Every year, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examines all applicants who want to gain admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The number of applicants who registered for this exam has always exceeded one million. With this high number, every applicant knows that securing a place won’t be easy. And this is why many want to know if their JAMB score will guarantee them a spot. This has been the experience of many in this country. It is not uncommon to see people who wrote JAMB more than once. Some of them score 240 and above. I know someone who scored 283 but was not admitted to her course of choice. She wanted to study Medicine and Surgery but was offered admission to study agricultural science. This is one of the sad realities Nigerian students face once they get to this crossroads.
In my posts, I have discussed some of the strategic steps to take when you are seeking admission. Some students didn’t experience any delay. Some may say they are lucky, but I think they were informed and strategic in their decision-making. Life doesn’t need to be hard if your approaches are well coordinated. One of the major pitfalls for many is going for competitive courses when they are not competitive. For instance, someone whose O’level result is at credit level and barely scores above 200 in JAMB may find it difficult if they want to study medicine, nursing, law, and engineering courses. I am not in any way demeaning the effort of such students, but the reality is that these courses are highly sought after. To stand a chance, you must have at least 250 in UTME and a lot of As and Bs in the required SSCE subjects.
Now, the main objective of this article is to reveal what you need to check to know if your JAMB score is good enough.
School minimum score
Every school releases their cut-off whenever they want to start selling Post UTME forms. And every course offered in the school will have a benchmark. For example, if the benchmark for pharmacy is 230 and you score 220, your score is not good enough. There is another trap which I have discussed in one of my posts. This trap occurs when the school announces a single cut-off mark for all the courses and makes it lower than 200. For instance, if the University of Benin pegged their minimum score at 190 for all the courses and you scored 198 to study computer science. The probability that you will be offered admission is not up to 20%. You may ask why. The reason is that the number of students who score 240 and above competing with you is high. The higher the competition, the lower the chances, and vice versa. On the flip, if the course you want to study is physics or chemistry with that same mark, your chances will be higher.
Your score should be 30-40 points higher than the minimum. To have an idea, check the previous benchmark for the course you want to study and compare it with what you got. You are good to go if it is 30-40 points higher.
O’level Results
Majority of schools use the aggregate of UTME scores and SSCE to decide who to admit. As I have explained, your JAMB score must be high if your O’level result is at the credit level. This will help you compensate for the deficit your SSCE might have created.
Before writing JAMB, convert your WASSCE or NECO results to 30 points. A1, B2, B3, C4, C5, and C6 are 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point respectively. Let’s say you have B2 in mathematics, B3 in English, B3 in Physics, C4 in chemistry, and B2 in Biology. The total point will be 21. With this, you will need at least 50 points to stand a chance for most of the competitive courses. The minimum score you should target in UTME is 250.
Note: UTME carries 50% of the aggregate score for most schools. Whatever you score will be divided by 8.
Post UTME Score
This is the examination that various schools conduct after JAMB has conducted theirs. It is a way to reaffirm that applicants sit for UTME without external help. This approach can only be used if you have done the screening. In some schools, PUTME scores take 20% of the aggregate. If you score 10% in the screening, I expect your JAMB score and SSCE to be high enough to push you to 70% (UTME – 35, SSCE – 25). For you to have 35 in UTME, it means your initial score is 280. If it happens that you score 250, this might not be good enough to study some of the competitive courses.
Not all schools conduct screening exercises. They base the aggregate score on the UTME score and SSCE results. You must be familiar with the grading system of your school of choice, which will help you to know where you stand after JAMB has released your results. This is a strategic approach that can save you from the disappointment that comes with denied admission. Also, it will help you know if you should pick up a change of course or institution form.
The first two points I have mentioned should have given you an idea of where you stand. This will X-ray your results, show you your chances, and show your competitiveness. However, I would love to know the highest, lowest, and average scores of students who applied for the course in your school of choice. If these data are available, every student can know if they stand a chance by comparing their scores. Since these aren’t in the public domain, you don’t have a choice but to score high in UTME and have good SSCE.
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