It is not the wrong question to ask whether I am a dull or average student, hearing that I have written the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination five times in a row.
As I would describe myself, I was one of the leading students during my secondary school days. My experiences began in 2014, the year I graduated from secondary school.
Like every senior secondary school student, I always dreamed of “going to Obafemi Awolowo University to study Mass Communication”. That was my first dilemma—the course that never existed in the institution.
I couldn’t decide whether to prioritize the course of study or the institution of my choice. I sat for my first JAMB examination in 2014 and was faced with indecisiveness about these choices.
Lest I forget, I am a lover of fine arts, and this influenced my decision to pick fine and applied art as my choice of course at Obafemi Awolowo University.
I had traveled to Ibadan from my town for my first JAMB registration. After registration, I discovered that the computer operator had selected theater and applied arts for me instead of my desired choice of fine and applied arts.
My first jamb score was 205, a feat that was recognizable because not many of my colleagues could meet the 200 cut-off mark at that time.
Of course, the JAMB score was meant to be wasted because I was never a lover of theater art. My first shot at possible admission went away.
In 2015, I enrolled in another JAMB, and guess what my choice of institution was? The University of Ibadan, where I applied to study international relations.
I had 230 in JAMB that year and became very optimistic that “this is my year of admission”.
It was a ridiculous experience. I and my colleagues got to know we had applied for the wrong course at the institution at the point of our post-UTME examination.
During the pencil and paper test examination, to my greatest surprise, I was given a question paper that had the subject title “political science”.
Long story short, the invigilator said UI doesn’t offer international relations; sadly, again, that was the moment I knew my JAMB score that year was another waste.
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Having experienced two years of uncertainties and errors in the course of gaining admission, I remain confident and passionate about it, and into a prestigious university at that.
In 2016, I attempted to study communication and language arts at the University of Ibadan. No doubt, I’ve always been a lover of journalism.
I had a comparatively lower JAMB score compared to the previous year, 213. With the score, I became less optimistic considering the information I had gathered about the competitiveness of the course I intended to study.
Additionally, it was at that point that I discovered what was called “subject requirements” for each course of choice in Nigerian universities. I figured out I had put in the wrong JAMB subject combination in both my JAMB registration and post-UTME.
To cut a long story short, I was denied admission even when I changed my course of study to linguistics.
The 2017 JAMB registration came, and I was among the first to register. I took the decision to try my luck at the institution that I’ve always wanted to go to, Obafemi Awolowo University.
I put in for political science and had a score of 243 in the 2017 JAMB examination. This time, I was conscious of the subject requirements of JAMB and the course at the institution.
I got 15/40 in the OAU PUTME, accumulating a 55% aggregate score after my JAMB result and O’ Level had been graded.
Guess what? The OAU admission cut-off for political science in the year was 56.0%, and I had a 55.0% score. Sad!
Of course, no pity; I did not meet the cut-off, and so I was not admitted.
At this point, anyone could become tired and frustrated with the optimism and efforts put in to gain admission; indeed, I was too.
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During the 2018 JAMB registration, I decided it was going to be my last JAMB examination. I selected Obafemi Awolowo University to study political science again.
Truthfully speaking, I was not so interested in the JAMB examination; in fact, my preparation was not as enough as I had prepared for the previous ones. I still wonder if I even prepared at all.
But boom! I checked my JAMB score and discovered I got 260 marks, the highest of my scores so far.
Boom again, I scored 26/40 in the OAU post-UTME examination. And my cumulative score was 68%. The OAU cutoff mark was 63% for the academic year, and I was admitted. Finally!
Sigh. I finished my secondary school education in August 2014 and got admitted to a university in September 2018, which is 5 years of my lifetime.
Of course, it wasn’t a wasted 5 years; I had acquired a National Diploma in mass communication and garnered a wealth of experience in journalism at the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State as a reporter.
The decisions of our lives are significant in what we will become and how we will become. The phases of disappointments and tribulations are what make us strong as individuals.
The ability to keep soaring, keep trying, and never give up is what brings success our way.
Hmm, do you know that despite my tribulations about gaining admission, I am a dropout of the university at the 200 level?
Stay tuned for the next episode of Gafar Ojedapo’s my story.
This post is in commemoration of my birthday celebrations. Sending your birthday wishes would be a nice gesture. Thanks
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