(1): New Mindset New Results

Right from my secondary days, I got phobia about sitting for UTME; this was due to the constant warning our generous teachers used to give us about how tricky the exam was. Therefore, when I was to take mine in 2021, I was afraid. I began preparing way before the commencement of the registration. I studied past questions and answers of all the subjects I was going take and devoured them. I watched lots of videos on YouTube regarding the exam and revised my notes. When the registration commenced I was among the first to do it. I spent a whole day at the registration center owing to network problem; it was, finally, completed at around 06:30 PM. 'Life Changer' was the book prescribed by Jamb. I started reading mine straightaway and I finished reading it on the following day. In addition to that I studied Jamb syllabus and underwent some computer trainings. After this thorough preparations I got confidence to ace the exam.

          The exam was to commence on 09:00 AM and I arrived at the center in time. I went there with nothing but my slip. It surprised me to see most of the students were busy reading 'Life Changer' or other materials related to the exam. "Why didn't you come with yours?" I asked myself angrily. I went further to brand myself as an unserious and not-doing-enough student. I was busy telling myself off when someone (One of the students) sat close to me and started whinging about the difficulties he had in understanding the book(Life Changer). He went further to tell me that he even didn't finish his first reading of the book. That astonished me  for I read the book more than three times. I, later, found out that most of the students that were busy reading it; they also hadn't read the whole book even once. This told me how much they had prepared for the entire exam.

          2021 performances were the worst among the worst only 14 percent passed the exam. Some people blamed Jamb for this mass failure, some said that system and network failures were responsible and the last category which I fell into blamed the students.

          The students' mindsets are in dire need of urgent change. For, they think that Jamb is like Waec or Neco; where answers are given. They must know that there aren't '1' is 'B', '2' is 'A'. Jamb is an exam with the full meaning of the word. There was  a friend of mine that took  the exam and performed poorly. He insisted that I told him my score. The first question he asked when I told him was: "Where did you register?" He thought that the Jamb center I registered at helped me in passing the exam; not the early preparations I had. Many a student has this mindset which leads them to complete fiascoes.

          That's why, I urge 2022 candidates to do away with this mindset. Jamb is not like Waec or Neco and your success doesn't depend on any Jamb center. Just work hard and smartly.