At least 260,000 candidates sat for the 2024 Mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Mock-UTME) on Thursday across 793 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centers nationwide.
Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of JAMB, made this announcement after monitoring the exercise in some centers in Abuja. He stated that the Board is fully prepared for the smooth conduct of the main UTME, scheduled to commence on Friday, 19th April 2024.
Some candidates who participated in the mock examination at CBT centers in Abuja described the exercise as seamless and smooth.
Chinedu Eze, a first-time JAMB examinee, initially felt apprehensive due to his lack of proficiency in computer usage.
He shared, “The experience was nice. Initially, I was afraid, but anyone who can operate a phone can do the examination without any problem. I didn’t encounter any issues with the biometric screening, and my system worked well,” Eze said.
Oloyede, while addressing questions from journalists, expressed delight over the seamless nationwide conduct of the mock examination. He revealed that the examination body also successfully conducted a recruitment examination for the Nigerian Police on Wednesday. He added that the few incidents recorded in the Mock UTME at about four centers would be resolved.
He said, “So far, so good. We are doing mock after mock. Just yesterday, we conducted a recruitment exam for the Police Service Commission throughout the country. That was a mock before today’s mock and was held in 411 centers across the country. Today, we are conducting our own mock in 793 centers across the country. So far, we have about three or four places where they have one issue or the other, but we are trying to get over that. So, it is a good one. Even those three (where there are issues), we will have a way of accommodating them, even if they go down completely. But everything is going well, and the reports we have are that we are very okay.”
Speaking further, the JAMB boss stated that 1.98 million candidates registered for the main 2024 UTME, out of which over 260,000 took part in the mock exam.
“Over 260,000 candidates are sitting for the (mock) exam, but for the real exam, we have 1.98 million because we don’t want to turn our mock into another exam.
That is why we did not allow more than that number to register for the mock exam, which is just to test the system.”
Regarding the readiness for the main UTME, Oloyede affirmed that JAMB was fully prepared for the smooth conduct of the exam. He revealed that new mechanisms would also be deployed to further fortify the exam system.
“We are adequately ready for the examination. Today is a very special day for us. We know we are doing some internal revolution this year which we were apprehensive about the workability.
We can now say we have arrived. What we said to ourselves about six, seven years ago, we have been able to achieve it today,” he said.
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Oloyede disclosed that the results of the Mock UTME would either be released on Thursday (today) evening or tomorrow (Friday).
Earlier, Damilola Bamiro, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) consultant at JAMB, mentioned that the examination body was fully in touch with all the centers participating in the examination through JAMB’s Situation Room.
He explained that the Situation Room allows for real-time interaction between the centers and JAMB to speedily resolve any issues during the exam.