JAMB Exam Day: The Rules JAMB Gives Its Own Officials

JAMB’s rules for examination day are not folklore. They are written down, in the Board’s own training manual for the officials who run the halls, and that manual is stricter and more specific than anything candidates are usually told. It bans erasers. It bans wristwatches. It lists smart rings and smart buttons by name. And it sets one condition above all others: no biometric, no examination.

No biometric, no examination

The manual states it twice, and the second time in capitals. Biometric verification is the only mode for the admittance of candidates into the examination hall. No candidate is to be admitted without it.

The sequence matters. Security personnel conduct the body scan first, and the biometric officer is instructed to verify immediately after that scan so the two checks work together. A candidate who cannot be verified is not admitted, and their picture and biometrics are recaptured and uploaded for action rather than being waved through.

What follows from this is practical. Your fingerprints have to match what was captured at registration. Anything that changes the surface of your fingertips in the days before your paper, heavy manual work, a burn, a fresh cut, henna, makes a failed capture more likely. This is the one part of examination day that preparation cannot fix on the morning.

What you may carry, and the full list of what you may not

You bring your e-Registration Slip. For writing, the manual is explicit: candidates should not be allowed into the examination hall with any writing materials except ordinary pencils.

The prohibited list is longer than most candidates expect, and the unexpected entries are the ones that catch people:

• Wristwatches. Any wristwatch, not only a smart one.
• Pens and biros.
• Erasers.
• Bangles and key holders.
• ATM cards.
• Calculators.
• Mobile phones and similar electronic devices.
• Spy reading glasses, smart lenses, smart rings and jewellery, smart buttons.
• Bluetooth devices, earpieces, microphones, recorders, cameras.
• USB drives, CDs, hard disks.
• Ink or pen readers.
• Books.

The restriction runs both ways. Examination officials may not enter the hall with a telephone, wristwatch, pen or any electronic device either, and security personnel are not expected inside the hall at all except when the supervisor invites them in to apprehend a suspect or restore order.

Sessions, arrival times, and why your slip is the only one that counts

UTME runs in sessions across the day, each with its own arrival and start time. The baseline schedule in the training manual is:

Those are the manual’s times, and the Board adjusts them. For the 2026 UTME it moved the 6:30 am arrival to 7:00 am, consolidated the 9:00 am and 10:00 am arrivals into a single 9:00 am, consolidated the noon and 1:00 pm arrivals into 11:00 am, and left 2:00 pm unchanged, notifying candidates by SMS and email.

So treat the table above as the shape of the day and your own e-Registration Slip as the authority on your time. And understand that the session is fixed: candidates are not rescheduled to sessions other than the ones assigned to them. Missing your session is not the same as being late for an examination that will still be there in an hour.

The keys you will actually use

UTME is computer based, and the navigation is keyboard driven. The keys are fixed and worth knowing before you sit down rather than working out in the first minute:

• A, B, C, D select your answer.
• Arrow keys move through the paper.
• P for previous question, N for next.
• S to submit, then Y to confirm the submission.

Note that submission takes two keystrokes, S then Y. That is deliberate, and it means an accidental S does not end your examination. It also means a candidate who presses S and walks away without confirming has not submitted at all.

Rough work is done in pencil. Sit only in the seat assigned to you, and do not leave the hall without permission: unauthorised entry or exit is a listed offence carrying cancellation.

The sixteen offences and what each one costs

JAMB’s manual sets out the misconduct categories and the penalty attached to each. This is the table most candidates have never seen.

Two things stand out. Lateness sits in the same table as cheating, with the same headline penalty. And the evidence procedure is documentary: CCTV timestamps, screenshots, video interviews and seized exhibits. A decision is built on a record, which is also why a candidate’s own account of what happened is worth putting in writing early rather than late.

Candidates with disabilities

JAMB runs an Equal Opportunity Group, which assists with the conduct of the examination for blind candidates, candidates in prison and other disadvantaged candidates. Supervisors are prompted directly in the manual to establish whether there are physically challenged candidates at the centre and whether they have been attended to.

The arrangement exists, in other words, and it is the Board’s responsibility rather than a favour from a centre. It is also something to raise at registration, so that the centre expects you, rather than on the morning of the paper.

The night before, in one list

1. Print the e-Registration Slip. Check the centre, the date, the session and the reporting time on it, and trust it over anything you read elsewhere.
2. Travel to the centre in advance if you have never been there. A centre you cannot find at 6:00 am is a cancelled result under the lateness rule.
3. Put two sharpened ordinary pencils in your pocket and nothing else.
4. Leave the wristwatch, the phone, the ATM card, the bangles and the eraser at home. Not in the bag. At home.
5. Sleep. Biometric capture on a shaking hand fails more often than it should.