Your First Computer-Based Exam: What JAMB’s 2026 Rules Say You Will Face, and How to Pace It

If you are a JAMB candidate, read this next to the UTME first-timer guide, which covers registration, fees and admission.

What the screen gives you, from JAMB’s own manual

Source: JAMB, Manual for Officials of 2026 UTME, sections 1.1 to 1.5, retrieved 15 Oct 2026.

Two points follow. First, JAMB built the keyboard route for candidates who do not use a mouse, so you can sit the whole paper without touching one. Practise whichever you will use. Second, going back is allowed until you submit. Nothing in the manual stops you using the question numbers to jump around, so the two-pass method below works on this system. Check it on the first day of your own mock or practice session rather than trusting a description.

The pacing arithmetic

180 questions in 120 minutes is 40 seconds per question on average. That figure hides a lot, because English has 60 questions and may include passages, while the other three subjects have 40 each.

An illustrative plan (not a JAMB rule): give each subject 30 minutes.

Check: 60 + 40 + 40 + 40 = 180 questions and 4 x 30 = 120 minutes. English at 30 seconds is tight if it contains comprehension passages. If you read slowly, shift 5 to 10 minutes from a calculation-heavy subject to English, or the reverse. Decide the split during practice, not in the hall.

Then use checkpoints instead of watching the clock. At 30, 60 and 90 minutes, look once. If you are behind, do not rush the question in front of you. Skip to the next unanswered question, take the quick ones first, and come back.

First pass, second pass

On paper you see the whole test and choose your order. On screen you see one question. The fix is a rule you apply every time:

1. Answer it if you can in about the average time.
2. If not, pick your best guess so it is saved, note the number on your rough sheet, and move on.
3. When you reach the end, use the question-number bar to return to the noted ones.

Because a selection saves the moment you click it, a provisional answer is already recorded if you run out of time. The manual does not say whether a wrong answer loses marks, so this guide makes no claim about negative marking.

What you carry and what you are given

The manual is blunt about the room. Candidates may not enter with any writing material “EXCEPT ORDINARY PENCILS” (section 1.5). The prohibited list (section 6.3) includes wristwatches, pens, mobile phones, calculators, books, USB drives, earpieces, smart rings, Bluetooth devices, key holders, ATM cards, erasers, bangles, rings, necklaces and wallets or purses.

Proctors distribute “Instruction/Rough Worksheets” before the paper starts and collect them before you leave (sections on proctor duties). So you do have paper for working, but you cannot take it out, and you cannot bring your own. Practise doing arithmetic with a pencil on a blank sheet and the on-screen calculator, not with a pen and a handheld one.

The penalty table (misconduct codes) lists “cancellation of result” for arriving without an e-registration slip, for lateness to the examination hall, and for possessing a calculator, wristwatch, or phone (the last three also “prosecution”). Impersonation adds a two-year ban. Read those lines as written: lateness appears in the list, and the sanction attached is cancellation.

Arrival times were also adjusted in April 2026. JAMB Bulletin of 13 April 2026 moved the 6:30 am arrival to 7:00 am and the 9:00 and 10:00 am sessions to 9:00 am; a later bulletin put the noon and 1:00 pm sessions at 11:00 am and left 2:00 pm unchanged (20 April 2026 bulletin). The lesson for any year is that the slip time is a floor. Check JAMB’s bulletin and your own profile in the week before.

Fingerprints decide whether you sit

The manual’s opening notes say “NO BIOMETRIC, NO EXAMINATION”, that exemption mode is not allowed, and that slips are not to be collected from candidates, except for those so indicated. Registration captures all ten fingers and requires at least two to be used for printing the slip; those two are recorded on your slip. Candidates with biometric difficulties can only register and sit at JAMB’s Abuja headquarters (section 5.14 of the registration advisory in the same manual). If your fingers are worn or injured, deal with it at registration, not in the queue on exam day.

When a machine fails

The error table in the manual (section on candidate login problems) is the only place I found this written down. For a power failure, system malfunction or low laptop battery, “the candidate should be moved to another computer system to continue”. The technical officer unlocks you and you “continue from where he/she stopped”. A lost network connection to the server shows the alert “Your computer has lost connection to the server”, and the technical officer restores it. If a candidate “exists on another computer”, the officer releases the first login.

Two warnings. A closed browser can be treated as possible misconduct and investigated. And the rows I read say you continue from where you stopped; they do not promise extra minutes, and section 1.3 says the duration cannot be altered. Put your hand up at once, do not touch cables or restart anything, and treat the time as lost.

WAEC: what is documented

WAEC’s own statement on its computer-based WASSCE for private candidates, 2024 first series, is clear about format. In its release on the 2024 first series for private candidates (dated March 2024), questions appeared on screen and multiple-choice answers were entered on the computer, while essay and practical answers were written in booklets. 8,362 candidates registered and 8,139 sat at 140 CBT centres. WAEC reported 65 candidates (0.80%) with results withheld, against 413 reported cases (4.95%) in the 2023 first series; the two figures are not like-for-like.

The practical meaning: for a WAEC CB paper, expect both a screen and booklets, and expect objective and essay papers to be different experiences. The WASSCE school-candidate timetable for 2026 and the private-candidate second-series timetable list paper codes, “Objective” and “Essay” components and durations (for example Further Mathematics/Mathematics (Elective) 1, Objective, 1 hr 30 mins). Neither document states which papers are on screen. WAEC’s own candidate notice, not a timetable and not a forwarded message, is the place to confirm the mode for your subjects.

Why practising on a screen matters: two studies

These are not about Nigeria, so treat them as direction, not as a forecast of your score.

• A meta-analysis of 54 studies and 171,055 participants found reading on paper beat reading on screen (Hedges g = -0.21), and the paper advantage grew when reading was time-constrained rather than self-paced (Delgado et al., 2018, Educational Research Review).
• In Massachusetts, the same PARCC test was given online and on paper in 2015. Online test-takers scored about 0.10 standard deviations lower in maths and about 0.25 lower in English language arts. In the second year the maths gap fell to about a third of its size and the English gap to about half, which experts quoted by Education Week link to unfamiliarity with the devices (Education Week, Jan 2019, on AIR researchers’ study).

What to take from them: long passages cost more on screen, and the cost shrinks with experience. English comprehension is the part of the UTME most exposed.

A seven-day practice plan

For revision beyond format, see the revision timetable guide and the guide to what to do with mock results.