After eagerly checking your JAMB result, a mix of excitement, relief, or perhaps anxiety may set in as you see your score.
Whether you’ve aced the JAMB UTME exam or fallen short of your expectations, this moment marks an important step in your academic journey.
This is not the time to panic. Knowing what to do next is crucial to making informed decisions about your future. In this article, we will explore 7 things you should do after checking your JAMB result to improve your chances of getting admission this year.
Table of Contents
Evaluate your JAMB score
Once you’ve confirmed your JAMB result, the next step is to evaluate your score against the previous cut-off marks for your desired institutions and courses.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) sets a general minimum cut-off mark for universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, typically ranging from 140 to 200, depending on the institution type. However, many universities, especially competitive ones, set higher departmental cut-off marks for specific courses like Medicine, Law, Nursing or Mass communication, often requiring scores above 200.
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To evaluate your score, start by checking the JAMB cut off mark of your school of choice from the previous year. Most schools will use the same JAMB cut off mark as the previous academic session.
Meeting the JAMB cut off mark for your school of choice does not guarantee admission, it only makes you eligible to purchase the schools post UTME form.
After checking the JAMB cut off mark, confirm if your school of choice will conduct a Post-UTME exam or rely on your JAMB score and O’Level result grades for admission screening. If a screening will be conducted using JAMB score and O’level grades, look for the formula that will be used and calculate your grades.
The grades are usually over 100. Your next decision should depend on your score and the course you chose.
Perhaps your score is low and you intend to gain admission for a competitive course, you might want to change your course or choose a different school.
Seek Guidance from Counselors
You might get overwhelmed and confused at this point. This is quite normal as a lot of information and decisions come at you quickly during times like this.
Reach out to an educational counselor to advise you on what to do with permission from your parents or guardian.
Check for O’Level Upload
Not uploading your O’level result on JAMB CAPS will prevent you from getting admitted no matter how qualified you are.
It is important that you check if your O’Level result has been uploaded. If not, you should upload it as soon as possible.
You can read our article on how to upload your O’level result to JAMB CAPS.
Join a Community
Communities are where all the discussions happen. Most times, before a news is announced on the official school websites or school blogs, it has already been shared within student communities.
Being part of an active community helps you stay informed and interact with students who were once applicants like you; you also get to learn from their experience and avoid mistakes they made.
In our Telegram group, there are candidates who got admission after their second trial. You can learn a thing or two from them as they are always willing to share.
Click here to join our Telegram community.
Prepare for Post UTME
Some schools in Nigeria still conduct post UTME exams while others have resorted to using grading systems alone.
Find out if the school you are applying to will conduct a Post UTME exam and start preparing for the exam immediately.
Consider Changing your Course or Institution
There are schools and courses that are so competitive that only candidates with a very high JAMB UTME score stand a chance of gaining admission.
For example, candidates with a JAMB UTME score of 250 applying for either medicine and surgery, pharmacy or Law at the University of Lagos do not stand a chance of getting admitted as these courses are competitive at the school.
In such cases, it’s important to be realistic and flexible. You can consider switching to a related course with less competition or apply for the same course at a different school.
When choosing a school, government institutions in your state of origin or region will be more considerate in offering your admission based on the catchment policy practiced in Nigeria.
Explore other Admission Options
If your JAMB UTME score is too low for the course you are vying for at your preferred institution, consider exploring other viable options like open universities, open distance learning programmes, Polytechnics, or specialized programs like JUPEB, IJMB, and diploma programs.
Courses like Business administration and Marketing can be studied at MIVA open University.
Engineering courses are available in the part time programmes of schools like Yaba College of Technology.
Another great option are JUPEB and IJMB programmes which are A level programmes that can be completed within a year. Students who pass the final exam could be admitted into 200 level in participating universities through Direct Entry, without needing to write the JAMB UTME exam again.
We hope this article helps you decide on the next action to take after seeing your JAMB result.
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