JAMB UTME 2026: Registration, Fees, Subjects, Scoring and Results

On this page

1. What this page covers, and what it does not
2. You cannot register without a NIN
3. How registration actually works
4. What the ₦7,200 actually pays for
5. Registration deadlines are real
6. What you may and may not take into the hall
7. How the UTME is scored
8. Checking your result
9. Withheld and cancelled results
10. How long a UTME result stays valid
11. Is the Mock UTME worth ₦1,500?
12. Sources

The UTME is the entrance examination every candidate seeking a first degree, ND or NCE place in Nigeria must sit. JAMB, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, runs it. You sit four subjects, Use of English plus three of your own choosing, answer 180 questions in two hours on a computer, and are scored out of 400. Registration happens in person at an accredited CBT centre, costs ₦7,200 without the optional mock, and cannot be completed without your NIN.

What this page covers, and what it does not

This page is about sitting the UTME and getting your score. It covers registration, the profile code, the ePIN, subject selection, what happens in the hall, how the exam is scored, and how to check your result.

What your score then buys you is a different subject: cut-off marks, CAPS, catchment area, post-UTME screening and course subject combinations all belong to the admission process rather than the examination. We do not cover those here.

You cannot register without a NIN

Your National Identification Number is the foundation of the whole registration. Everything else depends on it, and JAMB is unusually rigid about it.

You create a profile code by sending an SMS with the word NIN, a space, then your eleven-digit National Identification Number, to 55019 or 66019. It must be sent from your own phone number, and that number becomes permanently attached to your profile. You will need it again later to check your result by SMS, so do not use a friend’s phone.

How registration actually works

Four steps, and the third one surprises people who expect to do everything online.

1. Send your NIN by SMS to 55019 or 66019 and receive your profile code.
2. Buy the ePIN using that profile code, at a bank, a Mobile Money Operator, a microfinance bank or through a USSD partner. Registration is cashless. No agent should be taking cash from you.
3. Go in person to an accredited CBT centre with your profile code and ePIN. This step cannot be done from home.
4. Have your photograph and all ten fingerprints captured. Your registration slip only prints after biometric authentication succeeds.

What the ₦7,200 actually pays for

JAMB publishes the total but the breakdown is worth seeing, because it explains why nobody can legitimately charge you less, and why a centre asking for more is overcharging.

Item	Amount
JAMB application fee	₦3,500
Reading text	₦1,000
CBT centre registration service charge	₦700
CBT UTME service charge	₦1,500
Bank charges	₦500
Total without Mock	₦7,200
Optional Mock UTME	₦1,500
Total with Mock	₦8,700

Worth noting: JAMB did not raise the fee for 2026. The figures are identical to 2025.

Registration deadlines are real

Unlike WAEC, which extended its 2026 deadline repeatedly, JAMB stated plainly that there would be no extension of the 2026 registration deadline, and there was none. Plan for the published date, not a hoped-for extension.

Stage	2026 window
Profile code creation	19 January to 26 February
ePIN vending	19 January to midnight, 26 February
Registration at CBT centres	26 January to 28 February
Mock UTME selection closed	16 February
Direct Entry registration	2 March to 25 April

What you may and may not take into the hall

JAMB’s 2026 training manual lists exactly one permitted item: ordinary pencils. Nothing else appears on the permitted list.

The prohibited list runs to twenty items, and it catches people out because it bans ordinary objects, not just obvious cheating aids. Mobile phones and electronic devices, calculators, USB drives, recorders, wristwatches, pens, erasers, smart rings, Bluetooth devices and key holders are all prohibited.

How the UTME is scored

Four subjects, each marked out of 100, for a total of 400. The question distribution is uneven and most candidates do not notice until they are in the hall.

• Use of English: 60 questions worth 100 marks, so each question is worth about 1.67 marks.
• Each of your other three subjects: 40 questions worth 100 marks, so each question is worth 2.5 marks.

The practical consequence: a single dropped question in Physics costs you half again as much as a dropped question in Use of English, and you have two hours to cover all 180. English is where time disappears, and it is also where each individual question matters least.

Checking your result

JAMB releases results in batches, roughly matching exam days, rather than all at once. In 2026 the first day’s results covered 632,788 candidates and the rest followed over the following days, reaching more than 1.8 million by the time the examination ended.

Two routes. Online at efacility.jamb.gov.ng/CheckUTMEResults, or by SMS: send UTMERESULT as a single word to 55019 or 66019, from the phone number you registered with. The SMS returns your name, your four subject scores and your total.

Reprinting your examination slip is free and unlimited at slipsprinting.jamb.gov.ng. Anyone selling you a “reprint PIN” is selling you nothing.

Withheld and cancelled results

A result reading “No Result Yet” is withheld, not lost. In 2026 the largest group affected were underage candidates, whose results were held pending an eligibility decision and released in early September. Separately, JAMB and the Nigeria Police detected illegal remote access to candidates’ computers at one centre during the 2026 UTME, and a batch of 279 withheld results was released after that investigation concluded.

The official remedy channel is a support ticket at support.jamb.gov.ng, or email to [email protected]. JAMB also operates zonal and state offices. No third party can expedite a withheld result, and anyone claiming otherwise is running a scam.

How long a UTME result stays valid

One admission cycle. A 2026 UTME result is for 2026/2027 admissions only, and you re-register the following year if you do not gain a place.

Is the Mock UTME worth ₦1,500?

It is optional, selected at registration, and it is not a predictor of your score. What it buys is familiarity with the CBT environment: the interface, the timer, the navigation between questions, the physical experience of a centre.

For a candidate who has never sat a computer-based test, that is worth ₦1,500. For one who has, it is optional in every sense. There is a second benefit that JAMB does not advertise: the mock stress-tests the centres. After the 2026 mock, JAMB delisted twenty CBT centres for technical failures. Sitting the mock at your assigned centre tells you whether that centre works.