Post-UTME common mistakes
Post-UTME · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Choosing the option that merely repeats a word from the passage instead of the option that matches the passage's meaning, especially on 'according to the passage' and inference items.
Under time pressure candidates pattern-match vocabulary rather than reading the sentence in context, and distractors are deliberately built from lifted words.
What to do instead
Cover the options, state the answer in your own words from the passage line, then uncover and pick the closest paraphrase; reject any option whose only link to the passage is a shared word.
Answering comprehension questions from personal opinion or general knowledge rather than from what the passage actually says.
Familiar topics (politics, health, technology) trigger prior beliefs, and candidates stop verifying against the text.
What to do instead
For every answer, point to the line that supports it; if you cannot locate that line, the option is wrong regardless of whether you believe it.
Losing marks on quadratic and simultaneous equations by substituting answer options back inconsistently or by sign errors when transposing terms.
Working memory load under timed conditions plus skipping the verification step, so a single sign slip goes undetected.
What to do instead
Always substitute your final values into the original (not rearranged) equation; for objective questions, test each option in the original equation and eliminate.
Misreading units and prefixes in physics and chemistry calculations (cm vs m, g vs kg, mA vs A, kJ vs J) before substituting into a formula.
Candidates jump to the formula they recognise and treat the numbers as unit-free, and examiners deliberately supply mixed units.
What to do instead
Write the given quantities with units first, convert everything to SI in a separate line, then substitute; keep units attached through the calculation so the final unit checks out.
Confusing similar biological terms and structures, e.g. mitosis vs meiosis, artery vs vein, photosynthesis light-dependent vs light-independent stages, or genotype vs phenotype ratios.
Revision is done by recognition of familiar words rather than by contrasting paired concepts, so near-miss terminology feels correct.
What to do instead
Build two-column contrast tables for each confusable pair (site, products, chromosome number, direction of flow) and self-test by covering one column.
Treating current affairs as general knowledge and guessing, instead of knowing the specific named office-holder, institution, or recent event the question targets.
Candidates rely on vague impressions from social media and do not check names, titles, or dates against a reliable source.
What to do instead
Maintain a dated one-page list (office-holders, central bank, UN and regional bodies, major recent events) and update it in the final weeks before the exam.
Mixing up definitions and directions in economics, e.g. movement along vs shift of a demand curve, or confusing inflation with deflation and demand-pull with cost-push.
Terms are memorised as labels without the causal mechanism, so any plausible-sounding option is accepted.
What to do instead
For each concept write the cause, the direction of change, and a one-line example; practise classifying ten short scenarios as shift vs movement or demand-pull vs cost-push.
Confusing the arms and tiers of government and the separation of powers in government and civic education items, e.g. labelling the judiciary as an arm that makes law or mixing federal, state and local responsibilities.
Everyday political talk blurs the terms, and candidates answer from headlines rather than from constitutional structure.
What to do instead
Draw a three-arm chart (legislature, executive, judiciary) with functions and checks, plus a three-tier chart with exclusive and concurrent lists, and recite both from memory.
Answering literature questions from plot summary alone, without naming the literary device, the speaker, or the specific textual evidence the question asks for.
Candidates read for story and skip figure-of-speech and context-of-speech practice, so device questions collapse into guessing.
What to do instead
For each set text, prepare a device sheet (device, quotation, effect) and a speaker sheet; practise identifying devices in single lines without the surrounding passage.
Mixing up accounting entries and directions, e.g. debiting what should be credited, confusing trial balance with balance sheet, or mishandling discounts and returns in the ledger.
Double-entry is learned as rules to memorise rather than as a system, so the debit/credit direction is guessed under pressure.
What to do instead
Anchor on the accounting equation and on 'debit the receiver, credit the giver' for personal accounts; for every practice entry, state the two accounts, the class of each, and the direction before writing.