The Jamb examination is a must for every individual who wants to enter higher institution in Nigeria. Its overall score is 400 and individual higher institutions are responsible for deciding what the cut off mark may be.

Admission into higher institution is a hard battle to win in Nigeria, with numerous tales of students settling for unwanted courses, staying at home for over 7 years while they consistently try to gain admission. This week we will be interviewing teslim, a recent graduate of microbiology from the University of Ilorin on how his jamb experience was.

What Schools did you apply for in Jamb?

I applied for the university of Ilorin as the first choice and polytechnic Ibadan as the second choice.

What Made you choose the school you attended?

I picked the university of Ibadan in my first jamb but I was not admitted due to my young age or at least that was how I felt. The next year I picked Unibadan again, but I performed woefully , I scored 200 in jamb and 40 in post jamb. I decided to change my choice to the university of Ilorin the last time and I got lucky and was admitted.

What inspired you to choose your discipline or course of study?

My initial choice was medicine and surgery, my jamb score in unilorin was 213 and I was hopeful that I would be admitted for medicine. Little doubt started creeping in about my chances of getting admitted to study medicine due to the fact that I had stayed at home for years with my buttocks getting rusty from all the sitting over the years. Someone advised me to change my course to something else and I went to the café and started checking for suitable courses under science then I saw biochemistry, microbiology. I always excelled in biology from my secondary school and my highest scored subject in Jamb. I figured out since biology was in its name that it was probably a good course for me.

Did you attend any Jamb class?

No I didn’t attend any jamb class.

How many times did you write Jamb?

I wrote jamb 3 times.

What were your challenges in preparing for jamb examinations?

I would have to think a little bit on that one. I had written two previous jamb and my dad was strict when it came to reading and since I didn’t go to jamb classes I had to read. Because of poor light, I could only read for a maximum of 3 hours at night and as much as possible during the day. I had little access to books and libraries.

Where you convinced that your jamb score would scale you through?

I had confidence that I would scale through, the three jambs I wrote, I never scored less than 200 and I knew that the cut off mark for universities were 200. I was just never sure the course I would eventually settle for. I had always known that universities could give you any course they felt like.

What was your POST-UTME experience?

It was a very memorable one. I did it in unilorin, I left the two days before and arrived by 8pm. The next day I went to the exam venue to observe how the exam was conducted. I found out it was CBT , but that didn’t scare me because I had done CBT exams in the past. I mingled with undergraduates on that day and they provided me with past questions which I studied through the night and next day I took the exam and was successful.

How was the clearance like in your school?

It wasn’t really difficult or easy, I will rank it intermediate. The clearance persisted till our 300 level and it had to do with admission.

How did you feel on your first day in school?

I was elated because it was a day I had always looked forward to.

What is your advice to Jambites?

My advice to them is that if they want to go to school that are very competitive, they need to read very hard and pray, and leave the rest to God. I had mates that were disappointed with their first jamb result and decided to school abroad.

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Source: https://globgist.com/i-wanted-to-study-medicine-but-jamb-decided-otherwise/