Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Public Service Commission's decision to introduce UPSC-model preliminary examinations from December 2020 to quicken the announcement of results has done exactly the opposite: delay the results.
The PSC has now postponed the final exams for lower division clerks and last grade servants by nearly a month. Reason: the Commission has not been able to announce the results of the preliminary examinations held in five stages between January and May this year.
The PSC on Wednesday announced that the final exams for LDC posts, scheduled for October 23, will be postponed to November 20, and the final exams for LSG, boat lascar and seaman, scheduled for October 30, will now be held on November 27.
The preliminary or elimination tests were held for 192 LGS and LDC posts, for which the 10th standard was the minimum qualification. Nearly 40 lakh aspirants had taken the tests. Top sources in the PSC said that results could not be published on time because of the shortage of experts required to carry out the "normalisation" or "standardisation" of marks.
Standardisation is necessitated because the same test, thanks to a large number of aspirants, is conducted many times, each with a different set of questions and a different level of complexity. Since the complexity of question papers differ, it is important that the marks reflect a certain common standard.
While one question paper would allow the best to score 92 marks, a more complex set of questions will limit the highest score to 80. So 80 marks of a candidate answering a tougher set of questions will be equivalent to the 92 scored by the top candidate writing the relatively easier question paper.
This standardisation process has not yet been completed, and therefore, the final exams have been postponed.
Before August 2020, there were no screening tests. Lakhs appear for a single job test; 19-20 lakh for every test with 10th as a minimum qualification, 15 lakh for every test with plus two as the basic requirement, and 5-7 lakh for every test that requires at least a degree.
The prelims were introduced to winnow out candidates through a preliminary test and considerably limit the candidates appearing for the final test in specific job categories. Problem was, the conduct of the prelims turned out to be unwieldy.
