ekt_bear:
It depends on what assumptions I'm allowed to make. People typically assume normality (or approximate normality) for things like exam results, IQ, SAT, etc. So assuming that I'm allowed to make these standard assumptions that everyone else does, then yes, it does follow.

ekt_bear: above was directed at bayo (in case it wasn't clear)

WHY POST-UME TEST MUST STAY

Sunday Saanu


Last year, a female candidate applied to study economics in University of Ibadan (UI) with excellent results in School Certificate Examination and Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s examination. Specifically, the female potential student of Economics paraded eight distinctions (A1) in eight subjects at the school certificate level and 284 marks in JAMB conducted examination – Fantastic results combination that attracted UI to invite her for “interaction”, UI’s model of Post University Matriculation Examination (UME) test. At the post UME interaction, the panel members were so “impressed” with her supposed results, that they had almost asked her to take a bow and go until someone from the panel, probably out of curiosity, posted a simple question to her. Young lady, with your results, you are definitely going to lead the class, but before you go, as a prospective economics student, what is GDP? Dazed. The lady began to fidget, scratching her head as she started sweating. Initially, some of the panel members thought she was intimidated by the presence of some professors, thereby, giving her time to relax. But, alas, the candidate bungled as she later confessed that someone wrote the exams for her. In other words, the results were not hers. However, this mumbo-jumbo was only uncovered at the post UME interaction!

If that was a ludicrous case in the faculty of the Social Sciences, a similar mendacious situation occurred during the Post-UME test in the Faculty of Arts, in which a candidate with equally considered “good results” who wanted to study English could not spell “island, tomorrow and occasion.” Yet, this was a candidate with distinctions and 275 marks in JAMB’s examination. These two cases are just illustrations of the beauty of post-UME interaction, an integrity check in the university admission process.

With these kinds of experiences during the post-UME interaction year in, year out. One is therefore left curious and confused when Hon. Samson Positive from Kogi state sponsored a motion recently, that the federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC) cancel the so-called post-UME. His argument was that post-UME test was an additional
burden to the students seeking admission into the universities, more so, many parents could not afford the cost. He further posited that many universities were using Post- UME test to generate money, thereby extorting prospective students.

Unfortunately, the lawmaker did not tell the nation how he came about this ridiculous conclusion from his wrong assumptions. He did not tell his colleagues how many universities he visited in the course of his research and how many parents complained about the cost as well as how he measured the burdensomeness constituted by the conduct of the post-UME to student seeking university admission.

Indeed, a wrong problem diagnosis will always lead to a wrong prescription. It is stating the obvious to say that the motion;, which was more impetuous than methodical has been generating a serious concern among the stakeholders because it is fraud tendentious. Without any fear of contradiction, one can authoritatively assert that many of the “fantastic results” being paraded by some of the admission seekers are phony. Some of these results from WAEC, NECO and JAMB are, to say the least, the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau: It is only during the post-UME interaction (at least, as far as I know, in UI) that the buried truth resurrects.

That WAEC, NECO and JAMB results need further scrutiny is not in doubt. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro while kicking against cancellation of Post-UME disclosed eI personally participated in the supervision of the last UTME in Ibadan. Several candidates were caught with mobile telephone sets containing answers to the JAMB examination questions and JAMB itself had to withhold the results of thousand of candidates for reasons not far. Removed from examination malpractice in one form or the other.” Prof. Bamiro further said, there is no gain saying the fact that for every candidate caught, these are most likely several others who have escaped with unmerited marks, yet, these are the candidates who will be right in front for admission. As a matter of fact, this is what informed the need for post-UME.

What is Post-UME? Post – UME, to use the UI model as an example, is a kind of interaction based on information elicitation technique with a view to authenticating the claims of the candidate’s academic profile. In UI’s post-UME.interaction model, candidates are not made to sit for another set of examination. Rather, it is an interaction of less than 20 minutes during which candidates are orally asked a few questions relating to their proposed fields of study. For example, a candidate who wants to study Economics is asked to say something about GDP, IMF or Bank reform. Where is the burden in this? UI’s post-UME model is so transparent that every candidate knows his fate immediately. If you can not answer three questions correctly from five, who will offer you admission?

However, when people are now calling for the cancellation of this type of quality assurance mechanism, as a result of ignorance or less informed scholastic research into the matter, it is apparent that there is hollowness in the advocacy. If universities will not become breeding grounds for ill-baked, sophomoric and dilettantish graduates, then, post UME test must remain to be part of our admission process criteria

Since its introduction in UI four years ago, the percentage of withdrawal level has reduced drastically. In fact, post-UME test has a correlation with the general good performance at the under graduate level. Between year 2000 and 2008, the average first-class graduates we have is 63, but last year, (2009) being the year of the first set of post-UME candidates, we have 99 students graduating with first class. Isn’t that impressive? Cancellation of post-UME test cannot do us any good!

National Assembly should not be seen as invalidating misnomer. It breeds intellectual irritation when people legislate without data. As a matter of fact, legislating without data is like embarking on a journey without road map. National Assembly must not make a shipwreck of this brilliant idea of post-UME test because this motion looks more like on act of impulse than calm deliberation!

Sunday Saanu(08059436919)

University of Ibadan

sundaysaanu@yahoo.com

ekt_bear: If indeed the total population of SS indigenes in Nigeria is 20 million out of a country of ~170 million or so, then yes, the SS is by far the most impressive region educationally both on a per capita PASS rate perspective, as well as a per capita TAKE rate perspective.

But somehow, I suspect that you are just making the number up. In any case, doesn't really matter too much...I think my point has been made abundantly clear.

Out of curiosity, are you ever going to provide a reference/citation for those claim that most of the top scorers on JAMB come from those states you mentioned?

Hon. Bala Ibn Na’Allah from Kebbi State argued that "nothing was wrong in sacrificing 20 million people to protect over 150 million people."
A statement by a member of the Nigerian National Assembly" said this morning

we can do away with 20 million Niger deltans' The words of Alhaji Bala N'allah,member of the house of reps. with regards to the attack by the JTF on the Nigerdelta region.

jmaine:

Reminds me of this dude in UNILAG who had the best jamb score of the year of about 340 . . . but became the scorn of his Engineering class cos his performance was shyte poor . . . It was such a sad story

PhysicsQED:
Perhaps my comment was a bit vague or unclear. What I mean is, a few percent difference in numbers of barely competent or barely mediocre students produced between states is unlikely to translate into a significant difference in either the quantity or quality of the few very highest achieving students produced between states.

2) When one is talking about IQ or SAT, it seems clear that there are already large/significant differences in achievement between certain populations when it comes to numbers of average or below average performers to begin with. This does not seem to be the case here.

Beaf:



http://www.speakersoffice.gov.ng/news_may_22_09_1.htm

Beaf:

He was most likely a genius who was uninterested in school because it wasn't intellectually challemging enough.
JAMB includes extra curricular questions, so is in many ways, an IQ test.

PhysicsQED: Edo state at one point had the highest (or perhaps more accurately, the least terrible) WAEC scores on average.

https://www.nairaland.com/52537/waec-results-2000-2007

But I don't know about JAMB.

ekt_bear: Bayo, I get your point. Cheating weakens the correlation. But it doesn't make it zero, does it?

ekt_bear: Bayo: If someone presents you with two students, one who did 150 on his JAMB, the other who did 180, and asks you which one did better in college, and then points a gun at your head, saying that he will shoot you if you don't get the right answer, what will you do?

You certainly will not flip a coin. In the absence of any other information, you'll pick the 180 student.

Post-UTME is still a good thing since there is probably a much stronger correlation between performance on it and doing well in college.

But that doesn't mean that JAMB is uncorrelated.

Anyway, I understand what you mean now by "uncorrelated", you mean in the informal sense, not the technical sense.

bayooooooo:

Genius my foot. One or two cases are normal but when there is trend, nation wide, of poor performance at that top level, then the system is dead. That was essentially what happened before the introduction of post-JAMB.

ekt_bear:

Isn't the SS a lot bigger than the ND? Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Edo...

shymmex:

Why do you always bring Edo state into everything?

It's about geo-political zones lol.

Edo defender!

Beaf:

Technically, ND includes Abia, Imo and Ondo, it is bigger than the SS.

Beaf:

Dude, does that not correspond with the picture of our dear country as a place that can neither identify, value nor harness genius?
In countries with more functional education systems such people would be sifted out and given specialised education.
No dunce can score 360 in JAMB. On the other hand, there is nothing in the Nigerian education system to capture the mind of a genius.

I pray that GEJ recognises this and creates programmes to identify geniuses before they waste away.

PhysicsQED:
Actually, I was commenting on the beaf - ekt bear dispute over which states did best on jamb. Beaf mentioned Edo state, which on previous threads from years back was noted as having one of the highest university admission rates in certain years along with some of the other states he mentioned. I think that either that or the waec thing was what beaf was mistaking for highest jamb scores.

ekt_bear:

So according to you, Abia, Imo, Ondo + SS, all combined have ~20 million population?