Reasons Why Students Fail Jamb.
It is said that preparation for the future starts with the little steps of today. Also failing to plan is planning to fail. I will be talking about the significant reasons why students fail at Jamb.
Even after attending Jamb classes, and buying the necessary text. they still end up not meeting the cut-off mark.
Jamb is an acronym for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. it is a Nigerian-owned entrance examination board. it serves as a pathway for students who want to enter mono-technic and polytechnic universities, colleges of education, Cambridge, etc.
The board has a specific cut-off point given by each institution as a criterion for students who want to be admitted. students who fail to meet the cut-off mark are likely going to fail the exams. and is going to apply and sit for the exams the next year.
In Nigeria jamb last for one year, so if a student fails he has to buy a Jamb form, apply, buy literature text, and write the exams again.
There are various reasons students fail exams but we will be focusing on the major and most rampant ones.
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Reasons Why Students Fail Jamb
1. Anxiety/curiosity
Most students fail exams because of anxiety and curiosity. Anxiety is the feeling that has been built days or weeks before they even get to enter the exam hall. they are nervous and curious.
Most of them might even see the questions they have been taught but cannot denote the right answer to them because they are tense.
students who have been misinformed about the exams sometimes get more curious to finish them before the time elapsed as they have been told.
I would recommend that students be given a proper orientation before entering the exam hall. Self-confidence is a major criterion when talking about writing Jamb.
Lack of exposure, especially to students who have not had access to a computer before, usually raises curiosity and nervousness.
2. Misinformation
Most students fail Jamb fail because they have been misinformed about the subject, stories of being logged out by the system, stories about questions asked, stories of not being able to submit, stories of a particular method or pattern of answering questions, etc often make these students fail their Jamb.
Proper orientation and exposure to the right information at the right time help curb excessive failure to Jamb prospects. students should also endeavor to seek information from the right sources, seek clarity about some basic information, and ask for explanations for a better understanding of things they don’t understand.
3. Computer Illiteracy
It is a well-known fact that the popular method of writing jamb has been changed from shading using papers and pencils to the CBT ( computer Based Test). yes, we applaud the effort of the Nigerian government for upgrading the student’s educational system.
What is lacking is the ability to educate or train the student to meet up with the current development. For instance, most of the public schools managed and owned by the federal and state government do not take computers not to talk of computer training as a course of study. how then will students be able to flow with the system introduced in the educational sector?
Proper knowledge and use of the computer is a major criteria for students who are writing the Jamb CBT Examination.
Most students find themselves using the computer for the first time in the examination hall, some do not know how to click the next button, and some exit the interface without finishing the exams, some click wrong answers unintentionally. computer literacy should be a prioritized fact when taking the CBT exams.
4. Improper Reading
Most students fail to read properly or don’t even put the effort into reading. Students who are preparing for the exams are supposed to be equipped with the major materials and resources that will build their understanding and give them more knowledge on the subject of study.
The students’ brochure, the selected literature, the right CBT app for training, and the proper information. Most students fail to read or read little. Most students especially the ones that had written the exams before feel they know about it and as such, they don’t put in much effort again.
Students must invest their time and effort in reading. Attend tutorial classes online and offline, pay attention to instructions and follow closely.
5. Malpractice Mindset
Students come to the exams with little tips for malpractice, they depend solely on the paper they carry. not minding the implication If they are being caught.
Unfortunately, no two systems carry the same questions and numbering. sometimes they fail to recognize the fact that if the paper given to time was based on Mr. A’s subject combination it will not be the same for Mr. B.
This makes most students stranded in the exam hall, and it makes some confused that even when they know the answer they can’t decipher which one is correct. if it is the one they know by themselves or the one they wrote for them.
Students who intend t write jamb should desist from exams malpractice and focus on reading as it will boost their credibility in the exams.
6. Biometrics
Yes, students fail exams because they didn’t enter their biometrics correctly or didn’t at all. jamb cbt has to do with the computer system, it cannot be lobbied or maneuvered. At the venue of the exams on the date given to students, we have jamb personnel at the venue collecting the necessary biometrics needed before each candidate has access to the exams hall.
Students who come to the exam venue late and have not been able to go through the biometric process or thumbprinting might end up having a response of not attending the exams.
The biometric and thumbprinting process serves as attendance for students who wrote the exams, so once a student misses this process there is a tendency for the student to have issues of missing results.
7. Speed
Most students because of their unpreparedness and none exposure to the computer system find it difficult to get along with the computer.
Their speed is dull. At this juncture, I would recommend that students that are writing the jamb exams should be introduced to the Mavis Bacon typing game as this will accelerate their speed.
The jamb CBT exam comprises several questions which do not appear at once on the screen of the user, one has to click the submit or next button before having access to the next question.
Another issue is low comprehension, some students have poor understanding. before they get to understand most of the tactical questions being given, half of their time is already spent.
when this happens they end up submitting without finishing or they are logged out of the exams interface.
8. Following Guidelines
Once you log in to the student interface you will be given a set of instructions just after the welcome interface. This instruction saves as guidelines for writing the exams. The duration of the exams the different subjects involved, etc.
Again, before each subject question, there are instructions to follow before answering the questions. it is discovered that students get to understand or notice the instructions just after they might have spent half of the time involved answering questions wrongly( e.g you are asked to give the synonyms or antonyms of words and you are doing the opposite) or they must have logged out or are about to submit.
Students should pay attention to the instruction from each section in different subjects to avoid giving the exact opposite of what is needed from them.
9. Applying For the Exams Late
This is also one of the reasons why students fail the jamb cbt exams. I remember my registration for jamb in 2015, I was notified that was the last day in the saloon. I had to pause braiding to go to the Jamb center for registration. Now you see that it wasn’t because there was no money but because I was too busy to register for the exams.
On the last day, you will find times two of the crowd you saw on the first day of registration. These are my partners although some didn’t have the money to do the registration on time.
The outcome of late registration is that the accreditated and conducive centers must have been allocated to students and filled up in that they begin to send students to some rural areas where they are not even sure if their computers are functioning.
That’s how you end up seeing someone registering in Uyo and writing the exams in Abia state. To access the Jamb of the portal on your phone you can log on to https://www.jamb.gov.ng/
10. Crime Noted Centers
One of the reasons student miss their opportunity to the university in different years is being posted to an already crime note center. this is a situation where a center has been noted for having multiple malpractice scenes.
If a student is posted to such a center and then there is a case of examination malpractice, the center’s examination will be struck out or canceled, results with-held and the students who wrote the examination genuinely will face the consequences of waiting till the next year.
As such it is necessary to notify the invigilator immediately if you have sight of a fellow candidate performing exam malpractice so it will not affect you. once the center has a bad impression in the jamb cbt timeline or record, they won’t bother to review cases.
11. Access Document
Most students rush to the exam hall leaving the important documents needed at home. imagine if you had an exam by 8 am in a different local government
Your printout slip, your registration slip, and other relevant documents that you need should already be in a file before the day your leaving for the exams. this will ease your rushing to gather documents at the time of leaving. you will just have to carry the already-packed file.
the stress of going to print and the cost consumes time and you will get into the exam hall tensed. Students should go to the exam hall with relevant documents.
12. Poor or Wrong subject combination
in secondary school, students have been divided into art and science. depending on your course of study, students are to choose subjects according to their area of concentration. someone intending to study law cant choose, biology, physics, English, and mathematics as a subject combination.
The reason jamb has brochures and some of the cbt applications have included the subject combination of most courses in the app for students is to help students make the right choices.
It is very possible to write Jamb and fail even when you are prepared for it. Of course, you cant prepare for government and then see biology in the exams interface and be smiling. to avoid depression and examination failure, students should ensure proper registration for combined courses.
13. Incondusive/uneqquiped Examination Centers.
Due to the number of students that are weeks admission into the university every year. jamb sometimes exhausts its accredited center and extends to use some centers that have not gotten full equipment for the examination. some students complain of technical faults.
Imagine writing and exams and the systems shut down and can’t be fixed till the exams period is over. or imagine trying to connect to the server and it’s telling you different proxy errors or you’re logged out abruptly. This also leads to failures in the jamb examination.
14. Individual Score Setting
This is a process where an individual believes if he answers half of the questions in each section correctly, he’s good to go. This notion has failed many students who wrote jamb.
When you get to see the questions, sometimes what you believe and feel sure is true is not actually correct, with this notion you will be counting questions and feel reluctant in answering all the questions correctly.
Students should put effort into answering all questions to the best of their knowledge. Your 50 percent correct question might turn out to be a 10 percent correct question.
Conclusion on The Reasons Why Students Fail Jamb
There are various reasons students fail jamb, some of the reasons are caused by the board and some by the students. in fact, 75% of the failures are based on the work input of the student. when students prepare well for the exams it makes it simple for such students to attempt questions with confidence. And lack of preparation makes your IQ go blank immediately after you see the first 5 questions. You will be struggling to remember what you read. you will be thrown into confusion which leads to failure.
