The 2023 mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, earlier scheduled for Thursday, March 16, 2023, has been shifted to Thursday, March 30, 2023,

The shift in date is partly due to the change in date for the gubernatorial and state Houses of Assembly elections, which were earlier scheduled to hold on Saturday, March 11, 2023, but have now been moved to Saturday, March 18, 2023, the examination board said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

“Candidates who registered early and indicated their willingness to take the mock UTME would be notified as to when to print their mock UTME notification slip, which would contain their centres and other details,” it read.

The PUNCH reports that the mock UTME is an optional examination introduced by the JAMB to provide opportunity for candidates to have hands-on experience with the system as well as afford the board an opportunity to ascertain its readiness and that of its partners for the main UTME, which is scheduled to hold between April 29 and May 12, 2023.

“The board also wants to use this opportunity to announce that this year’s UTME will witness some groundbreaking innovations aimed at addressing observed infractions and centre failures.

“For instance, in the new regime, if there is a delay of up to one hour before the commencement of a particular session, that session stands cancelled and would be rescheduled along with the candidates.

“By the same token, no examination can be started one hour after the scheduled commencement time. The session will be scheduled for any vacant or available slot,” JAMB said in the statement.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 168,748 students registered for the 2023 mock UTME out of the over 1.5 million prospective candidates for this year’s UTME, according to official statistics provided by JAMB.

According to the official breakdown, a total of 2,200 students will sit for the mock in Abia state; Adamawa, 1,264; Akwa-Ibom, 3,981; Anambra, 6,104; Bauchi 1,572; Bayelsa 847; Benue 1,349; Borno 1,234; Cross-Rivers 1,750; Delta 7,409; Ebonyi 1,499; Edo 4,416; Ekiti 3,273; Enugu 4,443; FCT 14,863; Gombe 723; Imo 3,987; Jigawa 261; Kaduna 6,850; Kano 3,072; Katsina 1,088; Kebbi 697; Kogi 1,924; Kwara 6,544; Lagos 28,340; Nassarawa 3,332; Niger 2,491; Ogun 10,922; Ondo 4,743; Osun 7,131; Oyo 14,732.

Others are Plateau 3,284; Rivers 9,469; Sokoto 967; Taraba 622; Yobe 1,047; and Zamfara with 318 candidates.