Home » JAMB Syllabus » The Use of English exam is a compulsory subject in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME). It is designed to test your language skills, comprehension abilities and will also include sections on comprehension passages, grammar and vocabulary.
To perform well, you must be able to understand complex texts and apply grammatical rules correctly.
Regardless of your course of study or choice of institution, you will be required to take Use of English. So you must study hard and ensure you pass with flying colors.
The Use of English can be the easiest subject and it is possible to score 70 and above. It is also a dicey subject to fail. Do not underestimate it.
The syllabus consists of three sections:
SECTION A: Comprehension/Summary
This section comprises three (3) main parts and will have twenty-five questions The 3 parts are divided into:
SECTION B: Lexis and Structure.
This section will test a candidate’s ability to identify words and expressions in ordinary form, as well as figurative and idiomatic contexts. It will also determine similar and opposite meanings of words and test the candidate’s ability to differentiate between correct and incorrect punctuation and spelling.
Finally, it will test the ability to identify various grammatical patterns in use and interpret information conveyed in sentences. It will contain the following parts:
The hiker struggled through the wilderness with a heavy backpack, gritting his teeth against the pain of the blisters on his feet and the cold wind that tore at his clothes.
Which of the following best describes the tone of this passage
A) Urgent
B) Suspenseful
C) Tragic
D) Descriptive
Examples:
Kunle is quite “inexperienced”compared to Lekan. Which of these is the antonym of the word “inexperienced”?
A) Naive
B) Skilled
C) Qualified
D) Juvenile
Examples:
Pick out the word nearest in meaning to the underlined word.
She thought he was being quite whimsical and it was very unnecessary.
A) Quirky
B) Cheerful
C) Reasonable
D) Modest
SECTION C: Oral Forms
The final section of JAMB English is the Oral Form and will contain 10 questions.
The ten (10) questions will be picked out from the following topics: Vowels (2 questions), consonants (2 questions), Rhymes (2 questions), word stress (2 questions), and emphatic stress (2 questions).
The aim of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) syllabus in Use of English is to guide the candidates in their preparation for the Board’s examination. It is designed to evaluate the candidates’ ability to:
(i) Communicate effectively in both written and spoken English; and
(ii) Use the English Language for learning at the tertiary level.
| JAMB USE OF ENGLISH SYLLABUS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| SN | TOPICS | OBJECTIVES | |
| A | COMPREHENSION/SUMMARY | ||
| Description Narration Exposition Argumentation/persuasion (i) Each of the two passages to be set (one will be a cloze test) should reflect various disciplines and be about 200 words long. (ii) Questions on the passages will test the following: (a) Comprehension of the whole or part of each passage. (b) Comprehension of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, figures of speech and idioms as used in the passages. (c) Coherence and logical reasoning (deductions, inferences, etc). (d) Approved Reading text (The Life Changer by Khadija Abubakar Jalli) (e) Synthesis of ideas from the passages. NOTE: By synthesis of ideas is meant the art of combining distinct or separate pieces of information to form a complete whole. | Candidates should be able to: i. Identify main points/topic sentences in passages; ii. determine implied meaning; iii. identify the grammatical functions of words, phrases, clauses and figurative/idiomatic expressions; iv. deduce or infer the writer’s intentions including mood, attitude to the subject matter and opinion. | ||
| B | LEXIS AND STRUCTURE | ||
| synonyms antonyms homonyms clause and sentence patterns word classes and their functions mood, tense, aspect, number, agreement/concord, degree (positive, comparative and superlative) and question tags punctuation and spelling ordinary usage, figurative usage and idiomatic usage are to be tested. NOTE: Idioms to be tested shall be those that are formal and expressed in standard British English. | Candidates should be able to: i. identify words and expressions in their ordinary, figurative and idiomatic contexts; ii. determine similar and opposite meaning of words; iii. differentiate between correct and incorrect punctuation and spelling; iv. identify various grammatical patterns in use; v. interpret information conveyed in sentences. | ||
| C | ORAL FORMS | ||
| Vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs Consonants (including clusters) Rhymes (including homophones) Word stress (monosyllabic and polysyllabic) Intonation (words emphatic stress) NOTE: Emphatic stress involves the placement of normal stress on words in an utterance for the purpose of emphasis. | Candidates should be able to: i. make distinctions between vowel types; ii. differentiate between consonant types; iii. identify correct accentuation in individual words and connected speech. |
