In the early morning of Aug. 9, Ethan and Joy Frank-Collins leave their home in Columbus, Ohio, to drive to Cleveland.
Andrew Spear
Joy Frank-Collins was at a conference for work in Lyon, France, when her husband, Ethan, mentioned he was feeling tired. A human resources executive by day and a second-year law student at night, her healthy husband had never broken a bone, had surgery or spent a night in the hospital — until weeks later when lab work ordered by his primary care doctor revealed a serious condition.
“He was tracking the blood test results in real time, and none of them were normal. We basically were Googling and not liking what we were seeing,” she says.
Ethan Frank-Collins, 48, is on medical leave from his job in Columbus, Ohio, at a health care organization. Joy, also 48, is a marketing communication specialist for a nonprofit research firm and works remotely full-time while her husband is treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosed in November.
“Those first few days, I felt like I had a nest of bees in my chest from that Monday when he did the lab work until we got his diagnosis,” Joy says. “You’re in such a state of unknowing.”
“MyChart (a secure electronic patient portal) is both a blessing and a curse,” she says. “You’re most of the time seeing your results before your doctors are telling them to you, and you don’t have the level of expertise of the doctor to read between the lines. But the longer I’m doing this, I understand more.”
In the early morning of Aug. 9, Ethan and Joy Frank-Collins leave their home in Columbus, Ohio, to drive to Cleveland.
Andrew Spear
As the couple quickly learned, one of the most stressful parts of any major illness is waiting for test results. How to manage expectations and help a loved one deal with the anxiety-producing waiting game is particularly difficult for those unaccustomed to anything other than the routine test. And there’s no “normal” wait time for a test result because the length of time it takes to get a result is test-specific, including whether it involves tissue samples, imaging, blood work or a culture that needs time to grow. Being patient isn’t easy when those results can mean a life-altering diagnosis or a major shift in health status. “It’s such a huge change in someone’s life overnight,” says Christina Irving, director of client services at the San Francisco-based Family Caregiver Alliance, a national nonprofit.
“Emotionally, there’s a lot for the caregiver and the patient to come to terms with,” she says. “Part of the challenge is the uncertainty of what’s to come — and even understanding what it means for the moment.
“It’s quite common that people don’t feel like they have a good handle on what this means,” says Irving, a licensed clinical social worker. “People might have more access to their medical records, but that does not mean they know what that means.”
A 2022 study, published in the journal Health and Technology, asked individuals about receiving test results via electronic patient portals and found an online preference only for routine test results, such as cholesterol or strep.
Of the 8,030 respondents, 54 percent were ages 55 to 74. The preference for portals depended on the test, as “patients are more likely to feel informed when receiving less serious test results, but more anxious when receiving results from more consequential tests,” the study says.
The study found that even considering a three-week wait for results, patients preferred hearing serious test results — such as cancer, Alzheimer’s or a potential miscarriage — directly from the doctor.
Adam Johnson is the lead instructor for test preparation workshops at UTSA. Adam has over 20 years of experience teaching standardized test preparation classes.
After teaching for several years for a leading test-preparation company, Adam taught English and test-preparation in Valencia, Spain. He has consistently scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests including perfect scores on the GRE and LSAT.
He's not only an expert on the tests that he teaches, but also a devoted and energetic instructor who can communicate strategies to help others Excellerate their scores.
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As schools and testing centers shut down in spring 2020, it seemed only fair for colleges and universities to suspend ACT and SAT admissions requirements. A pandemic is as good a reason as any to change the rules.
Three years later, and months after the Covid-19 national emergency was declared over, 80 percent of colleges and universities are still following “test-optional” protocols. This trend has generally been celebrated by critics of the tests, who argue that the exams are inherently unfair due to the disproportionately large share of high scores among affluent test takers. However, in practice, the test-optional system is far more exclusionary than mandatory testing requirements ever were.
As the number of students applying to college has been increasing each year since 2019, college admittance is more competitive now than ever. Students with access to college counselors and test tutors (read: wealthier students) know this, and many are still using ACT and SAT exams to stand out.
Students with access to test tutors are aware that the eye of the admissions needle has narrowed, and they are being coached to use their test scores to thread it. As an SAT/ACT tutor in New York City for a tutoring company that charges over $200 an hour, I have worked with multiple students who are encouraged to retest even after scoring in the upper 1500s on the SAT or above a 34 on the ACT. Their parents can afford to provide them that extra boost.
Related: PROOF POINTS: Research on increasing diversity in college admissions
Meanwhile, with admission tests voluntary, low-income students tend to opt out. In its 2022 SAT annual report, the College Board reported that students from families earning less than $67,083 annually made up only 27 percent of test takers who reported their family income. Six years earlier, while tests were still mandatory for most college applications, students from families earning less than $60,001 made up a far-larger share: 43 percent of test takers. While the percentage of low-income test takers has radically fallen off, the opposite is true for wealthy students: In 2022, 57 percent of test takers who reported their families’ earnings were from households earning $83,766 or more. This is a jump from 46 percent of student test takers whose families earned $80,001 or more in 2016.
While teaching high school English at a Title III public school in Northern California after the SAT/ACT requirements had just been lifted in 2020, I noticed the morning prep period dedicated to SAT administration was known around campus as a great day to sleep in. There was little to no test prep offered to students, either.
Today, many of the students I tutor are brought to me via partnerships with some of New York City’s most elite and expensive private schools. They are prioritizing test prep as a method of differentiating their students in an overly competitive admissions field.
The glaringly unfair aspect of “test-optional” guidelines is that wealthy students know it’s a meaningless distinction; lower-income students with less access to college counselors, however, do not.
The biggest question here in terms of equity is whether colleges are following through on their pledges to deprioritize test scores in admissions. Are colleges being true to their word and not weighing test scores as highly as other metrics? Or are these tests more significant than schools are letting on?
It turns out that the “test-optional” stamp on most College Board applications may be extremely misleading. A 2019 pre-pandemic survey (the most recent available) reported in the National Association for College Admission Counseling State of College Admissions found that 83 percent of colleges considered admission test scores to be of “considerable” or “moderate” importance. This was only a hair shy of the 90 percent of schools that considered grades influential toward admittance, and significantly higher than the 56 percent of universities that considered writing samples important. While the post-pandemic test-optional guidelines may have diminished the relevance of scores, the question is whether or not that diminished relevancy is more policy than practice.
The bottom line is: Colleges are looking at ACT and SAT scores. Opting out of the tests in a “requirement-free” admissions process could be the difference between denial or admission to a dream school. It could alter student scholarship opportunities as well.
The 2022 acceptance rate at Fordham University was 63 percent among students who submitted scores, compared with 49 percent among those who did not. Similarly, Boston College’s 2022 incoming class recorded an acceptance rate of 25 percent among those who submitted scores and 10 percent among students who did not. This admittance discrepancy holds true for other big name schools, including Barnard, the University of Virginia, Georgia Tech, Amherst, and many more. The glaringly unfair aspect of test-optional guidelines is that wealthy students know it’s a meaningless distinction; lower-income students with less access to college counselors, however, do not.
The percentage of students taking the SAT from high-income families jumped from 46 percent in 2016 to 57 percent in 2022.
The test-optional system is in dire need of restructuring. In order to promote true equity, schools should completely eliminate SAT/ACT scores from the college application process. There’s precedent: As of 2021, none of the University of California schools accept or even consider score reports of any kind. If all universities were to follow suit, it would level the playing field by negating the expenses of tests, tutors and studying time.
Unfortunately, many schools are moving in the opposite direction. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a school focused on science and mathematics, will once again require test scores beginning in fall 2023. The university administration argues that test scores help predict students’ success at MIT and aid the school in identifying promising students who may not have had access in high school to advanced coursework or other enrichment opportunities.
While I disagree with this decision, it is still more equitable than labelling test scores “optional.” At least in the case of MIT, all students will be aware of the requirement and can at least attempt to study accordingly. The deceptively exclusionary message of “test-optional,” however, is often only correctly deciphered by expensive tutors and guidance counselors.
Disregarding test scores and requiring them are both far more transparent than the current system at many schools. With the Supreme Court affirmative action decision injecting some chaos into the college application process, it’s important for colleges to be as straightforward with applicants as possible. The misleading “test-optional” label only complicates the path to college for many low-income students.
Maggie Bigelow is a former public high school teacher and current MFA nonfiction writing candidate at Columbia University.
This story about test-optional admissions was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.
The School appoints examiners to prepare and mark the Undergraduate Admissions Assessment (UGAA), designed to test use of evidence, written communication skills and numeracy. The UGAA is conducted as an online examination.
The purpose of the Undergraduate Admissions Assessment
The Undergraduate Admissions Assessment is used to fairly assess applicants from non-traditional educational backgrounds or those applying with qualifications we do not recognise for direct entry. It provides an opportunity to see a sample of the applicant’s original work, produced under examination conditions, and seeks to assess applicants in a fair and equitable manner.
There are several reasons why applicants need to be tested in this way:
the applicant has no recent or relevant record of study and examination i.e. within three years of the proposed programme start date
the applicant’s qualifications are acceptable but only in conjunction with the UGAA
Key dates
The Undergraduate Admissions Assessment usually takes place at the end of March.
Applicants who are required to sit the Undergraduate Admissions Assessment will be notified in March, as soon as details have been finalised.
The assessment is three hours long with is two sections: an essay question; and mathematical problems. It is not an assessment of general knowledge.
There are two different Mathematics papers. Depending on the programme you are applying for, you will take either : Mathematics for non quantitative programmes without a Maths requirement OR Mathematics for quantitative programmes with a Maths requirement.
Applicants applying for LLB Laws (M100) will not be asked to sit the UGAA.
LSE requires students studying certain qualifications to complete the UGAA before a final decision can be made on their application. The UGAA is a compulsory requirement for all students who are invited; students who decline the UGAA invite will be automatically rejected. There are a number of reasons why further assessment is needed for students from these educational backgrounds, some of which include:
the qualification contains few formal examinations – as the majority of assessment at LSE is test based, we need to see how you perform under examination conditions
the qualification is relatively new or recently reformed, or we have not had many applicants with that qualification before. The UGAA gives us an independent measure of how well the qualification prepares students for study at LSE
you have taken a break from study or followed a non-standard educational pathway
Only the most competitive students with these qualifications are invited to sit the assessment. Applicants cannot request to sit the assessment.
Applicants applying for LLB Laws (M100) will not be asked to sit the UGAA. Instead, the essay section of the LNAT will be assessed.
Countries | Qualifications |
Austria | Reife-und-Diplomprufung |
Bosnia-Herzegovina | Matura/Diploma o završenoj srednjoj školi/Diploma o položenom maturskom ispitu |
Brunei | BDTVEC Higher National Diploma |
Bulgaria | Diploma za Zavarsheno Sredno Obrazovanie |
Croatia | Maturatna Svjedodzba |
Czech Republic | Maturita |
Estonia | Gumnaasiumi Ioputunnistus with the Riigieksamitunnistus |
Iceland | Stúdentspróf |
Israel | Bagrut |
Kosovo | Diplomë për kryerjen e shkollës së mesme të lartë |
Lithuania | Brandos Atestatas |
North Macedonia (FYR) | Matura |
Malaysia | Unified Examination Certificate (UEC)/ Malaysian Matriculation Programme/Matrikulasi |
Montenegro | Maturski ispit/Diploma o završenoj srednjoj školi |
Morocco | Diplôme du Baccalauréat/Baccalauréat de l’Enseignement Secondaire |
Serbia | Matura |
Slovenia | Splošna Matura |
Sweden | Gymnasieexamen |
Turkey | Anatolian High School Diploma/French Diploma for Foreign Schools in Turkey |
Uganda | Uganda Advanced Certificate in Education (UACE) |
The UGAA is usually held at the end of March each year.
The UGAA is conducted as an online examination, accessed via a standard web browser.
Due to the strict time constraints which govern our admissions procedures, we do not host multiple assessment days, nor can we move the date or time of the assessment under any circumstances.
Students are expected to make every effort to participate in our assessment. Specific concerns and requests for special accommodations should be sent to Undergraduate Admissions after you have received your invitation.
Invitations to sit the UGAA are usually sent in early March. Applicants who are required to sit the UGAA will be contacted by the Undergraduate Admissions team as soon as the details have been finalised.
Replies must be made promptly to ensure arrangements can be made to access the assessment. The final response deadline will be stipulated on your invitation. If we have not received a response by the stated deadline, you will no longer be eligible to sit the assessment. Please note the UGAA is a compulsory requirement for all students who are invited. We are unable to further consider students who decide not to sit the assessment, as their application will be considered incomplete.
The criteria below provide a rough guide of what the Admissions Selector is looking for from candidates. These elements will be taken into consideration alongside your overall mark and UCAS application form.
We are looking for an essay that:
Results are reviewed in comparison to other similar applicants for your programme; therefore passing the UGAA does not ensure an offer will be made. The UGAA has a notional pass mark of 60 per cent, including at least 50 per cent in each section. Students applying to programmes with higher entry requirements will usually be expected to achieve more competitive grades
The Admissions Selector’s final decision is based on your overall application, not only on your test performance. This assessment includes a full range of information on the UCAS application form i.e. predicted/achieved grades, contextual information, personal statement, and UCAS reference.
The UGAA does not require any specific preparation; it is designed to test general skills that should be covered in your current or most recent programme of study. We make past papers available so that students can see the level of English and Mathematics that is expected (see below). Note that past papers should be used as a guide for the level of the test, not the exact format of the forthcoming assessment. If you are concerned about a particular part of the UGAA and would like to undertake some preparation, our Admissions Selectors have made some suggestions.
Below you can find previous papers to help you understand what was expected of students in previous years. However, the assessment is reviewed on a yearly basis and therefore these should only be used as a guide to the level of testing not the specific format.
2022 past papers
2021 past papers
2020 past papers
UGAA test Test 1 2020 (for Quantitative programmes)
UGAA test Test 2 2020 (for non Quantitative programmes)
A rapid sputum-based test can accurately identify the presence of white blood cells by tracking their protein signatures.
Researchers have developed a new rapid sputum-based test that can identify the presence of a key driver of severe asthma, white blood cells. A simple, rapid testing device has the potential to detect key drivers of respiratory diseases, including asthma, and would Excellerate accessibility and efficiency in identifying patients with asthma.
The full experimental study is published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.1
In this study, researchers aimed to develop a new sputum-based lateral flow device (LFD), similar to that of a rapid COVID-19 test, that can quickly and accurately identify eosinophils in complex biological samples, such as sputum, by tracking their protein signatures.
“This is what our collaboration set out to achieve,” said John Brennan, PhD, director of McMaster University’s Biointerfaces Institute and senior study author, in a statement.2 “This test and others like it can have the kind of lasting, meaningful impact that will Excellerate or even save many lives.”
White blood cells, otherwise known as eosinophils, are known to play a role in many airways diseases, including chronic cough, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and certain forms of vasculitis and bronchiectasis. Measurements of eosinophil peroxidase (EPX) are the most abundant and specific of eosinophil cationic proteins and a reliable identifier of eosinophil number and activity.
The researchers developed a protein-targeting element known as a DNAzyme and modified it into the rapid test. Although DNAzymes have primarily been used for detecting metals or bacterial targets, the researchers believed the new platform could be adapted to identify any material of biological origin by detecting its protein signature.
A modified version of the test acted as a bridging strand to allow capture of complimentary DNA (cDNA) modified gold nanoparticles (GNPs) onto a DNA-modified test line to identify measurements of EPX.
Thirty-eight sputum samples from patients or healthy donors were obtained using saline-induction or spontaneous expectorant. Healthy donors included nonsmokers with no known respiratory disease, infection, or symptoms who had not received any vaccination in the prior 8 weeks.
To compare the rapid test results to gold standard sputum cytometry results, the sputum plugs were collected and processed to created 2 sputum samples. One of the samples was centrifuged to remove cellular debris and the other for use with the LFD.
The DNAzyme-based LFD and fluorescence assay for detection of EPX showed good resistance to mammalian nucleases and high sensitivity and selectivity against other eosinophil proteins, including eosinophil cationic protein and eosinophil-derived neurotoxin, and neutrophil proteins, including myeloperoxidase. Furthermore, these assays were validated with patient sputum levels, reaching 100% clinical sensitivity and 96% specificity within 45 minutes.
However, the researchers acknowledge that further work needs to be done to evaluate the rapid test in a clinical setting.
Parameswaran Nair, MD, PhD
“A rapid test to detect eosinophilia would help clinicians make decisions about using drugs, such as steroids or new biologics for patients with severe asthma, and other lung diseases associated with eosinophilia, such as severe cough, and COPD,” said Parameswaran Nair, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at McMaster University and co-author of the study, in a statement.2 “It would also help to limit the unnecessary use of antibiotics.”
References
1. Ali MM, Mukherjee M, Radford K, et al. A rapid sputum‐based lateral flow assay for airway eosinophilia using an RNA‐cleaving DNAzyme selected for Eosinophil peroxidase. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. Published online July 21, 2023. doi:10.1002/anie.202307451
2. While resolving a key asthma challenge, Hamilton researchers also create a new method to detect proteins in body fluids and other materials. News release. EurekAlert! August 1, 2023. Accessed August 23, 2023. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/997344
After posing as a candidate in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination on Facebook, DEBORAH TOLU-KOLAWOLE was approached by a syndicate of the UTME and West African Senior School Certificate Examination result manipulators who extort desperate candidates for ‘result upgrade’
In Nigeria, scoring what is considered a low mark in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination or the West African Senior School Certificate Examination could indicate the end of one’s academic dreams. This is due to the desperation for admission into tertiary institutions, most especially, universities, to study choice courses such as medicine, law, engineering, and others.
In 2018, an 18-year-old student simply identified as Loveth reportedly committed suicide over her inability to reach the cut-off mark in the 2018 UTME. Loveth was said to have scored 163 which made her take her life. Though the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board for a while now has stopped imposing cut-off marks on institutions, the desperation for obtaining high scores to beat cut-off marks for choice courses such as medicine, and law has continued to put the candidates, teachers, and even parents on edge.
JAMB during its 2023 policy meeting held on June 24, 2023 announced that a total of 452,443 candidates during the 2023 UTME indicated interest in the 78,578 admission quotas for medicine. With a high number of candidates jostling for limited admission quotas, this means that admission lists would be streamlined to accommodate the best of the best.
For a candidate to qualify, he would have to present certain qualifications which may include but are not limited to a favourable UTME score, depending on the cut-off mark announced by the university of choice, favourable grades in WASSCE, favourable post-UTME score among others.
In a bid to obtain favourable scores for admissions or in some cases recognition, candidates, teachers, schools, parents and guardians alike have devised multiple ways of beating the system through various forms of examination malpractices. Schools and private individuals have been known for arranging “special or miracle centres” where candidates are given answers to examination questions with little or no interference from external supervisors. In June 2023, the West African Examination Council accused some unnamed supervisors of making billions of naira from examination malpractices.
In the case of UTME, impersonators have been reported to have known to register on behalf of candidates with the intent of writing the examinations on behalf of the original candidates.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, in February 2023 noted that the board cancelled UTME registrations of 817 candidates over impersonation.
Though the board has been able to curtail the number of impersonators who write UTME on behalf of others through the introduction of a new verification system, the board is currently facing a different dimension to the problem. On July 2, 2023, the board exposed a certain Ejikeme Mmesoma who paraded herself as the 2023 UTME top scorer. Ejikeme had presented a fake UTME result with 362 points. She had a result slip and even a “text message’’ from JAMB to back up her claims. She was, however, exposed when the Anambra State Government decided to verify her claims from the board.
The board also exposed a certain Atung Gerald who claimed to have scored 380 in the 2023 UTME. Following Atung’s revelation, his kinsmen wrote to JAMB demanding national recognition only for the JAMB portal to reveal that Atung did not register nor did he sit for the 2023 UTME.
However, this is not the first time the board would be faced with this kind of situation. In 2021, a certain 19-year-old UTME candidate, John Ifenkpam, upgraded his UTME score from 278 to 328. Ifenkpam had a “text message” to back up his claims but he was however unable to manipulate his score on the JAMB portal. After his real score was obtained from the portal, he told his father that JAMB compromised his result. Following this, his father sued JAMB for N1bn. Following several investigations, the candidate revealed that he tampered with his UTME result.
Similarly, another 19-year-old Adah Eche was arrested in 2019 for upgrading his UTME result. According to JAMB, Eche scored 153 in the 2019 UTME but connived with an examination syndicate that upgraded his score to 290. Oloyede explained that the suspect was apprehended after a delegation of the Public Complaints Commission paid the board a visit following various complaints by aggrieved candidates who sat for the 2019 UTME.
“We decided to pick three out of the complainants to address their issues and he happened to be the first person we picked and he wrote a letter of complaint to us knowing full well that he faked his result. What we did was invite him to come and pick up his admission letter and he came.
“Now, what such people do not know is that we have a barcode for every result which helps us verify its authenticity, but this fake one has the barcode of a supermarket and was saying invalid barcode on our platform. We have checked our platform and seen where he has checked his result three consecutive times via 55019 and was replied the same with his original result which is 153, yet he insists that he did not know the one with 290 was fake,” he said.
Oloyede further explained that the suspect confessed to the crime after evidence was discovered from his phone and another on his computer where he initially faked a 200 score before upgrading it to 290. Following the exposure of Ejikeme and Atung by JAMB, our correspondent began an investigation into how UTME candidates come up with doctored results as well as corresponding print-outs and “JAMB text messages” to back up their claims.
During investigations, our correspondent learnt that most of the “UTME and WASSCE result upgraders” attract clients through popular social media platforms such as Facebook. A simple “JAMB upgrade” typed into the search bar on Facebook brought up a list of UTME result merchants. Our correspondent observed that some of these result ‘upgraders’ did not upload their real names on Facebook but shared testimonies of upgraded results and WhatsApp contacts where they could be reached.
Our correspondent began tracking the syndicates to understand how they upgraded results and the processes involved, including the amounts charged for the service. Posing as a candidate desperate to gain admission into the university with an upgraded JAMB result, the correspondent interacted with several members of the syndicate on Facebook. She informed them she had 150 in the 2023 UTME but needed an upgraded score of 249 to be able to apply for medicine.
In her interaction with a different person, the correspondent pretended to be the mother of a UTME candidate who scored 160 but needed an upgrade to 300 for her daughter.
In all, about four syndicate members were engaged-three for the UTME upgrade and one for WASSCE result upgrade. One of them used the pseudonym ‘Channels Television’ on Facebook, but the account number he provided for payment revealed her name as Blessing Oiza Samuel.
A post she made on her Facebook account on June 12, read, “JAMB UPGRADE! JAMB UPGRADE! JAMB UPGRADE! If you want to upgrade your jamb scores to 200, 230, 250, 270, 290,350, kindly add us now on this number {08144978250}. This is my WhatsApp number. The upgrading is still going on now. I can get your JAMB result upgraded in 24 hours.”
Our correspondent contacted the phone number on WhatsApp as requested and posed as the mother of a UTME candidate who scored 160 but needed an upgrade to 300 for admission.
Without wasting much time, she said, “To upgrade your score to 300 will cost you N20k, ma.” When our correspondent begged her for a lower amount, she sent a voice note which is transcribed thus: “Good morning madam. Upgrading your child’s JAMB score to 300 will cost you N20k. It will cost N20k because you know this thing is not something we are doing openly. We are hiding to do it for students. We are just helping students so I can help you for N15,000. Let me see if I can talk to my colleagues.”
She subsequently asked this writer to send the details of the candidate, including name, registration number, examination centre, and time of exam.
When our correspondent expressed security concerns about the safety of her supposed daughter, Samuel said, “Don’t worry about that, nobody is exposing us. She will bypass the portal.” After the conversation, she proceeded to share her UBA account number 2220739308 for payment.
Our correspondent also reached out to one Ihenyen Godstime. The correspondent disguised as a candidate who scored 150 in UTME but told his parents that JAMB had not released his results. After obtaining his WhatsApp contact from Facebook, Godstime demanded N10,000 for an upgrade.
“Where have you been while others were upgrading their scores?”, he asked. “You will forward to me your JAMB registration number, your full name, and your JAMB centre to upgrade your result. To upgrade it this morning will cost you N10,000.”
When asked if he could charge a lower fee, Godstime said, “I can’t reduce anything because it is already getting late. If it was earlier before your exam, it would have been reduced but now, no reduction.” After this, he sent his GTB account number 022259509.
In response to doubts that the upgrade may not be genuine, Godstime assured the new result would be printed directly from the JAMB portal. “It is from the JAMB portal you will print it out. You will go to any cyber cafe and print it out,’’ he noted.
Further findings revealed that the issue of UTME score upgrade was not a new development as our correspondent tracked a series of Facebook postings on the scam dating back to 2012.
One of the accounts identified as “JAMB upgrade” has over 1,000 followers on Facebook. It has on its bio the following, “We can upgrade your JAMB score with additional 100 marks.”
Another account tracked with the name JAMB upgrade centre had a total of 534 followers and even advised candidates to upgrade their JAMB scores before the examination dates.
A post dated March 5, 2020 read, “JAMB CBT 2020: Upgrade your JAMB result to 250 and above before your test date. If you are interested, contact the JAMB official now on: 08105039492. JAMB scores can only be upgraded before the JAMB date. T & C (Terms and conditions) apply.’’
Another account, ‘JAMB upgrading 2020’ posted requirements candidates must fulfil for manipulation of results. The post read, ‘’Below are the complete details needed by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board 2020 for JAMB score upgrade. Notice: We Will Do It Before You Pay; Your JAMB registration number, seat number, centre number, state; registered subjects, and registered phone numbers. Text/call: 07046892418; Whatsapp link wa.me/2347046892418.
‘’The above details are needed to upgrade 2020 JAMB score. Also note that from 250 to 280 is the maximum reach for a CBT score upgrade. After work is done, it takes a maximum of 30 minutes for the results to reflect on the JAMB server.
“However candidates are advised to recheck the upgraded result and print it out for better use. It is important to note that this upgrade is done through a reliable connection and no site is better than ours. JAMB result upgrade is N10,000 as recommended by the National Headquarters in (Abuja).”
Checks also exposed some individuals who specialised in doctoring the results of WASSCE. A Ghanaian who simply identified himself as SS assured me he could help with the upgrade of WAEC results for a fee. SS, whose real name was later discovered to be Samuel Kwado Nkrumah through the bank account he provided, said, “I can help you do the results upgrade today and it’s authentic. Hope you are having the details of the results. Send me your details. Your full name, Index number, name of the school, the year and list all the subjects for me.”
When our correspondent told him she could not remember her index number, he said, “I can find the index number for you. Hope we can finish talking about the price. Everything will cost you N30,000. You can send advance payment right now and I will make the results for you. Name: Samuel Kwadwo Nkrumah; Telephone +233551195870, MoneyGram; Ghana Accra.’’
HOW UTME, WAEC upgraders operate
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that the fake results syndicate uses Adobe Photoshop to deceive its victims. An operator of a JAMB CBT centre who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “They use a computer tool called Adobe Photoshop to deceive people. What they do is scan an original result of a candidate, edit it to a high score using Adobe and use it to scam unsuspecting students. The unfortunate thing is that the upgrade won’t be effected on the JAMB portal. Candidates need to understand that there is no way they can upgrade their results. Once you fail, you have failed.”
Findings also showed that an application on Google Play Store could generate fake JAMB results. The ‘JambFun-Fake Jamb Result Maker’ bears the JAMB logo and gives an air of authenticity to the generated results.
The app also has all the features of the regular test slip as well as blank spaces for the student’s bio-data, subjects, score, and a barcode. At the bottom of the opening page of the app, there is an action button with a green colour that carries the inscription, “Fill out the form.
When the ‘Fill the form’ action button is clicked, the app takes you to the next page which allows you to fill all the empty spaces with the bio-data. When the bio-data is correctly filled, the user would be required to click the preview button. The app would subsequently display a fake JAMB result, just like the authentic copy from the JAMB website.
But a WAEC official said those involved in the results racketeering were simply deceiving themselves.
In response to inquiries by our correspondent, the official of the test body stated, “Well, I can tell you for free that these people are just deceiving themselves. What they don’t understand is that you cannot clone an original WAEC certificate. The certificates we issue have barcodes that can be scanned to verify a student’s result.
‘’Also, we have schools and even companies that write to us to verify the status of people’s certificates. That is why you see some students have problems by the time they get to their final year because their results could not be verified.”
A professor of Mathematics at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Gbolahan Bolarin, called for due diligence by universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. He also advised parents to properly guide their children and not pressurize them.
“This exposure has shown that our universities, colleges of education, and polytechnics need to exert due diligence, especially during the process of granting admissions. Yes, CAPS (Central Admission Processing System) from JAMB is now doing the job but that does not excuse anything. Parents should also be careful not to over-pressurize their children. Most of these issues border on those who say their children must study one particular course or nothing else,’’ the don observed.
The Secretary General of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mike Ene, encouraged parents and teachers to adequately monitor their children/pupils and discourage them from all forms and potential forms of malpractices. According to him, certificate forgery which is a form of malpractices leads no well.
“This lies on the hands of teachers and parents. These children need to be monitored and made to understand that malpractices lead nowhere. We now have advanced technological intervention which will expose any form of forgery so it is very difficult for anyone to think he or she can forge a result and go Scott-free. The issue of certificate forgery is fast becoming a culture in Nigeria. Even when you read the news you hear of senior officials being accused of certificate forgery, politicians also. Law enforcement agencies should also partner with education agencies to ensure that culprits when found out are made to pay for their crimes.”
A Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Dr Charles Umeh noted that individuals who forge results do not believe they can pass through hard work.
“Students don’t believe that they can pass exams with hard work. Now that people are beginning to recognize excellence, they always feel that it does not matter how they get it. Our society celebrates people who have made it without knowing how they made it. When we were in the university, we hardly saw people driving cars but today, undergraduates are driving big cars and nobody is asking them what they are doing. When you ask some of the younger ones, they will say going to school is useless. So, cheating is gradually pilfering into the psyche of the young ones, and they think the only way to excellence is when you cheat.”
Right now, many high school students are already thinking ahead to college. The application process can look a lot different for some of those students since the Supreme Court made a major change to college admissions.
Right now, many high school students are already thinking ahead to college.
The application process can look a lot different for some of those students since the United States Supreme Court made a major change to college admissions.
In June,the high court effectively ended race-conscious admissions programs, also known as affirmative action, at colleges across the country.
The decision is already making an impact with some colleges, like the University of Missouri, indicating that they will no longer offer scholarships that take race or ethnicity into consideration.
Race-conscious admissions allowed prestigious schools to consider race as one of many factors— but not the deciding factor— of whether a qualified student could be admitted.
Civil rights attorney Edward C. Hopkins Jr., a partner at Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, has advice for students navigating the new path.
"Treat these last couple of semesters that you have as if they were the most important sports events that you've had in your entire academic career," Hopkins said. "If you're coming from a middle class or working class family. It's smart now to try to secure resources to get things like tutors, things like test prep courses."
Ose Okihan, a recent graduate of Rangeview High School in Aurora, took a similar approach. He's now preparing to start his first semester at Stanford University.
"I made sure that the classes I took were the hardest classes that were offered it at my high school," Okihan said.
Okihan balanced tough classes with sports, mentoring with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and SAT prep.
He utilized practice SAT courses at his school, and then found extra resources online in his own time.
Okihan said Khan Academy was one of his go-to test prep resources. It even gave him an SAT study schedule.
"If I wanted to do the writing section on one week, I can do that," he said. "And then take a VCE test either every two or three weeks leading up to April taking the SAT."
Hopkins also suggests that applicants at elite colleges emphasize their diverse backgrounds (racial, financial, regional, etc.) in admissions essays because the Supreme Court's decision still allows colleges to consider that.
Organizations that are committed to diversity can also provide free and low-cost test prep services to help students boost their scores.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado Big Futures program offers those resources to some schools in the Denver metro.
Hopkins said that he expects to see fewer BIPOC students at elite universities in the coming years, but he expects that to change over time.
"I think we're going to initially see a decrease in the number of what I'll call BIPOC, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Black and brown students— I think they're going to be a slight decrease over the first couple of five to 10 years," Hopkins said. "But after that, when society adjusts, households adjusts, and they understand the new rules of the competition... there's not going to be a significant impact."
Some advocates are concerned that the ruling could lead to a long-term decrease of minority students being admitted to elite colleges.
Regardless of the overall impact, Hopkins said that qualified students will have the greatest chance for admission if they work hard to outscore the pack.
"Now you know that your grades are going to have to be top notch, your test scores are going to have to be top notch," Hopkins said.
Free test prep resources can be found here:
Justice with Jessica: Prepping for elite college admissions in post-affirmative action world
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