Editor,
The exam for the post of JE under the RWD by the APPSC was unsatisfactory in nature for a student who works hard to secure a job to survive. There are some flaws which, if taken into account, can minimize the chances of malpractice and a student can get their due credit for their hard work. These include:
1) The recent approach adopted by the APPSC to conduct recruitment test for every exam they conduct to shortlist the candidates for mains exam is appreciable to some extent. But when it comes to MCQ type as adopted in recruitment test, especially in the recent JE exam, there were no negative marking for the same. In this cutthroat competition, MCQ type questions without any negative marking are like you are batting a ball with blindfolded eyes; if you get lucky you hit the ball. Now every other person will argue that if you have prepared well enough you will make it, but put some logic in it. A person with knowledge will be knocked out of the competition just because some candidate randomly answered the questions. Give a thought.
2) No doubt the commission tries its level best to curb any malpractice during exam, but the fact states that most of the exam centres are not even equipped with mobile jammers.
3) The APPSC should learn from the APSSB. The recent LDC, JSA exams conducted by them was very appreciable in many aspects. They shut down internet connection, there was proper negative marking, but the most important of all was that the APSSB adopted one booklet one OMR sheet, inserted into the pre-packed questions booklet. So there is no chance of extra OMR sheet being manipulated and submitted.
4) Lastly, the answer keys and the OMR sheets of the candidates should be uploaded for a student to cross-verify their marks and answer sheet. This way the APSSB can clear our doubts and assumptions. The APPSC should adopt this system to ensure transparency and accountability in the exam.
These are some of the flaws that I consider need to be taken up by the commission at earliest, as we put years of effort on our studies and due to such anomalies the chances of getting into merit become lesser. We believe the commission is working hard to conduct free and fair exams, and with every passing year, it is advancing towards a more robust system, but till then, we need some rectification to put candidates on merit and not on luck.
An aspirant