Synonyms and antonyms
JAMB tests both directly ("choose the word closest in meaning to...") and inside sentences ("choose the word that best replaces the underlined word"). Learn words in groups, not isolation -- e.g. happy/glad/elated/jubilant (increasing intensity) is more useful than memorising single pairs.
Example 1: Choose the word closest in meaning to "meticulous" as used in "She was meticulous in her record-keeping."
Meticulous describes extreme, careful attention to detail -- the closest synonym among typical options is "thorough," not "quick" or "careless" (which is actually its antonym).
Idiomatic expressions
Idioms cannot be translated word-for-word. Learn the whole phrase and its real meaning together.
Example 2: "The manager decided to turn a blind eye to the latecomers." What does the idiom mean?
"Turn a blind eye" means to deliberately ignore something you've noticed -- not a literal statement about eyesight.
Concord (subject-verb agreement)
- A singular subject takes a singular verb: "The student writes every day."
- A plural subject takes a plural verb: "The students write every day."
- Subjects joined by "and" are usually plural: "Musa and Ada are here."
- Subjects joined by "or"/"nor" agree with the nearer subject: "Neither the teacher nor the students were ready."
- Collective nouns (team, family, government) usually take a singular verb when acting as one unit: "The team is winning."
- Indefinite pronouns like "everyone," "everybody," "each," and "nobody" are always singular: "Everyone is present."
Example 3: Choose the correct option: "Neither of the answers ___ correct."
"Neither" is singular even though it refers to two things, so the verb must be singular: "is correct," not "are correct."
Tense and aspect
Tense errors are one of the most common JAMB traps -- especially mixing past and present within one sentence, and misusing the present perfect (have/has + past participle) for an action still linked to now.
Example 4: Choose the correct option: "By the time we arrived, the meeting ___ already ___."
This describes one past action completed before another past action, which needs the past perfect: "had already started," not "has already started" or "already starts."
Prepositions
Many JAMB errors involve prepositions fixed to particular words (collocations) rather than logic -- these must be memorised: "married to" (not "with"), "different from" (not "than," in formal English), "responsible for," "capable of," "interested in," "arrive at/in" (not "arrive to").
Example 5: Choose the correct option: "He is very good ___ mathematics."
"Good at" is the fixed collocation -- "good in" or "good on" are not standard here.
Active and passive voice
To change active to passive: move the object of the active sentence to the front, add a form of "be" + past participle, and (optionally) add "by + the original subject."
Example 6: Change to passive voice: "The committee approved the budget."
The object "the budget" moves to the front: "The budget was approved by the committee."
Direct and indirect (reported) speech
When reporting speech, tenses usually shift one step back (present becomes past, past becomes past perfect), and pronouns/time words change to fit the new speaker's perspective ("today" becomes "that day," "tomorrow" becomes "the next day").
Example 7: Change to indirect speech: Ada said, "I am tired today."
The present tense shifts back and "today" changes: Ada said that she was tired that day.
Sentence types
- Simple sentence: one independent clause, e.g. "The rain stopped."
- Compound sentence: two independent clauses joined by "and," "but," "or," or a semicolon, e.g. "The rain stopped, and the sun came out."
- Complex sentence: an independent clause plus a dependent clause introduced by a word like "because," "although," "when," or "since" -- e.g. "The match was cancelled because the rain did not stop."