Advice for OAU Post-UTME Candidates Taking the Online Test
They
say change is inevitable, and that even if we don’t try to change things,
things will sooner or later change by themselves. Same thing can be said of the
sudden change in the mode of writing Post-UTME in OAU; not that it’s really
strange, at least we have moved from not writing any other test after passing
the JAMB’s exam to writing Post-UTME using pen and paper, then to not writing any
test but only use the O/Level results and the UTME scores to define who gets
and who does not get admitted, to taking the Post-UTME on computer, and now to
taking the test over the internet, so this is not that sudden. But no one would
think that would happen this year or even so soon, but because situations help
us change things even when we don’t want to change them, here we are now
preparing for the OAU Post-UTME test to be taken over the internet, and that’s
scary. Scary because just anything… anything at all can happen to make the
person who had gotten a lot of A’s and B’s in their O/Level results and a very
high score in their UTME end up not getting admitted.
Out
of a lot of things that could happen while taking an e-test are computer
glitches, software malfunctions, internet issues, and so on. When the tests
were done on the computer with no internet, I saw a case of the computer
shutting down automatically while the time of the test was still counting down.
I saw when the computer kept hanging for several minutes while the candidates
couldn’t shutdown and restart so as to not lose their test time. Power surge
had made somebody’s test submit automatically while they were still writing the
test. I’ve also heard of someone who answered and submitted all their
questions, but when the results came out, it says the candidate only answered 5
of 40 questions. A lot of cases like these are there to prove that the computer
can screw anything up sometimes. Even now that OAU is just for the first time
trying to conduct an e-test, this makes it even more likely for something to go
wrong. But how do you avoid being unfortunate with your computer and your
internet while you are still on your test? I have an idea.
1. Use a standard ICT center,
preferably the ones that have been conducting e-Tests before or do JAMB
registration for candidates. Don’t use a cyber café; they probably have
computers with low RAM and viruses, which would both make the system slow and
likely to malfunction. They also probably have bad internet that could make you
lose time. So find an ICT center with good computers and webcams and internet
service. If you are in Ife or anywhere surrounding Ife, advisably, go to one of
OAU’s ICT centers on the Ife campus or at the CDL center in Moro; you are most
likely to have everything better there than anywhere else. Just have #1,000
with you to pay to them.
2. Be technical with your online
activities while writing the test; don’t start writing the test lest the
software is done loading. Any data inputted on the software while it’s loading
may still be appearing after the software is done loading, but it wouldn’t be
read by the database selector, only the ones you inputted after the software is
done loading would be read by the database selector. This is always the cause
of half submission; when candidate answers 40 questions but the computer says
they answered 5 or so. The 5 or so are the ones they answered after the software
was done loading.
3. No matter what you are doing,
don’t be caught up with the computer having to time you out by itself, make
sure you have one or two minutes to go through your answered questions again,
to make sure everything you answered are still there. Make sure you do this
before finally submitting.
4. If anything strange happens while writing your exam, call the supervisor’s attention to it immediately instead of battling with it yourself. The chances are they have seen that problem before and they have the solution to it. I wish you the best of success in the test.
People who read this also have interest in reading
this:
Our Services for OAU Undergraduate Degrees Aspirants
