Over 260,000 candidates, yesterday, sat for this year’s mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Mock UTME) across 793 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in the country.
Registrar/Chief Executive, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known after monitoring the mock exam in some of the centres in Abuja.
Oloyede, who expressed delight over the seamless conduct of the exercise nationwide, said the exam was to test the preparedness for the main UTME, which will commence on Friday, April 19, 2024.
He revealed that the examination body also successfully conducted a recruitment examination for Nigeria Police on Wednesday, adding that the only few incidents recorded in the mock UTME in about four centres would be resolved.
He said: “So far, so good, we are doing mock after mock, just yesterday we conducted recruitment for the Police Service Commission throughout the country, that was a mock before today’s mock and that was in 411 centres across the country, and today we are conducting our mock in 793 centres 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. Examcollection But everything is going on well and the reports we have, is that we are very okay.”
The JAMB boss added 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 to 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.”
On the readiness for the main UTME, Oloyede said JAMB was fully prepared for the smooth conduct of the exam, even as he revealed that new mechanisms would also be deployed to further fortify the exam system.
Earlier, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) consultant at JAMB, Damilola Bamiro, said the exam body was also in touch with all the centres taking part in the examination through the JAMB’s Situation Room.
He said the Situation Room allows for real-time interaction between the centres and JAMB to speedily resolve any issue during the examination.
