No fewer than 200,000 candidates have improved their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores, crossing the 200-mark benchmark, following a resit organized by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The fresh round of exams was held after JAMB discovered technical and human errors in the initial 2025 UTME.
In a statement released on Sunday, JAMB noted that out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat the UTME, 1,365,479 scored below 200 — a significant drop from the over 1.5 million candidates who initially fell under the mark. This improvement follows the resit conducted for nearly 380,000 candidates in Lagos and South-East centres, where errors were earlier recorded.
The resit was prompted by concerns raised nationwide over the unusually high number of low scores in the original exam results released on May 9. Investigations revealed that technical faults, including server updates, had prevented accurate uploading of candidate responses during the first few days of the exam period.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, had explained on May 14 that the integrity of results from 157 centres was compromised, affecting 379,997 candidates. These students were offered a second chance to sit for the exam. The board has since released the results, including those of over 41,000 underage candidates and others affected by the disruptions.
JAMB noted that the 2025 results reflect a stronger performance than in previous years. A total of 1,931,467 results were released, marking full participation. Comparatively, in 2024, 1,842,364 results were issued.
Among the new data, 565,988 candidates — about 29.3 per cent — scored 200 and above in 2025. This is a rise from 24 per cent in 2024 and 23.36 per cent in 2023. Similarly, candidates scoring 250 and above increased to 117,373 (6.08 per cent), up from 77,070 (4.18 per cent) in 2024.
JAMB also reported that 8,401 candidates scored 300 and above in 2025, far higher than the 5,318 in 2023 and 724 in 2021. None had scored that high in 2013 and 2014, when the Computer-Based Test (CBT) format was newly introduced.
“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has released the results of the recently conducted 2025 UTME resit examination for candidates at centres impacted by the unfortunate incident,” the board said in its latest statement.
The Board also noted troubling practices uncovered during the resit period, pointing to malpractice by some candidates and school owners, which contributed to previous irregularities.
JAMB added that results for underage candidates who performed below standard would be released as part of a resolution. However, those results will not be valid for admission, as the students had signed agreements stating that they would only be admitted if they met the age and performance requirements.
