Makerere Law pre-entry exam for May 03

By Innocent Anguyo

The Makerere University Academic Registrar, Alfred Namoah Masikye has scheduled this year’s Pre-Entry Examination for admission to the Bachelor of Laws for Saturday May 03.

This examination is a prerequisite to being admitted to the Bachelor of Laws programme for both government and self sponsored students.

The Pre-Entry Examination has a wide scope, covering areas such as aptitude and analytical, comprehension and communication skills, and general knowledge of contemporary issues such as development, politics, economics and technology among others.

In a statement issued on Friday, Masikye said the examination is open to students who scored a minimum of 13 points (for boys) and 12 points (for girls) in the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE).

Interested Diploma Holders, Masikye said must possess at least a second Class or Credit Diploma in any discipline from a recognized institution.

“Mature age applicants must have passed the mature age entry examination (for Bachelor of Laws) for 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic year,” said Masikye in the statement.

As much as graduates in any discipline from a recognized university can sit for the exam, applicants in the categories of person with disabilities and talented sports persons are expected to possess `O’ Certificate (with minimum of 5 passes) plus two principal passes in UACE.

The Closing date for submitting the completed application forms is Friday April 25th.

However, the use of pre-entry exams as a yardstick for selecting students to study Law at Makerere recently attracted criticism from researcher, Dr Robert Wamala who said the outcome of the admission test does not predict competencies required to excel academically in law school.

Dr Wamala, a lecturer at the School of Statistics and Planning, studied students’ performance before and after the introduction of pre-entry exams in 2012.