Use of English for the JAMB Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Confusing similar-sounding words (their/there, affect/effect) in antonym and fill-in-the-blank questions
• !Misidentifying the main idea of a comprehension passage by reading too quickly
• !Overlooking oral English questions on word stress and phonetic symbols

Study tips

• 1Study the JAMB Recommended Texts for Use of English — direct questions from these texts appear annually.
• 2Practice 20 antonym/synonym pairs daily from past JAMB English papers.
• 3Drill the English phonetic symbols (IPA) for vowels and consonants — oral English questions use them.

Sample JAMB Use of English questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real JAMB questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   Select the option that best fills the blank: "The scientist _____ her findings at the conference last year."

   • Apresents
   • Bhas presented
   • CpresentedCorrect
   • Dwill present
   Why this answer?

   "Last year" signals past tense. The simple past "presented" is correct. "Presents" (present simple), "has presented" (present perfect), and "will present" (future) are incompatible with "last year."

2. 2

   Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined word: "The professor gave an ERUDITE lecture."

   • Aboring
   • Bbrief
   • ClearnedCorrect
   • Dcontroversial
   Why this answer?

   "Erudite" means having or showing great knowledge or learning — synonymous with "learned." This is a common JAMB vocabulary question type testing academic word recognition.