How to Pass JAMB Biology in 2027

Biology has the reputation of being "just reading", and that reputation misleads. Candidates who read a textbook once and hope to remember it do poorly because the subject is full of look-alike terms: osmosis and diffusion, mitosis and meiosis, producer and primary consumer. The students who score well turn the syllabus into pairs and processes, then test themselves repeatedly.

This guide is for the 2027 cycle. It gives you a way to learn Biology that works with a computer-based test.

The format

Biology is a chosen subject, popular for medicine, nursing, pharmacy, microbiology and agriculture-related courses. It carries 40 questions in the UTME CBT. For the official time limit and any changes to the format, see jamb.gov.ng. Use the JAMB subject combination guide to confirm that Biology fits your course.

Learn in pairs: structure and function

Almost every Biology question can be reduced to "what is this, and what does it do?" Build a table for each system and fill it in yourself:

Cover the right-hand column and test yourself. Then cover the left column. Doing it both ways doubles the recall.

Why does this help in an exam? Because questions are often phrased in either direction: "which part carries out X?" or "what is the function of Y?" If you only memorised one direction, half the questions look new.

Genetics: do the cross, do not guess

Genetics is the topic where a few minutes of practice give reliable marks, because the method is mechanical.

Original example: In a plant, tall (T) is dominant over short (t). Two heterozygous tall plants are crossed. What fraction of the offspring is short?

Draw a Punnett square. Tt × Tt gives TT, Tt, Tt, tt. Only tt is short, so one in four, which is 25 per cent. The phenotypic ratio is 3 tall to 1 short.

A second pattern: A homozygous tall plant crossed with a short plant gives all offspring Tt (tall). Learn these two crosses, and also the test cross (unknown × tt). Make sure you know the difference between genotype and phenotype, and between homozygous and heterozygous, because questions often test those words directly.

Also revise sex determination (XX and XY), sex-linked traits such as colour blindness, and the meaning of mutation and variation. Evolution is shorter: natural selection, adaptation, and the types of evidence (fossils, comparative anatomy). Keep the language simple and use one example for each idea.

Ecology: terms and relationships

Ecology is full of vocabulary, so use a glossary approach. Group the words:

• Levels: organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere.
• Feeding: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, decomposer.
• Relationships: mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, predation, competition.
• Cycles: carbon, nitrogen, water.

For each relationship, learn one clear example. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the root nodules of legumes show mutualism; a tapeworm in a host shows parasitism. A food chain question usually asks what happens if one link is removed, so practise tracing the effect up and down the chain.

Nutrition, circulation, respiration, excretion

These are the "systems" chapters, and each has the same shape: organ, process, product. Add the common deficiency diseases and the test for each food class, because they appear regularly.

A useful method is to draw the path of a substance. For example, trace oxygen from the air through the nose, trachea, bronchi, alveoli, into the blood, and then to cells. Trace carbon dioxide back out. One drawing replaces three paragraphs of notes.

Speed and elimination on a computer

The UTME is a computer-based objective test, so you pick from options and the clock is always running. Two habits help in Biology. First, read the stem before the options and try to answer it in your head; if the correct answer is already in your mind, the wrong options are easy to dismiss. Second, when you are unsure, remove the options that name the wrong organ system or the wrong process, then choose between what is left. Do not spend several minutes on one stubborn question. Note it, move on and come back if time allows.

Handling diagram questions

On a screen you will sometimes see a labelled diagram. Do this:

1. Follow each label line to its exact tip. Do not guess from the nearest word.
2. Say the part and its function in one sentence in your head.
3. Eliminate options that name a different system.

Practise by drawing a simple version of the heart, the digestive tract, a flower and a cell. Even a rough drawing teaches you the layout.

Common mistakes

1. Mixing up mitosis (two identical cells, growth and repair) and meiosis (four cells with half the chromosomes, gametes).
2. Treating osmosis as general diffusion. Osmosis is specifically water moving through a semi-permeable membrane.
3. Reading "not" in a question too quickly. Underline it.
4. Ignoring the units in ecological and nutritional questions.

A weekly plan

To remember more with less stress, read how to memorise faster and use spaced review: revisit each topic after one day, one week and one month.

Practise on screen

ExamPadi has free JAMB Biology practice with explanations and a timed CBT mode. Start with the 2025 JAMB Biology past questions. The JAMB Biology topics to focus on guide shows you which areas to review first, and the WAEC Biology practical tips cover specimens and apparatus if you also write WAEC. Nobody can guarantee a score, but a clear table of structure and function pairs and a steady practice habit give you a fair chance. Begin tonight with one body system and ten questions.