A total of 160,617 candidates sat for the Mock examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in its 777 Computer-Based Centres across the country, according to the board’s Public Relations Officer, Dr Fabian Benjamin.
Benjamin, who spoke in a telephone chat with newsmen, however, expressed sadness over a fire incident at one of the CBT centres in Abuja, saying that measures had been put in place to contain the situation.
“ We have over 160,000 candidates sitting for this mock examinations in all our CBT centres. We received reports of complaint of capacity and stability at one or two centres.
“ Like in Abuja, there is a centre, Dominion International School, Jabi, that caught fire during the examinations but everything has been put under control.
“ The exams are going on well and with what we have now, it shows we are good to go for the main examinations coming up June 19,” he said.
Meanwhile, candidates have continued to expressed satisfaction over the conduct of the 2021 mock examination by JAMB.
Some of the candidates who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, on Thursday, said the examination was a guide to prepare them for the upcoming UTME on June 19.
Fahd Isah, a candidate at the Global Distance Learning Institute, said there were no technical hitches at the centre owing to the availability of JAMB technical officers on ground.
“ The exams went well, it makes me have an insight of how the main examinations will turn out. The mock exams gave us guidelines on what to look out for in the main examinations.
“ But our main concern is that the board should assist candidates by providing pen and paper to solve problems in mathematics and other subjects that have to do with calculations.
“ This will ease the stress of having to guess in the examinations without having to solve the problems,” he said.
Miss Adelinah Etete, also commended the board and the centre for the conduct of the examinations, while calling for a replication at the main examinations.
She stated that she was impressed by the outcome of the examinations, as it would give them further opportunities to study more.
In a similar vein, Miss Rejoice Issac, lamented that although the questions were tough, it provided a way to prepare candidates to read more for the main examinations.
Isaac also said that there were no technical hitches as everything went well as expected of an examination.
“ Though the examinations was a little bit tough but it is a good one as it will enable us to go back and read up areas we are still lagging behind in our subjects.
“ We did not experience any problems as regards Internet connectivity or power failure and the computers used were all working well,” She said.
Speaking further, the JAMB Technical Officer, Mrs Oluwaseun Omotosho, commended the candidates for their conduct during the examination.
She said that 200 candidates were to write the examination at the Global Distance Learning Centre, but only 125 candidates showed up.
Omotosho, who did not say the reasons why 75 candidates failed to show up for the examination at the centre, said the centre did not experience any hitches either before, during or after the examinations.