JAMB syllabus: turn it into a weekly study plan

The JAMB syllabus is the list of topics each UTME subject can test. To turn it into a weekly plan, count your topics, divide them by the weeks you have, study your weakest topics first and keep one day a week for mixed questions. Four subjects with 72 topics and 10 weeks come to about 7 topics a week.

Photo by Angelina Litvin, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Key points

• JAMB lists its syllabus system, IBASS, on jamb.gov.ng. I could not open its syllabus pages, so check the details there yourself.
• Count topics before you plan anything. English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology come to 72 topics in my app's lists.
• How often a topic appears in past questions can help you choose an order. In my Physics questions, 5 of 21 topics hold 44 percent.
• I found no 2027 syllabus change, but JAMB has a committee looking at what the exam tests.

What is the JAMB syllabus, and where do I find it?

It lists the topics and objectives for each subject you can write. JAMB's home page shows IBASS, the Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System, at ibass.jamb.gov.ng. I confirmed that the address exists and carries that name. Its pages load as a JavaScript app that my tools could not read, so I cannot give you the exact clicks or say whether you can download the files.

Many sites share PDFs labelled as the syllabus. Treat them as convenience copies. Compare the year and the topic list with what IBASS shows. Also keep an eye on JAMB's weekly bulletin: the issue of 28 September 2026 reports a committee, inaugurated on 16 September, that is developing a framework for life skills and critical thinking in the UTME. No decision is published.

What are the JAMB recommended textbooks?

I found no single JAMB textbook list covering every subject. The only list I could verify is for Literature in English. A JAMB notice effective from the 2022 UTME names five texts: The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka, Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta, Unexpected Joy at Dawn by Alex Agyei Agyiri and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

That notice is four years old and I have not confirmed it holds for 2027. Check IBASS or ask your school before you buy a book.

How do I count the topics in my JAMB subjects?

Write each subject's topics in a table and count the rows. The count shows how big the job is before you plan a single week.

My app's study guides split the 11 subjects into 209 topics. English has 15, Physics 21, Chemistry 19, Biology 17, Mathematics 20, Economics 22, Geography 21, Commerce 20, CRS 19, Literature 18 and Government 17. That grouping is mine, built for the app, and it is not a copy of JAMB's document. Use it to get a sense of scale and count again from the official list.

Take a candidate writing English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. That is 15 plus 21 plus 19 plus 17, which makes 72 topics.

How do I decide which syllabus topics matter most?

Use how often a topic shows up in past questions as a rough guide. JAMB has not published topic weights that I could find.

In my app, 218 Physics questions are tagged by topic. Light and Optics has 24, Motion and Kinematics 20, Atomic and Nuclear Physics 19, Temperature and Heat 18 and Newton's Laws and Momentum 15. Those five add up to 96 of 218, which is 44 percent. At the other end, Electromagnetic Induction has 2 and Sound has 3. In English, Lexis and Vocabulary has 149 of 541 questions, Idioms 79, Comprehension 73 and Grammar and Concord 67.

The tags are mine, and the questions are old ones. They help you pick a starting order. They are no reason to skip a topic.

How do I build a weekly study plan from the syllabus?

Divide the topics by the weeks you have, then protect time for review. For the example above:

1. Total topics: 72.
2. Weeks for a first pass: 10.
3. Topics a week: 72 divided by 10 is 7.2, so about 7.
4. On five study days, that is one or two topics a day.

Pick the number of weeks from your own calendar. JAMB has not published 2027 dates, so count back from a date you set for yourself and keep a few weeks at the end for revision and timed papers.

Here is the template I would copy.

Day	Job	Example
Monday	New topic, subject one	Physics: Light and Optics
Tuesday	New topic, subject two	Chemistry: Acids, Bases and Salts
Wednesday	New topic, subject three	Biology: Ecology and Ecosystems
Thursday	New topic, English	Lexis and Vocabulary
Friday	Redo last week's misses	From your error log
Saturday	Mixed run of 40 questions	All four subjects
Sunday	Rest, then plan next week	Move any unfinished topics

For each new topic, read the notes, do about 20 questions and log your misses. The routine is in how to use JAMB past questions, and a longer calendar is in the 90 day JAMB study schedule.

Which topics should I study first?

Start with the ones you miss most, then the ones that appear most often. After a week of questions, sort the topics by how many you got wrong and put the worst at the front of next week. Do not leave your weakest subject for the end. The topic you avoid will still be waiting in the exam hall.

How does Etest JAMB CBT use the syllabus topics?

I organised the app's 209 study guides and its questions by topic, so the table above maps onto it directly. The guides work offline, so you can revise without data. The first three topics of every subject are free, and Premium opens all 209.

A notebook with your topic list does the same job. If you have not settled your subjects yet, read how to choose and check your JAMB subject combination first.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I download the JAMB syllabus?

JAMB runs IBASS, the Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System, at ibass.jamb.gov.ng. I could not open its syllabus pages, so I cannot say whether it offers downloads. Third party PDFs exist. Compare their year and topic list with what IBASS shows before you rely on them, because a copy from an earlier year may be out of date.

Has the JAMB syllabus changed for 2027?

I found no announced change. JAMB's bulletin of 28 September 2026 reports a committee looking at life skills and critical thinking in the UTME, and no decision is published. Check IBASS and each weekly bulletin before you assume anything, and treat any site that announces a new syllabus without a JAMB link as a rumour until you see the notice.

How many topics are in each JAMB subject?

It depends on who counts. In my app's study guides, English has 15, Physics 21, Chemistry 19 and Biology 17. That grouping is mine, so use it only for scale. Count again from the official list on IBASS, and write the total at the top of your plan before you divide it by your weeks.

How many weeks do I need to cover the syllabus?

Divide your topic count by the weeks you have. For 72 topics, 10 weeks means about 7 a week. Keep a few weeks at the end for revision and timed papers, because a first pass only takes you through each topic once.

How I wrote this

On 15 October 2026 I checked JAMB's home page, IBASS, its Literature in English notice and its 28 September bulletin, then counted topics and tagged questions in my own app's data files. The IBASS syllabus pages did not load for me. The weekly plan is my own method.

If you want the topic list and the questions side by side, Etest JAMB CBT has both, and the first three topics of each subject are free.