By Ajibola Olaide, JKNewsMedia Reporter
RESIT SCORES will be the only recognised results for candidates who sat the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) a second time following widespread technical failures.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has confirmed that previous scores from the invalidated UTME are now null and void.
JAMB’s Public Communication Adviser, Fabian Benjamin, stated that no candidate will be permitted to present two sets of results for admission.
The board’s decision followed repeated inquiries from concerned parents whose children reportedly performed better in the initial exam than in the resit.
One parent questioned whether her daughter, who scored above 200 in the original test but fell short in the resit, could present the higher mark.
JAMB responded unequivocally that the resit scores override all previous ones, noting the need to uphold fairness and standardisation.
JAMB had announced the resit results on Sunday.
The exercise was held for 379,000 candidates from Lagos and several Southeast states, where the initial examination was compromised by system failures and human error.
Analysis of the revised results revealed a sharp improvement.
Around 200,000 additional candidates crossed the 200-mark benchmark, lifting the total number who scored 200 and above to 565,988 — or 29.3 per cent of the 1.9 million who sat the UTME nationwide.
By contrast, only 24 per cent (439,961 candidates) reached that threshold in 2024, and 23.36 per cent (355,689) did so in 2023.
Despite the improvement, JAMB noted that a majority — 1,365,479 candidates or 70.7 per cent — still scored below 200.
This represents a modest gain from the earlier May 9 release, in which over 1.5 million candidates failed to meet the 200-score threshold.
The 2025 exercise recorded the highest participation figure since the CBT format began in 2013, with 1,931,467 registered candidates.
While some candidates expressed disappointment over the compulsory invalidation of earlier scores, others celebrated significant gains. Posts on social platform X showcased dramatic score jumps, with one test-taker improving from 155 to 341.
Chief Executive Officer of Educare, Alex Onyia, also shared multiple success stories from students who showed remarkable improvement.
JAMB released further statistics confirming a rise in high scores. In 2025, 117,373 candidates — representing 6.08 per cent — scored 250 and above, compared to 4.18 per cent in 2024 and 3.73 per cent in 2023.
Similarly, 8,401 candidates scored 300 and above in 2025, up from 5,318 in 2023 and just 724 in 2021.
The board said the new scores provide a more accurate reflection of candidates’ abilities following a thorough correction of the earlier exam’s faults.
