How JAMB Sets UTME Questions and the Examination Structure

 A lot of admission candidates has been inquisitive on this recurring question of 'how do JAMB set examination questions?'. The reason for this queries is for them to know the nature of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), and subsequently prepare towards this areas. If you are oblivious of how the admission body set it test questions, this article will be of help in giving you the area of concentration so as to prepare for the upcoming examination.

Firstly, there are many benefits and things involved in knowing this. For the former, it will help you to know which areas the examination questions will likely come from; and it will also give you the picture of what to expect in the UTME. These are complemented with lots of other advantages of knowing how the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) sets their examination questions.

In the other way around, the things involved is by knowing the examination structure: number of UTME Questions, where these questions emanate from, and the nature and type of the questions. Knowing all of these things will certainly give you the knowledge of the whole examination set up.

How Do JAMB Set Examination Questions?

There are many variables which determines JAMB questions setting. This includes things like: the number of questions, the materials which the questions come from, and knowing the UTME questions structure. Deducing from this, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB set their UTME questions the recommended materials like Textbooks and the Syllabus. Additionally, some questions may come from previous years examination questions, but all is based on how they set their questions.

Number of JAMB UTME Questions

The number of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination questions certainly tells much about the setting. This gives you a picture of how many questions you will be presented to answer. In UTME, there is a number of examination questions set by JAMB for all candidates to answer. So how many are these questions in the JAMB CBT? The total number of questions set in the UTME examination is 180. This includes the four subjects that you will be presented to answer.

Here's how many questions each subject carries from the total of 180;

About 60 questions will come from the compulsory Use of English, while the remaining 120 questions will be sourced (40 each) from the other 3 subjects that you registered for.

Below is the outline of each subject in JAMB and the respective number of questions you will be presented with;

• Use of English (60 Questions).
• Agriculture (40 Questions).
• Art (40 Questions).
• Arabic (40 Questions).
• Biology (40 Questions).
• Chemistry (40 Questions).
• Commerce (40 Questions).
• CRS (40 Questions).
• Economics (40 Questions).
• French (40 Questions).
• Geography (40 Questions).
• Government (40 Questions).
• Hausa (40 Questions).
• History (40 Questions).
• Home Economics (40 Questions).
• Ibibio (40 Questions).
• Igbo (40 Questions).
• Islamic Studies (40 Questions).
• Literature (40 Questions).
• Mathematics (40 Questions).
• Music (40 Questions).
• Physics (40 Questions).
• Principles of Account (40 Questions).
• Yoruba (40 Questions).

And the host of other UTME subjects. This gives you the picture of how many questions you will have in the examination, but where do these questions come from? The following guide will explicate more on this, as we will highlight the JAMB recommended textbooks, which is certainly where the UTME questions emanate from.

Questions Come From Recommended Textbooks

All along your admission journey precisely during the preparation for UTME, you will be presented with different types of textbooks and materials. But are these the recommended materials or textbooks? Certainly, if it is, then you won't be surprised to see questions from it. Knowing the JAMB recommended textbooks helps in knowing the questions setting and in knowing the possible areas.

Here is a list of JAMB recommended textbooks for some of the UTME subjects;

Use of English

• A-Z jamb use of English by Dele Ashade,
• Catch up English by Okebukola(Heinemann) 
• The invisible teacher by Dele Ashade.
• Novels
• i. The Independence
• ii. Sweet Sixteen

Mathematics

• New General Mathematics for Senior Secondary 3
• Progressive Mathematics for SS3 (Macmillan)
• Further Mathematics project 1 – 3

Chemistry

• New school chemistry by Ababio
• Certificate chemistry by Lambert and Holderness

Physics

• New school physics by Anyakoha
• Calculations in physics by Omotosho
• Comprehensive Physics

Biology

• Comprehensive certificate Biology by Ambuno Sunday
• Modern biology

Lit-in-English

• Anthology of English Literature, Vol. II, 
• A Selection of African Poetry
• Poems of Black Africa
• A Dictionary of Literature 
• Understanding Unseen, An Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for Overseas Students

Economics

• Economics: Exam Focus
• Oxford Dictionary of Economics
• Economics Made Easy
• Countdown to SSCE/JME Economics Ibadan

JAMB Syllabus

This is also another important thing from which the JAMB examination questions come from. JAMB Syllabus is basically a subject topical document or material compiled by the Board. This material contains a detailed information and guide on the areas of concerntration or topics you are expected to cover on a particular subject. This in turn helps you to prepare for your UTME. It's crystal clear that the expected questions you are to answer on the examination day will be sourced from these areas or topics covered in the Syllabus. 

To get an official and updated JAMB Syllabus, do visit the online portal of the board. From there, go to resources and click on the syllabus. The list of all UTME subjects will display, of which you will have to choose your four subjects and view their respective syllabus and area of focus.

JAMB Marking Scheme

To give you more on JAMB UTME, let's quickly delve into the marking scheme used for the examination. But first, you should note that each subject in JAMB Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME has 40 questions, except for the Use of English which has 60 questions. All these subjects carries 100 marks, and this makes the examination to have a total 400 marks to represent the four (4) subjects (that is, if you answer all the questions correctly to reflect the peak mark)

Wrap Up

From the above illustrations, you could see the whole picture of how JAMB set their UTME questions for candidates. We explicitly touched down on the number of UTME questions, where these questions are set from, JAMB recommended materials and syllabus, and subsequently the marking scheme used in the examination. That's the size of this write-up, as we have been able to make you understand the JAMB examination setting.