The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has officially invalidated the initial 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results, affirming that only scores from the recently concluded resit will be recognised for admission purposes.
JAMB’s Public Communication Adviser, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, confirmed this in a statement to The PUNCH on Monday, addressing growing concerns among candidates and parents regarding discrepancies between initial and resit scores.
“You can’t have two results. One must be withdrawn — that means the old result has been withdrawn,” Dr. Benjamin stated firmly, dispelling hopes that higher scores from the original exams could be considered.
This clarification comes on the heels of mounting inquiries from affected candidates and their guardians. Many expressed concern that their children had performed better in the initial examination than in the resit. One parent lamented, “My daughter scored over 200 in the initial exam and scored less than 200 in the resit. Can she use the earlier result?”
The resit, conducted for 379,000 candidates in Lagos and Southeast states, followed widespread reports of technical and human errors during the initial UTME. JAMB responded to the controversy by organising a fresh exam to ensure fairness and accuracy in the assessment process.
Resit results, released on Sunday, revealed notable improvements. Approximately 200,000 more candidates scored above 200, bringing the total number of high scorers to 565,988 — representing 29.3% of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for the exam. This marks an improvement from 24% in 2024 and 23.36% in 2023.
Despite the uptick, the majority — 1,365,479 candidates (70.7%) — still scored below 200, though this reflects a slight improvement from the over 1.5 million who fell below that mark in the initial results released on May 9.
The 2025 UTME saw a record-breaking 1,931,467 candidates — the highest number since the Computer-Based Test format was introduced in 2013.
The resit also saw an increase in top-tier scores:
117,373 candidates (6.08%) scored 250 and above, up from 77,070 in 2024 and 56,736 in 2023.
8,401 candidates (0.46%) scored 300 and above — the highest in recent years — compared to 5,318 in 2023 and just 724 in 2021.
Commenting on the improved outcomes, JAMB said the fresh results represent a fairer reflection of candidates’ capabilities, having corrected earlier inconsistencies.
Education advocate and CEO of Educare, Alex Onyia, also took to social media to celebrate the turnaround. “From 155 to 341. This brings me so much joy. I have so many of this type of result in my DM right now,” he wrote on X.
JAMB has reiterated its commitment to upholding the integrity of the examination process and ensuring that all candidates are evaluated on a level playing field.
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