This is how JAMB’s new point system works

There have been considerable changes in the admission processes for tertiary institutions in the country in the past year.

Early in 2016, the government outrightly banned the Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination to the surprise of more than afew observers. Perhaps, the ban was only to make way for a new system of qualification for admission.

On Monday, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced a new admission guideline process- the points system option.

Apparently, the examination body had been in a week-long consultation with universities and other tertiary institutions’ administrators in the country before the decision was reached.

Announcing the change in style on its website, JAMB revealed that admission into tertiary institutions would now be based on a points system even as Universities would have to screen applicants at the end of the admission process.

The Universities would charge the applicants fees for the screening.

According to JAMB however, “Before a candidate can be considered for screening, he/she must have been offered a provisional admission by JAMB. The JAMB admission checker portal is going to be opened soon for this process, so praying is all you can do now”

With the new method, JAMB’s provisional admission is certainly not where the process ends.

In a statement on the examination body’s website, “JAMB’s provisional admission no longer makes much sense this year, your points tally will decide your faith. The points are evenly spread out between your O’ Level and JAMB results to provide a level-playing field for all.

“In the first case, any candidate who submits only one result which contains his/her relevant subjects already has 10 points. The exam could be NECO, WASSCE, November/December WASSCE etc, but any candidate who has two sittings only gets 2 points. So this means that candidates with only one result are at an advantage but only just.”

In addition, in O’ Level grades each grade would have an equivalent point; A=6 marks, B=4 marks, C=3 marks.

This means that the better the applicant’s grades, the greater his chance of getting admitted in the year.

UTME results also have a score range with equivalent point reflecting; 180-200=20-23 marks, 200-250=24-33 points, 251-300=34-43, 300-400=44-60 points.

JAMB further explained that each category would have five JAMB results per point added so that a candidate with 180-185 gets 20 points, while a candidate with 186-190 gets 21 points.

The point system for direct entry would soon be released by JAMB even as the screening exercise would replace the scrapped UTME.

JAMB also said, “Merit contains 45 per cent of the total candidates for a particular course, Catchment contains 35 per cent and ELDS and staff lists contains the rest. Cut off marks will be released by the institutions this year in the form of points and not marks.

“If a school declares its cut off mark for Medicine as 90 points and JAMB grants a candidate with 250 a provisional admission but his/her total points falls short of the 90 points, then he/she will lose the admission. So the provisional admission is just a means to an end, not the end in itself.”

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail