Editor,
Through the columns of your esteemed daily, I would like to highlight an issue regarding the preliminary examination conducted recently. The preliminary phase being an OMR-based examination makes pen the most crucial tool because, at the end of the day, the inability to fill the bubbles on the OMR sheets in time and in a proper manner would render anyone’s hard work useless.
As per the official instructions, personal belongings other than admit card and identity card were restricted and hence the provision of pens became the responsibility of the commission as per its own accords. However, on the day of the examination (the most prestigious examination of Arunachal Pradesh), the pens provided were way below standard.
We were told that the ink had frozen due to the cold weather, therefore we were given new sets of instructions by the invigilators, moments before the commencement of the examination:
- Rub the pen between your palms.
- And if that doesn’t work, take the refill out and rub it between your palms and check if it is working.
All of the candidates with defective pens were panic-stricken at that moment. By the time I had started filling my details on my answer sheet after being given a working pen by an invigilator, it was already past 9 am and it is no exaggeration when I state that I started attempting the questions 5 minutes later than others and it took me a lot of time to finally calm my nerves.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those invigilators for having handled the unprecedented situation calmly and in the best possible way that they could. I do not intend to play a blame game here; rather, I wish to bring to the commission’s attention this incident, so that they formulate proper measures for the next stage of the examination before releasing the official guidelines for the candidates. Mains is a written examination and repetition of such blunder is bound to affect the candidates.
I hope that my concern reaches the members of the commission.
Nyari