How to Pass JAMB English Language (Use of English) 2027

Use of English is the one subject every UTME candidate writes, and it is worth more questions than any other paper: 60, against 40 for each of your three chosen subjects. That makes it a third of your question count. A candidate who treats English as "the easy one" and revises only the other three leaves a lot on the table, because English is also where candidates lose marks through haste.

This guide is for the 2027 cycle. It breaks the paper into its four skills, shows how to practise each, and gives you a weekly rhythm.

What the paper tests

You are not tested on how much you know, but on how well you read and use the language. The questions group into four skills:

JAMB decides what is examined and in what proportion, so do not memorise a fixed number of questions per skill. Check the current syllabus on jamb.gov.ng, and practise all four skills every week.

Comprehension: read for the author, not the words

A passage question usually has one right answer and three that sound plausible. The wrong ones are typically too extreme, too narrow, or true in general but not stated in the passage.

A working method:

1. Skim the questions first so you know what to look for.
2. Read the passage once at normal speed. Mark the topic of each paragraph in your head: "cause", "example", "objection".
3. For each question, find the sentence that answers it before looking at the options.
4. Eliminate any option that uses absolute words like "always", "never" or "all" unless the passage does too.

Here is an original mini-example.

The market women of the town had always sold their goods on the roadside, but when the council built a covered hall, many were slow to move in. They feared the rent and doubted the customers would follow.

Why were many women slow to move into the hall? A. The hall was too small B. They were afraid of the cost and the loss of buyers C. The council forced them D. They preferred to sell at night

The passage says they feared the rent and doubted the customers would follow, so B. Notice that you never needed outside knowledge. That is the test: if you cannot point to a line, you are guessing.

Lexis: build vocabulary the smart way

Memorising a long word list the night before does little. Better:

• Learn words in families: benevolent, benefactor, benefit. One root unlocks several.
• Learn the opposites with the word: scarce / abundant, conceal / reveal.
• Read one short article daily, pick three unfamiliar words and write a sentence for each in your own words.
• When a synonym question puzzles you, put each option into a sentence and see which keeps the original meaning.

Be careful with words that look alike: affect / effect, principal / principle, stationary / stationery. These appear often because they separate careful readers from careless ones.

Structure: five rules that cover many questions

Grammar questions are quick if you know the rule and slow if you do not.

1. Concord. The verb agrees with the real subject, not the noun nearest to it. The list of items is on the desk, not "are".
2. Tenses. Match time words to tense. She has lived here since 2020, not "lived".
3. Active and passive. The committee approved the plan becomes The plan was approved by the committee.
4. Clauses. A sentence needs a main clause. A group of words starting with "although" or "because" is dependent.
5. Punctuation. A comma splice joins two sentences with only a comma. Spot it, fix it.

For a deeper rule list, read Lexis and structure tips.

Oral English: train your ear, not your eye

Candidates dread this section because it asks about sound, and written options hide sound. Three habits help:

• Say it aloud. Read the options quietly, listening for the vowel. For Choose the word with the same vowel sound as "seat": bit, meet, set, cat. Meet has the long "ee" sound, so the answer is meet.
• Mark the stress. In photograph the stress falls on the first syllable; in photography it falls on the second. Words that change stress when they change class (a record / to record) are exam favourites.
• Learn the sound pairs that Nigerian speakers confuse, such as the vowels in ship and sheep, or cot and caught. Practise them in word pairs.

More examples are in Oral English tips.

Pacing the 60 questions

Take your total exam time from the brochure and divide it across 180 questions to get an average per question. English questions tend to be faster than Mathematics or Physics, except for comprehension passages. A sensible plan is to answer structure and lexis quickly, spend more time on passages, and leave oral English for last if you find it hard, so that sound questions do not eat your focus early.

Do not leave any question blank. If you cannot decide, remove the options you know are wrong and choose from the rest.

A weekly rhythm

Practise it on screen

English is a subject where volume matters. ExamPadi has free JAMB English practice with explanations, and a timed CBT mode so you can feel the pace of 60 questions on a screen. Try the 2025 JAMB English past questions, then do the JAMB English topics guide to see where your errors cluster.

For a wider plan across all four subjects, see how to pass JAMB. English is the subject where a quiet, daily habit changes the result most, so start tonight: one passage, ten structure questions, and a short list of words you did not know.