UTME candidates grumble over sudden cut of exam time, decry CBT system

Photo of a UTME student 

Many of the candidates writing the ongoing Joint
Admissions and Matriculation (JAMB) Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have
expressed their grievances over the sudden
slash of the time given to them to finish their
papers.
Some of the affected students writing the
examination, which kicked off on March 9 and
ends on the 21st, voiced out their frustrations to
News Express Correspondent in Ibadan.
Mariam Ahmed Olayinka, who sat for the
Computer Based Test (CBT) exam at the ICT
Centre, The Polytechnic Ibadan, said she was
slated to write her exam from 1:30 p.m., as
stated on her slip, but her batch was called in
at about 5pm – after about four hours delay.
Her words: “We were supposed to start the
exams at 1:30 p.m., but we started 5pm. We
were given three and a half hours to finish up,
but we spent 2 hours for the four papers. At
exactly 7pm, while we were still on the
computer, they asked us to stand up and leave
the hall. We were shouting that we had not
finished, but they went ahead to shut the server
down. This is a sad moment for me and I am
not happy about it.
“With this, I scored 185. I knew if I had done
the last paper, mathematics, I would have
scored more excellently. My parents have been
hurling insults at me since then as if I caused it.
My time was still remaining 1:30 minutes on the
system before they asked me to leave.”
Another candidate who spoke today on the
same development, Olaonipekun Ifeoluwa, JAMB
officials and other invigilators monitoring the
examination decided to shut down the server
before time as it was getting dark. She disclosed
that some of the invigilators complained that
they had children at home to go and cater for.
Ifeoluwa also complained about the slow speed
of the computer systems available for the
examination, which, she said, unnecessarily
slowed down the candidates.
According to Ifeoluwa, “When you click on an
answer for a particular question, it takes time
before it responds to bring another consequent
question. This poor process wastes much of our
time. Most of us were not able to finish up as a
result. This CBT exam should be proscribed
because it has affected us much and we don’t
want a continuation of it.”