The period of JAMB registration has finally begun, and Halima, a young, intelligent girl who used to live with her parents and who recently wrote WAEC and graduated from secondary school, is also registering. This is her first JAMB. It is her first time writing JAMB.
Halima is intelligent. She went for the registration, and it was successful.
Now, JAMB is an examination where you only register for four subjects to write. English is compulsory. Then you have to register for three other subjects, be it science, art, or commercial subjects. Halima is a science student, so she registered for Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. She wants to go to the university and study medical lab science (MLS) as a course.
After the registration was successful, it was time for Halima to study hard. She was studying all day long. Her father, Mr. Bola, enrolled her in a JAMB tutorial class, which she attended every Tuesday and Friday. She spent the rest of the week studying because she was aiming for nothing less than 300 points in her JAMB examination. JAMB is an examination with a maximum score of 400 points.
Now, it was only about four weeks before the day Halima would write her examination. She continued studying and studying and studying, and eventually, the day arrived.
It appeared that Halima had been posted to Keffi to write her examination. Keffi is a little bit far from Halima's hometown, Akwanga, Nasarawa State. So, she went there a day before her examination because her examination was starting immediately at 8 o'clock. She went the previous day so she wouldn't have to stress herself by waking up very early and probably missing the examination because of traffic challenges.
The next day, Halima went to her examination centre, sat for the examination, and began answering the questions. JAMB is an examination that is written on a computer, so she sat in front of her own computer and started answering the questions.
Now, as others would say, studying for your JAMB examination is one thing, and learning how to answer your JAMB questions during the examination is another thing.
Halima had been studying for her examination. Now, the day had come. The JAMB questions were all objective. Each subject carried 60 questions. This implied that Halima had 240 questions to answer.
Coupled with the fact that she was a science student, most of her questions, especially in Chemistry and Physics, required calculations. So, Halima spent a lot of time calculating some of the questions.
Eventually, out of the 240 questions, Halima was able to answer 196 questions, and suddenly, her computer went off and automatically submitted her examination because she had not answered all the questions and the time had elapsed.
The rule was that once your time elapsed, your examination would be automatically submitted.
She was not too happy about it, but she had nothing to do, so she stood up and walked out. She went home and explained what had happened to her dad.
Her dad encouraged her not to worry.
After three days, the result came out, and Halima scored 205. She was not happy about it because the cut-off point for the course she wanted to study was 220. So, Halima did not meet the criteria for the cut-off point.
She did not apply to the university. Now, she would have to wait another year.
She waited another year and registered again. She also studied, but this time, she approached it in a different way.
As she was learning and studying her subjects, she was also learning and having CBT training on how to operate the computer very well. She was also studying a lot of past JAMB questions and answers.
Her father encouraged her not to worry because she had failed the previous year. He told her to study with one mind.
And finally, the day for her to go and write her examination had arrived.
Her father took her to the venue himself. It was still in Keffi, but in a different school from the one where she wrote her examination the previous year.
This time, her examination was scheduled for 3 o'clock, so her father took her to the venue in the morning, and she had to wait until it was time.
When the time came, her father encouraged her to go in there and give it her best shot. He wished her the best of luck, and she went in.
She entered the examination hall and sat down. She wrote her examination with much confidence. She had gained more experience in handling the computer and had mastered some questions. So, whenever she saw a question she had encountered before, she easily recognised the answer.
She wrote her examination successfully and was able to finish all her questions before the time elapsed.
She came out and was very happy. Her father was waiting for her, and after the examination, they both returned home.
After three days, as usual, the result came out. Halima scored 234.
She was very, very excited. Her father was also excited.
That was how she applied to the university, and she got admission.
That was how Halima was enrolled as a 100-level student at Ahmadu Bello University, main campus.
