INTERVIEW: How AI, my parents helped me – UTME highest scorer

On Monday, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) declared Daniella Owoeye the highest scorer in the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). The teenager topped the chart of the ten highest scorers with 372 marks. But from the depth of her preparation, the achievement is undoubtedly well deserved.

In this interview with TheCable’s IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI, the teenager takes a deep dive into the rigorous preparation and demanding journey that led to her UTME success. She says the biggest factor for her was not just parental support, but a mindset shift, because “big schools don’t define success”.

TheCable: So many people don’t know much about you yet. Tell us about yourself.
Owoeye: I am Owoeye Daniella Jesudunsin. I am 16 years old. For my primary education, I attended Royal Standard International School. And for my junior secondary school, I attended Universal Success Academy. For my senior secondary school, I attended EFVP Wisdom Strength Model School.
TheCable: At any point during your primary or secondary school education, did you have a double promotion?

Owoeye: Yes, I did. But my parents are not the type who usually want extra promotion and all of that. They believe I should follow the due process from one class to the other, so I wouldn’t miss out on any necessary knowledge I need to acquire. But there was a time I was double-promoted from primary 4 to primary 6 in my primary school.At that point, they felt that since oftentimes the primary 5 curriculum and syllabus were kind of related to that of primary 6, because they were both preparatory classes for junior secondary school level one. They said that since the primary 5 topics were also covered in my primary 6, they allowed that.
TheCable: Did you hold any leadership positions in school?
Owoeye: In my junior secondary school, in JSS3, I was the head girl. I held the same position in SS3.

TheCable: On Monday, you came into the limelight shortly after JAMB announced you as the highest scorer in this year’s UTME. Can you tell us how you felt when you received the news?

Owoeye: When I heard about my success, I was very happy, and it was actually a moment to be proud of. I felt grateful to God. My joy knew no bounds. I didn’t even know how to express myself at that moment. I was kind of emotional and all of that. So, I was very happy and thankful to God.TheCable: Was it something you had been expecting?
Owoeye: I would say that after checking my UTME results, I was expecting to be among the top ten, or at least the top three.

I was at home alone when I got the news. I wasn’t even with my dad. My parents called and notified me, but someone had already sent the news to me while I was doing something else and wasn’t online to read it. But immediately after they notified me, I followed up from there.Owoeye: My preparation was topic-by-topic based. I used the JAMB syllabus, and I feel that’s where many students are missing it and getting it wrong. They try to cover a lot of textbooks, and some of them do not take the JAMB syllabus seriously.

Instead of downloading the soft copy, I printed everything for physics, chemistry, biology, and English. Each time I finished a topic, I ticked it off and treated it based on what JAMB highlighted.

I also used past questions to generate notes aside from my online tutorials. I did this consistently. I consulted AI to summarise the notes for the parts that seemed bulky, and it was really helpful.

I had the notes where I jotted my errors, my mistakes, and all of that. I did past questions and CBT practices every day. So, I used QuizBoots.

I joined a group that conducted 100-question quizzes every day. They started with chemistry. That lasted for not less than two months. Then, for the remaining subjects, it came up later on, but not less than one month later. It lasted for nothing less than one month. It was 100 questions daily.

Aside from that, I was revising my notes and reading. I also did the Test Readers Weekly Mock Challenge on Saturdays. I did that, and I also had a particular time I set for my own personal mock challenge aside from that one. So, I did a lot of that.

I watched videos. Although my online tutorial notes were self-explanatory and well-explained, and the tutors made the classes lively and superbly structured, I didn’t stop there. I searched for videos online on YouTube and watched a lot of them.

I want to thank my parents for that because they made internet data and everything available. So, I searched for a lot of videos and tried to understand concepts. I wasn’t the type who just saw questions and crammed them like that because I knew that method wouldn’t even work for me at all.

So, I studied concepts regardless of the time it took me to understand them. After understanding the concepts, I recorded them and explained them to myself as if I were teaching. I even used layman’s language and added real-life situations and fictitious ideas to make it practical and help me remember everything I did.

I used a lot of materials. I joined some groups that helped me with quizzes on WhatsApp and Telegram. I think that’s all I remember for now.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN THE CABLE