STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF UTME AND UNILORIN COMPUTER BASE TEST (CBT)

The automatic means of assessment has proven to be the best solution to the process of selecting qualified prospective candidates among the growing population of candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions and also evaluation of large population of students in the higher institutions in Nigeria.

CBT (computer-based testing) is the automatic evaluation or assessment by which knowledge of students or candidates are measured or tested. It is in this regard that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and other Nigerian institutions introduced the CBT with the objective of conducting examinations, eliminating all forms of examination malpractices and promote the use of electronic testing in Nigeria.

The public outcry and vociferous over the conduct, authenticity and reliability of this mode of assessment (CBT) by critical stakeholders (students) engineer the purpose of this study which is to investigate and compare students’ perception of CBT, using Jamb and the university of Ilorin as a case study.

A sample of 100 students who partake in the recent Jamb UTME CBT was selected randomly among the 100level students of the university of Ilorin and other 100 students who had taken test on CBT of the university were also selected randomly, both from two major faculties among others in the university for the survey and a structured questionnaire was used for data collection, which was the analysed for percentage, mean and t-test.

The results indicate that there is no significance difference in the perception of candidates that wrote UTME CBT and students that took University of Ilorin CBT at 0.05 level of significance. It is concluded that the students are supportive of this innovations but require for best practices in the conduct, reliability and authenticity of the assessment especially in terms of duration (time set).