Discriminative Ability of Nigerian University Matriculation Examination

The University matriculation examination (UME) conducted in Nigeria, just like any competitive examination, is expected to discriminate between the potential high and low ability candidates. There had however been speculations that some candidates used to have over-bloated scores in this examination, arising from examination malpractice. This led the Federal Government to direct individual universities to conduct post-UME screening tests. This study thus sought to find out if high and low scorers in the UME would turn out to be high and low scorers in the Post-UME respectively. The result showed that the high scorers in UME did not show any superiority over low scores when they were compared with respect to the post-UME scores. Rather, in some cases, the low scorers had higher mean post-UME scores than the high scorers. The finding therefore supports the speculation of over-bloated scores in the UME and justifies the need for the continuation of the post-UME screening test.Keywords: University Matriculation Examination, Post-University Matriculation Examination Screening Test, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Examinations in Nigeria