A 16-year-old Deeper Life High School pupil, Kamsiyochukwu Chinyere Umeh, who is allegedly the authentic highest scorer of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), has broken her silence.
Umeh, who is said to have scored 360 out of 400, is said to be the authentic highest scorer of the UTME in the federation.
According to her, she only read to pass with good grades to help her further her education to the tertiary level.
OsunDailyNG reports that Umeh’s narration of how she made a mark with the new feat comes amid an ongoing controversy between another student identified as Mmesoma Ejikeme and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (JAMB).
While Ejikeme claimed she had the highest UTME score of 362, JAMB has denied the claim saying her real score was 249 and not 362, and that the result slip she is parading is fake.
Speaking to Daily Trust in an interview about how she achieved the score, Umeh, who is believed to be the authentic highest scorer, disclosed how her parents, teachers helped her pass.
She submitted that “When I went home, I focused on revising the past questions, using the series I had. My parents also encouraged me.
“Everybody wants to be the best. However, I was not particularly aiming to be the best.
“I read during the times that the school scheduled for us to read and also read during the night when I get back to the hostel. I read for as many hours as I have.
“When I became an SS3 student and I was fully intimated about the UTME, I was a bit scared because I felt I wasn’t ready to write it. My first contact with the exam was with the past questions the school provided to us. I became more afraid than I was initially because the questions looked so difficult and I kept asking how I was going to pass.
“I continued reading, our teachers drilled us and most importantly, we prayed. We prayed all the time and fasted too sometimes. Our teachers also gave us lots of tests, we had time for JAMB classes and Mock exams too.
“The night before the exam, I felt nervous. I told myself that the exam was already here and I was going to face it the next day. That night, our senior school principal prayed with us and I felt a sense of calm come over me. I told myself that it was God telling me not to worry about the exam.
“When I got into the exam hall and saw the questions, I was so happy. Throughout the exam, I was just thanking God because the questions were a lot easier than I imagined. All of us were happy because we were sure we conquered the exam.”
Speaking further, Umeh, who said it was her first attempt, noted that she like to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos.
