I scored 366 in 2025 resit UTME after initial 165, says candidate

Esther Iweha, a student of Caleb British International School, has shared her story about scoring 366 in her 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). 

In a post shared on her LinkedIn page, Iweha said she believed hard work should translate to success until her first UTME sitting results shattered that assumption.

Iweha said she anticipated a score of around 320 while preparing hard for her examinations.

She, however, said when she checked her result, it was “a horrible 165” out of 400.

She said the result was unbelievable, and she protested against it.

The student said, although her parents comforted her, “I still felt angry, betrayed, and hurt”.

“My heart stopped. I checked again and again. It couldn’t be real. This wasn’t me. Not even on my worst day,” she wrote.

Iweha said she joined other students who took to social media to call for a resit of the examination, adding that “I prayed earnestly that God would show up”.

“Then came the bargaining. I refused to sit and wait. I turned to social media and spoke out. I followed the proper procedures to file a complaint. I prayed earnestly that God would show up, not just for me, but so others would see His hand and glorify Him,” she added.

The student revealed that she scored a record-breaking score of 366 after rewriting the examination.

Iweha said her situation changed her perspective that “hard work doesn’t always equal success, but trust in God”.

“I was fortunate. I rewrote the exam and, by God’s mercy, scored an aggregate of 366 – the highest in my school. A record-breaking result. But how many others never got a second chance to rejoice?

“This is more than a personal testimony. It’s a lesson: Hard work doesn’t always equal success. But trust in God and in His time, He makes all things beautiful.”

The results from the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s original 2025 UTME were released on May 9.

On May 14, Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB registrar, said the results of 379,997 candidates across 157 centres were affected.

He cited faulty server updates that prevented candidate responses from being uploaded during the first three days of the exam.

Oloyede said the problem, which was caused by one of its technical service providers, went undetected before the results were released.

JAMB conducted a resit exam for those affected in Lagos and the south-east, starting from May 16 and extending beyond May 19.

The results of that resit were released on May 25, after extensive stakeholder consultation.

The board said performance analysis remained consistent with those from the past twelve years.

Those who scored 200 and above fell between the 11 per cent peak of 2013 and the 34 per cent of 2016.