Somebody in a WhatsApp group is selling the official post UTME past questions for your school. Save your money. There is nothing official about what they are selling, and the honest version of that sentence is the one thing they will never tell you.
This came straight from a real student. She is preparing for her screening, she met consultants charging her for past questions, and she asked us whether to pay. The answer we gave her is the answer in this post.
Why nobody can sell you the official paper
Here is the part that settles the whole argument. We searched, and we could not find a single Nigerian university that publishes its official post UTME past questions anywhere. Not on the school portal, not in a bookshop, not through an agent.
That is deliberate. Most schools now run their screening by computer, and the question banks are not released after the exam. The paper you sat last year is not sitting in a drawer waiting to be sold.
So when a vendor says official, ask one simple question. Official from where? If the school itself does not release the paper, there is no official copy for anybody to sell you.
What you are actually buying
The packages being sold are usually compiled from memory by candidates who wrote the exam in previous years. Someone finishes the screening, writes down the questions they can remember, and those notes get typed up, photocopied and passed around until a consultant puts a price on them.
Some of it is close to what was asked. Plenty of it is not. Answers are often wrong, the format may be years out of date, and there is no marking scheme behind it. Worse, you are usually asked to pay before you see anything, so you cannot even judge the quality of what you are buying.
Abeg, do not hand over money for a photocopied guess.
Where to get post UTME past questions free
Everything you actually need is already free. The classroom section of myschool.ng carries free past questions arranged by subject and by year, and it includes a CBT practice mode with a clock, which matters because most screenings are now computer based and timed.
There is one more free option, and it is ours. The OLIVE student app carries a JAMB question bank you can drill and get tested on, with your score in front of you, at no cost. Since most screenings retest your UTME subjects, JAMB style questions are exactly the right practice for them.
Your JAMB preparation materials still count too. For most schools, the screening leans heavily on the same subjects you wrote in UTME, so the textbooks and notes you used a few months ago are not retired yet.
Between a free question bank with a timer and a paid bundle compiled from somebody’s memory, the free option is not just cheaper. It is better.
What matters more than any question bank
Past questions are practice material. They are not intelligence about what will be asked this year. The only source that can tell you your screening format is your own school, through its official portal or admission notice.
Some schools test only your UTME subjects. Others add a general paper with mathematics or current affairs. Do not take any blog’s word for it, and do not take a vendor’s word for it either. Log into your school’s screening portal, read the notice, and print your pass when it is available. The stale dates and formats sitting on education blogs mislead candidates every single year.
If you have not started preparing at all, our guide on how to prepare and pass your post UTME walks through the whole season step by step.
A drill routine that beats any paid bundle
Here is the routine we built for the student who asked. It works around real life, including work during the day.
Every night, run one timed drill of about twenty questions from the free bank. Use the clock. Speed under pressure is half of what a CBT screening tests.
Keep a wrong answer log. Every question you miss goes into a notebook with the correct answer and one line on why you missed it. That log becomes your personal revision list, and it is worth more than any bundle for sale.
Rotate your subjects across the week, give extra time to any subject that is new to you, then sit one full mock every Saturday. Sunday is only for reviewing the wrong answer log. Since most screenings now hold online or at computer centres, run through our device and mock test checklist before the real thing.
The rules before you pay anybody for anything
Admission season is harvest season for people who profit from fear. So hold these rules, and share them with anyone in your house who is writing a screening this year.
Never pay for study material you have not seen. Any honest seller can show you sample pages first. If they refuse, walk away.
Never send money to anybody in your DMs for admission materials or admission help. No genuine university process runs through a personal account.
Only pay screening fees through the route your school’s official website names. We covered how to spot a fake portal in our guide on the post UTME payment scam, and it pairs with this post. One protects your money from fake portals, this one protects it from fake study materials.
And nobody, anywhere, can upgrade your score for a fee. That one is always a scam.
Keep your money for what actually costs money
The real costs are coming. Acceptance fees, registration, accommodation, textbooks. Every naira you keep now is a naira available when your admission lands. You can confirm anything about your exam or institution directly through JAMB’s official website rather than through a stranger with a price list.
So no, do not pay for post UTME past questions. Practise free, drill nightly, read your own school’s notice, and walk into that hall prepared.
Need a hand this admission season?
DDE answers student questions every week, free, and we publish the answers so the next person does not have to ask. If you are stuck on CAPS, screening or anything admission related, send us a message. If your friends are being charged for post UTME past questions right now, send them this post before they pay.
For a shorter daily habit, the Post-UTME evening drill gives you one set to finish in an evening.