JAMB deploys anti-guess software for CBT, trains 100 staff

Candidates of the Unified
Tertiary Matriculation
Examinations, UTME who are
experts in guessing
answers to questions during
examinations, should
better study hard to have a
mastery of their
subjects, as the Joint
Admissions and
Matriculation Board, JAMB,
has acquired a
software that reduces the
tendency for students
to guess accurately during
examination.
Candidates writing the JAMB
UTME.
Speaking exclusively with
Vanguard on phone,
JAMB’s Public Relations
Officer, Dr Fabian
Benjamin said JAMB has
invested heavily in
training and acquisition of
some softwares that
are specifically designed for
examinations.
Benjamin’s words;
‘’Technically, what we
were
using before to test students
was what we called
Classical Test Theory, but now
we have adopted
what we call Item Response
Theory. The
difference is that the Item
Response Theory
reduces the percentage of
guessing.The
tendency for students to
guess and guess right
is minimal with this
software.”
With the introduction of CBT
and the software in
place, Fabian maintained that
it will be difficult
for candidates to engage in
examination
malpractice.
Besides, for proper efficiency
in service delivery
by staff of JAMB, Fabian
disclosed that over one
hundred staff were sent
abroad for local and
international training on
computer based test.
‘’This year, we have sent
over 100 staff for
training abroad for
international and local
training
to make them grounded in
the art of computer
based test,’’ he said.
Computer based test
Dr. Fabian, who disclosed that
over 500 centres
across the country have been
fully equipped with
state-of -the -art facilities,
pointed out that it is
an improvement on the 400
centres of 2015
UTME.
According to him, each of the
400 centres used
in 2015 UTME had a carrying
capacity of 150
candidates, while those for
this year have a
carrying capacity of 300
candidates.
The protest: Dr. Benjamin,
however lamented the
situation where some
students, who were
supposed to have registered
and adequately
prepared for the examination
slated for Monday,
were busy protesting for an
extension of
registration.
‘’Where were they when
the portal for registration
opened seven months ago?
Why are they calling
for an extension of
registration date when
registration has been
closed?”
He urged stakeholders not to
allow students put
pressure on JAMB to extend
the time of
registration, adding that if
JAMB bends to their
demands, it will never have a
standard in this
country.
Meanwhile, over 1.5million
UTME candidates,
according to Fabian have
registered for the
examination slated to
commence on Monday.
Unlike last year when many
candidates
complained of difficulties in
registration, transfer
of candidates from one state
to another, this
year, candidates have little or
no complain.
Some of the candidates
interviewed by Vanguard
could not point out any area
of difficulty that
emanated from JAMB. One of
the candidates
who claimed JAMB
transferred her to Warri
instead of Lagos for
examination, when properly
interrogated, confessed that
she picked Warri
during registration when it
was apparent that
Lagos centres were full.
Our findings from candidates
further revealed
that many of them who were
posted to other
states other than states of
their choice, either
caused it by mistakenly
clicking on the state
during registration or when
they discovered that
their state of choice was full
due to late
registration, they had no
option than to chose
any available state.
Tertiary institutions
The examination which will
run for 10 days, will
leave candidates to jostle for
the 800,000
admission slots in Nigeria’s
tertiary institutions.
CBT: While encouraging
students to come to the
reality of computer-based
testing as the most
effective way of conducting
examination in the
21st century, JAMB registrar,
Professor Dibu
Ojerinde said: “The idea of
the CBT is that after
30 minutes of the
examination and the
candidate
leaves the exam hall, a
graphical result of the
test will be sent to the
candidate’s mobile phone
number, while the specific
scores will be
released within the period of
four days.”
Comparing the statistics of
early years of UTME
candidates’ registration, we
discovered a steady
decline since 2013 when the
CBT was
introduced.
In 2013, about 1.7 million
people registered for
UTME, in 2014, the number
fell to 1.6 million,
while about 1.4 million
registered in 2015
examination. However, this
year the numbers of
candidates who registered
has increased to over
1.5 million.