JAMB Mock Experience: Faulty Systems and Inefficient Officials

I'm indeed in an unhappy mood as share my JAMB Mock exam experience with you.

I had a lot of terrible experiences at a CBT center in Ado-Ekiti, EKITI ANGLICAN DIOCESAN HIGH SCHOOL, ILE - ABIYE PREMISES, ADO, EKITI STATE precisely.

First and foremost, my parent and I faced very harsh weather while going to the center for my UTME MOCK EXAM. Rain fell so heavily overnight and the weather became so worse that morning. Unfortunately, my parent and I didn't wear a cloth that will resist the weather because we thought the weather might not be so harsh in Ado, I reside in Ikere (a neighboring town) precisely.

Furthermore, On getting to the center, we were delayed for almost an hour. The officials wasted our time doing the unnecessary. We waited in the rain for more than an hour before the officials attended to us. Some Jamb aspirants who came for the mock also had to find their way to getting the proposed #1000 because they just realized that while in the queue. JAMB should try as much as possible to make information easily accessible and passed across to all JAMB aspirants - this can be via SMS or email.

In addition, I will never forget what I experienced when I finally entered the exam hall. I was unable to log in hence, I couldn't sit for the Mock exam😢. This was a result of the inadequacy and inefficiency of the supervising and invigilating JAMB officials. The officials were few and the few ones were inefficient and not approachable. They all put on angry faces. We were told to input our registration number and I did. Afterward, we were told to click on “candidate login ” which I did but it brought out “🚫”. A large percentage of the Jamb aspirants in the center experienced this, after a while, some started to load and log in but I was unable to log in. I kept on calling on the Jamb officials available but they were busy with others. After a few minutes, one of the officials responded and instructed me to make use of another Computer and I complied. Consequently, there was an empty seat with a computer system beside me, and sat on it. I typed my registration number but, all futile. After about an hour of trying to log in, I was told that I can't log in after an hour. I retried but the second response was that I've started the exam on a System already and I can't make use of two Systems at the same time. I was poleaxed and became confused. Eventually, the Jamb officials said they can't help and that's all😔. I wasn't the only candidate that experienced this, we were about 3 in the center who experience login issues.

JAMB should please train officials before placing them in any center and must fix the issue of CANDIDATE LOGIN.

Thanks.

My Reaction

The candidate has shared his experience and I sympathize with him as he was unable to write the examination.

He seemed to blame the JAMB officials supervising the examination. There is more to what happened that day and I'll point them out.

1. CBT Centres, rainy days, and Mock Exam:

Candidates are required to make a payment of 1000 Naira at the center before they will be cleared to enter the exam hall. The rain disturbed the day's activity. A lot of candidates had to wait for the rain to stop to get to their respective centers. The centers won't want to start the exam until an appreciable number of candidates have arrived given that once the exam commenced, one hour later, arriving candidates won't be able to join the exam. The candidates will miss the exam and the center will lose the money. My guess is they had to delay so more candidates can make it to the center.

2. Candidate Eagerness

Lots of candidates are anxious and eager to start the exam. Some are also nervous and end up entering the wrong details, thus, the system won't log them in. Many candidates don't know how to use the mouse and keyboard, thus unnecessarily calling the attention of the supervisors who should be busy attending to serious cases like faulty systems.

3. Faulty System and Network Failure

Some centers are at fault here. They probably didn't check the functionality of their systems and network a day before the exam. "Candidate is logged in on another system" this error message comes up when a candidate tries to use another system after initially logging in to one. The candidate might be logged out of the previous due to network failure on the system or perhaps the system turned off. Such candidates will still be logged in on that computer on the main server. Before such candidates can use another system, the JAMB technical officer has to log the candidate out from the main server, before he can log in with another system. Perhaps no one thought about doing this.

More of the blame should be on the center. I was in a center hall during the Mock exam and there was no glitch. The process went smoothly. The only issue was the exam didn't start at the stipulated time, we had to delay due to the rain, to allow time for other candidates to arrive.

JAMB should penalize CBT centers that fail to provide functional systems and good networks in their centers.