A couple of months ago, Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results released had captured the imagination of the public for the glaring record of massive failure.
The alarming rise of social media influence was seen as the culprit that plunged the youths’ learning habits into decline thus resulting in national failure. Other critics, however, blame JAMB for their inadequate preparation, they gave an example with the internet service glitch that was reported in some CBT centres.
After my brother’s successful UTME registration, I went over the syllabus captured in a CD given to them in order to plan how best I can assist him. But what I realized going through the syllabus left me stunned. No stone was left unturned as far as the senior secondary school syllabus is concerned. Considering that elaborated UTME syllabus, it means that there are no “areas of concentration” of any particular subject of combination, the area of focus covers all the topics right from SS1 to SS3. The Joint and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has outlined all the topics under each subject, each topic was furnished with what the candidate is expected to learn, and interestingly several related references were provided.
Apart from the bulkiness of the UTME syllabus, another aspect the next coming candidates need to prepare for is the JAMB questions technicalities.
Even though there are about four months until the exams; to avoid cutting grass to a dog, I chose just two subjects to help my brother with: Chemistry and Mathematics. After a topic is covered he would solve all the exercises under the topic treated. But to my chagrin, because of the technicality involved in JAMB questions, the majority of the past questions would appear beyond his reach. This means that even if a question came from a topic studied it does not guarantee scoring it. The question would beg students to employ a thinking cap. I will later explain further.
UTME is a selection process so a rationale behind its technicalities. In his chat with the NTA program “weekend file,” Professor Ishaq Oloyede explained that the UTME is meant to be a “selection process.” So, coupled with the fact that the number of applicants has been way more than the capacity of Nigerian universities, it makes the model even necessary. So even if the UTME questions become less tough the consequences are that the usual 180-200 cutoff mark will be elevated to say 220-240. Therefore, the situation is brought back to the very beginning.
But the understanding of how UTME works and adequate (general and technical) preparation ahead of the exam are the keys to passing the exam.
Early preparation entails acquiring general knowledge by studying all senior school syllabus at least a year ahead of the UTME. If a student would learn for instance, quadratic equation in mathematics, he should be able to employ the four different methods namely factorization, completing the square, formula, or by the graph to solve the following quadratic equation X2-4X-12=0
But to ensure answering any questions that come from quadratic equations, after acquiring the general knowledge students should be at home with implied means to solve the quadratic equations. Consider this question: “The three sides of a right triangle form three consecutive even numbers. Find the lengths of the three sides.” This problem is the same thing as the previous quadratic equation but as you can see students can never be able to solve it without the skills to extract the information to form the quadratic equation.
Another peculiar thing with the UTME exam technicality is that sometimes it is not solving the question that is the problem but the form in which the answer is presented. A student may successfully solve a particular question but end up not scoring it. For instance, a final answer of 0.00186 can be written as 1.86 *10-2 in a standard form or 0.02 in two decimal places or 0.0019 in two significant figures. This is the JAMB trademark in dribbling their clients.
The UTME is a survival of the fittest, so to be among them, the candidate must keep in mind that the preparation is far beyond general knowledge. The candidate must have the ability to answer questions technically. This is achieved after making an early preparation from at least a year to UTME revising the overall secondary school syllabus, and during months to the exam engage with their past questions to improve on in-depth problem-solving skills.
Abdulmumin writes from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
