Zainab Oladigbolu Asake, a 15-year-old student of Dialogue Academy, Kaduna has been trending on social media having made a breakthrough after scoring 362 in the just concluded 2024 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) UTME, Zainab, an indigene of Kwara State who was born and brought up in Kaduna says she was dazed for a week when she saw her results. In this interview, she takes us through her journey on how she was able to achieve this feat with the help of her parents, teachers and Allah. Excerpts:
Tell us about your academic journey?
I started my academic journey with Little Scholars School where I had my primary education before I moved to Hamd House School to start my secondary education and then Dialogue Academy in SS 1. I am a science student and I plan on studying cyber security. I was not planning on enrolling into Hamad House, it just happened incidentally.
How has schooling been like in Dialogue?
SS1 was quite fun and interesting. Things were new and different because it was different for me to have an all-girls section and all boys section in the same school, I was used to sharing classes and all other activities with boys. The classes were also stressful because there was so much to catch up with and we had a test every fortnight, it was back-to-back learning and there was no time for slacking off. There were breaks, but it was left to you to either study or not, but there was no room for not studying, you had to study and you had to excel.
How was the preparation for JAMB like in the school?
Second term came and we were moving closer to writing the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Examination so we moved away from WAEC and focused on JAMB. We started having JAMB preparations, we had JAMB mock before then, we had four more before the JAMB exam, all through the JAMB, I have been preparing and the JAMB mock in school was actually harder than the actual JAMB exam because they picked all the hard questions so you will be more prepared when the JAMB questions come. Every week, we have our laptops and we answer questions after which, we have two hours break then after the test. We have a review of the questions we had problems with, where you had the problem, then we had topic wise breakdown of JAMB questions where we dealt with any problem we had. We were taught how to solve calculations easier and faster, then JAMB came about and Alhamdulillah, I was very surprised. I know I did well, but I did not expect to get that high a score. I was dazed for a week after seeing my score of 362.
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How do you feel having scored the highest in your school and the third in Kaduna State?
I feel so happy because I know my admission into the university is assured and even if I write post-UTME, my average will still go beyond the pass mark, so I am very optimistic about my future ahead.
How did your parents react to your result?
They were super excited, they could not believe it when my brother showed them the result. My mom was like ‘what am I looking at?’ because she did not have her glasses on, so she was like, ‘pass my glasses’ and when she saw it, she could not hide her joy, she kept laughing and shouting and she was just happy generally and even my younger brother that is just in JSS 2 also shared in my joy.
What are your plans for WAEC?
My plans for WAEC are to see that I get up to five A’s so that I can get a scholarship in either Nile University or any university around and if I do not, I will proceed to Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and study cyber security.
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