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Sunday, 25 April 2021

On the 2021 OAU Post-UTME, Cutoff Marks and Admission [NAIRALAND, GOOGLE, OAU, CUTOFF, ADMISSION LIST, FIRST BATCH, JAMB CAPS, POSTUTME, OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY,]

On the 2021 OAU Post-UTME, Cutoff Marks and Admission

It’s been an unusual academic year 2021; as affected by the unusual year 2020, and the unusualness that has been causing more unusual things to happen in education (and in fact in every other industry) might go on and on affecting every subsequent year somehow. In academics, if the snowball effect doesn’t go on and on to affecting every year coming, at least 2022 cannot escape the effects of all that happened in the education industry in 2020, as 2021 is already having its own share of it. One of the effects of the long time of the jambites having to stay off tutorials can be seen on OAU aspirants’ Post-UTME results, as the school hit the highest average number of candidates who couldn’t get up to 20/40 in the Post-UTME test. I wasn’t shocked when after the Post-UTME results were release, a lot of people got the red stamp and “Not Eligible for Admission” on their slip, because they couldn’t get average in the Post-UTME test. A lot of these people who ended up getting Not Eligible are the people who had scored so high in the UTME, and also have high points in the analysis of their O/Levels results, but the Post-UTME ruined their chances of getting OAU for them. We all know the causes of this: the long time off books, the shutdown of the tutorials, and OAU’s transition from Computer-Based Test to Internet-Based Test. This last one makes the major reason why most of the failed candidates got “shenked”. I just hope they have been able to find another school to apply to now so their good UTME score doesn’t go to waste.

The OAU Post-UTME has been done and dusted, the results have been released, the ones who failed have probably gotten over it, and the ones left are the ones looking forward to the cutoffs that would remove the “have chances to be admitted” from the “have no chances for admission at all”. Thankfully, the cutoffs are beginning to roll in so early; we’ve seen the ones for the departments in Health Sciences, we’ve seen the ones for the departments in Social Sciences, and more faculties are likely to release theirs this week. Unlike what many think, these cutoffs are so high, but not too high; in fact I'm thinking before drafting the cutoffs, they put into consideration the fact that a lot of people already failed in the Post-UTME, so no need to use the cutoff in screening everybody out again. But despite the fact that the cutoffs released so far are only fairly high, there would still be: people who would be screened out because of some infinitesimal numbers deficit in their scores (when cutoff is 79.75 and you scored 79.74, and the catchments and EDLS still wouldn’t save you); people who would beat the cutoff but would still be screened out because they didn’t take the appropriate subjects combination in the UTME or have completely the required subjects in their O/Levels; and, the funny case, people who have scored lower than the cutoff but they got admitted anyways (because they knew what to do and they did it on time); if you know what I mean, good.

All these and why they happen that way may not be understood until much later when the admission offering has concluded, and these people who had waited a very long time for their names to be released with an admission batch end up not having their names on any of the lists, and they might have to wait till 2022 to be able to register for and write another UTME because while they were waiting on OAU to release the admission lists, JAMB had sold their 2021 UTME forms but the people waiting on OAU to release the admission list have refused to register for the 2021 UTME to be on the safer side. My sincere advice is, if you are currently waiting on OAU for the admission list, no matter how sure you are of your admission, kindly register for the UTME again; just to be safe. The UTME registration money is now too small to have you have to wait for two whole years should you lose this admission this year. Better to later not need a UTME you wrote than to need to have written it but you didn’t when you could.

It is important that I hint you on the fact that at this time the fact that you beat the cutoff doesn’t guarantee your admission; a lot has changed that you have no idea of, and a lot is going on in the school system too that you would ever get to read or hear about on any media. All I can say about this is that the admission race this year is not for the weak at all, and not for the strong who had done well to be too assured they are going to win—they need to stretch their legs longer and use as many connections as they could get, and not rest until they see their names on JAMB’s CAPS. I hope you understand my parables, but if you don’t, I wish you luck in the endeavour. May your God be with you.

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