. You may key in the answers by clicking on the option you believe to be the answer or typing in the letter of the option. Answers are recorded directly into the computer.
May I review my answers or skip questions and answer them later when taking a Computer Based Test?
You may review and change your answers after they have been entered into the computer during the examination or after you have attempted to answer all the questions before final submission.
How do I know how much time I have spent on my examination?
The time will be displayed on the computer screen during the examination.
If there is a power failure will it affect my timing?
No. There will be power backup with alternative power supply and your tests will return to the exact place where you stopped.
How do I end the test?
When you have answered and reviewed all the questions, you will be required to click the “END” button. Another box will ask you to confirm that you are ready to end the test. Once you confirm that you want to end, the test will close and you will not be able to regain entry.
These were some of the exam tips provided for the 600,000 candidates or so who sat for this year’s JAMB CBT between May 17 and June 1 in about 153 centres across the nation. So, after the exam it was only natural to ask them how they fared, what areas they encountered problems in the exam and what they have to say about the CBT.
“No problem,” reports Sedjro Charity Ife, who sat for the exam at Federal Polytechnic ICT Centre, Western Campus, Ilaro, Ogun State. “I wanted to have the experience of writing an examination that is computer-based,” although she added that she opted for the mode because of late registration.
The ex-student of El Crystal Star College, Lagos, who wants to read Architecture at University of Lagos (UNILAG), her first choice, or Architectural Technology at Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), her second choice, or Geography/Chemistry at Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto Ijaniki, Lagos or Security Technology and Management, at Lagos Aviation and Maritime Academy, Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos sat for the CBT in English, Chemistry, Geography and Physics. She confessed that although this is her first attempt, she didn’t have any problem on any of the subjects during the CBT. “Specific instructions given enabled me to participate thoroughly,” she confessed to Education Review.
Miss Deborah Dada and Mr. Philip Odenore who both sat for the exam at Chamscity, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, admitted as much. Dada, an ex-student of Zodiak High School, Igando, Lagos, wants to read Computer Science at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, Oyo State (her first choice) and Yaba College of Technology (second choice), and Odenore who graduated from Queen Maris Group of Schools, Lagos, wants to read Petroleum and Gas Engineering at University of Lagos (first choice), and Computer Science at ACOED. While Dada who sat for the CBT in such subjects as English, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, found it something of a piece of cake, Odenore who did the same UTME subjects, as Dada, confessed to Education Review that “it was a bit complicated because I didn’t know much about the system but at the end I scaled through.”
Eunice Julius who sat for the CBT at Lagos State Polytechnic, Isolo Campus, also returned similar verdict. “I didn’t have any problem with the conduct of the exam,” she said. Julius who intends to read English and Literary Studies at Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, (first choice), and Linguistics in the same university if she fails to sail through in her first choice, and who revealed that this is her fourth attempt at the UTME, is full of praises for the CBT mode because “it is efficient, results are released faster than in PPT (Paper and Pencil Test) and it wards off malpractice.”
On this score of helping to “ward off” or reduce exam malpractice, Mr. Babatunde Bamisaye, Assistant Director, JAMB National Headquarters, Bwari, Abuja, who supervised the CBT at Westmidland Communication Ltd, ETC Centre, located at 1. Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja and Julius are agreed. Bamisaye who told Education Review that he has conducted many PPTs in the past, admits with Julius, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB boss or Registrar, the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and Supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike who had expressed similar views in the past, that CBT helps to curtail exam fraudulence.
“CBT is minimizing frauds and examination malpractices,” he said. “If it were PPT, before now, you would have seen mercenaries parading everywhere. But where are they now? They could no longer operate because it is you and your system. But when it was PPT, you could see crowd of people sending in expo and all the rest. They would just be coming like that and you would see series of impersonation. And thank God for our management for introducing this biometric verification. You know in the past, we were using only registration slips and once they come, they can always manipulate and impersonate even for other candidates.
“But since the inception of CBT, all those things have come down drastically. CBT has curtailed all those nonsensical behaviour, on the part of the candidates, and even on the part of some parents. I can’t imagine as a parent, living in Ibadan or Akure, to now ask my child to go and write his exam at Lagos, the same exam that can be written in Ibadan or Akure. So that’s the problem that we are having with PPT. But we are moving from paper and pencil to CBT. By next year, everything will be computer-based. That’s the plan of our management and the board, that by 2015 every candidate will write the CBT. We will get there. In the developed world, we don’t hear all these nasty stories and people are not desperate.”
“The introduction of the CBT marks a new examination regime that will revolutionise the education sector,” the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, said while addressing officials of the Netherlands examination body also known as CITO (Central Institute for Test Development) in Holland, early this year.
“I commend JAMB for introducing the CBT to complement the paper-based test which has been an easy prey to malpractice,” Mr. Godwin Uwagbale, President, African Pride Empowerment Empire, an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation), said during this year’s conduct of CBT. “So far, from what we have seen, the computer-based tests centres are not places for malpractice, it is a plus for the board.”
It will be recalled that Prof. Ojerinde had earlier advised everyone, during the conduct of this year’s e-UTME, to embrace the newly introduced CBT method as it will enable the candidates to get their results quickly, reduce cost of conducting the examinations and eliminate malpractices.