The National Common Entrance Examination is eligible to pupils in their final grade of primary school (Primary 6) who are between 10–13-years-old. Every student within the bracket has to sit for their Common Entrance Examination to be admitted to a federal government secondary—or unity—school. The Common Entrance seeks to select the best candidates from every State into Federal Unity secondary schools. There are just 106 Federal Unity secondary schools in Nigeria and the competition is fierce.

The exam is out of 200 marks. When the results are released, the subjects are grouped into four segments and the marks available are below:

Every State in Nigeria has a different weighted pass mark for the common entrance exam which is designed to take into account the wide differentials between Nigerian states.

In addition, to weighted State cut-offs, the State pass mark applicable to an individual child is dependent not upon which State they sat the exam, but the State that the child’s father is from. For example, if a child sits the common entrance exam in Ogun state but their father is from Kastina, the cut-off marks for the child will be based upon the Kastina State cut-off not the Ogun State cut-off.