Dimapur | August 5 : Another high profile Nagaland Public Service Commission annual (2011) preliminary examination has been successfully conducted. Thousands of aspiring civil servants had appeared, the number of correct answers they entered on the 200 ‘multiple choice questions’ will decide their fate.
In the aftermath of the exams, the hallowed NPSC was however, in for yet another round of embarrassment with the candidates themselves pointing out blatant spelling and grammar errors in the set of questions, while the options to some of the questions did not match. If that was not enough, even the answer keys published by the commission on July 1 had so many wrong entries. Quite a few of the candidates had also written in the newspapers appealing the NPSC to rectify the anomalies.
The following are some of the corrected answers forwarded by another candidate, who is in possession of ‘Question Booklet Series A’.
The correct answers to question number 51, 77, 96, 99, 144 and 181 in this series according to the candidate’s research are – ‘Narasimham Committee (refer ‘Indian Economy by Sundaram); India is placed first in respect of cow milk production (refer Tata McGraw-Hill 2011 edition); the network which connect systems within a local area network is LAN; Slumdog Millionaire won the oscars in 2009; when the value of exports exceed the value of imports, it is termed as: favourable balance of trade; the system of panchayati Raj involves: the village, block and district levels’ respectively and not as entered in the answer keys.
The candidate also mentioned three questions, based on reasoning and logic. The answers to these questions given in the answer keys are doubtful, the candidate said. The answer to question number 183 ‘Find the rectangles in the given figure’, comes to 10 as against 13, 14, 15 and 16 mentioned in the options. “How they arrived at 14, we would like it to be clarified,”the candidate appealed.
Referring to question number 199, he said: “As per the condition given in the question both (options) B & D are correct in all probability as against C (entered as the correct option in the answer key to this question).” “If C is correct would like to know the reasoning behind the answer,” the candidate stated. That particular question was: ‘Six girls are sitting in a circle facing to the centre.
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They are P, Q, R, S, T, V. T is not between Q and S but some other. P is next to the left of V. R is 4 th to the right of P. Which of the following is true?’
Coming to the Venn diagram of question number 102, the candidate said that the answer provided to that is also doubtful.
The right figure (answer) to question number 158 (192 in Series B) is also disputed. The question read: “India has _______ of the total world population.” According to the provisional census data of 2011, India accounts for 17.50 percent of the world population whereas the options provided to the query were – 17.80%, 16.90%, 18.20% and 17.90%.
Two other candidates who jointly wrote in the local dailies challenged the legitimacy of the query, ‘The administrative headquarters of Naga Hills district was shifted to Kohima from Samakuting’ (Chumukedima) in the year:”. They had this to say: “The administrative headquarter of Naga Hills was never transferred from Samuketing to Kohima. It was transferred from Samuketing to Wokha and then from Wokha to Kohima in the year 1878. Hence, the question is erroneous. (Q no.93 in series A and Q no. 111 in series B).”
The NPSC has stated during a seminar on July 1 that no public service commission question paper can be without errors since it involves a large number of optional subjects. The argument holds ground but can it forever remain an excuse? One of the candidates this year, in a letter to the local dailies aptly summarised: “A mistake or two is tolerable because to err is human. But anything beyond this is ridiculous.
All these mistakes show the folly of the NPSC and the question setters. Not even a single year has seen a “mistake-free” examination. Almost all the examinations conducted by NPSC have been marred by discrepancies. It is time the Nagas in general and the educated and enlightened youths in particular stand up to this kind of hopelessness. The mistakes should be rectified at the earliest and all the deserving examinees who have answered correctly be awarded marks accordingly.”
In the aftermath of the exams, the hallowed NPSC was however, in for yet another round of embarrassment with the candidates themselves pointing out blatant spelling and grammar errors in the set of questions, while the options to some of the questions did not match. If that was not enough, even the answer keys published by the commission on July 1 had so many wrong entries. Quite a few of the candidates had also written in the newspapers appealing the NPSC to rectify the anomalies.
The following are some of the corrected answers forwarded by another candidate, who is in possession of ‘Question Booklet Series A’.
The correct answers to question number 51, 77, 96, 99, 144 and 181 in this series according to the candidate’s research are – ‘Narasimham Committee (refer ‘Indian Economy by Sundaram); India is placed first in respect of cow milk production (refer Tata McGraw-Hill 2011 edition); the network which connect systems within a local area network is LAN; Slumdog Millionaire won the oscars in 2009; when the value of exports exceed the value of imports, it is termed as: favourable balance of trade; the system of panchayati Raj involves: the village, block and district levels’ respectively and not as entered in the answer keys.
The candidate also mentioned three questions, based on reasoning and logic. The answers to these questions given in the answer keys are doubtful, the candidate said. The answer to question number 183 ‘Find the rectangles in the given figure’, comes to 10 as against 13, 14, 15 and 16 mentioned in the options. “How they arrived at 14, we would like it to be clarified,”the candidate appealed.
Referring to question number 199, he said: “As per the condition given in the question both (options) B & D are correct in all probability as against C (entered as the correct option in the answer key to this question).” “If C is correct would like to know the reasoning behind the answer,” the candidate stated. That particular question was: ‘Six girls are sitting in a circle facing to the centre.
Continued on page 5
They are P, Q, R, S, T, V. T is not between Q and S but some other. P is next to the left of V. R is 4 th to the right of P. Which of the following is true?’
Coming to the Venn diagram of question number 102, the candidate said that the answer provided to that is also doubtful.
The right figure (answer) to question number 158 (192 in Series B) is also disputed. The question read: “India has _______ of the total world population.” According to the provisional census data of 2011, India accounts for 17.50 percent of the world population whereas the options provided to the query were – 17.80%, 16.90%, 18.20% and 17.90%.
Two other candidates who jointly wrote in the local dailies challenged the legitimacy of the query, ‘The administrative headquarters of Naga Hills district was shifted to Kohima from Samakuting’ (Chumukedima) in the year:”. They had this to say: “The administrative headquarter of Naga Hills was never transferred from Samuketing to Kohima. It was transferred from Samuketing to Wokha and then from Wokha to Kohima in the year 1878. Hence, the question is erroneous. (Q no.93 in series A and Q no. 111 in series B).”
The NPSC has stated during a seminar on July 1 that no public service commission question paper can be without errors since it involves a large number of optional subjects. The argument holds ground but can it forever remain an excuse? One of the candidates this year, in a letter to the local dailies aptly summarised: “A mistake or two is tolerable because to err is human. But anything beyond this is ridiculous.
All these mistakes show the folly of the NPSC and the question setters. Not even a single year has seen a “mistake-free” examination. Almost all the examinations conducted by NPSC have been marred by discrepancies. It is time the Nagas in general and the educated and enlightened youths in particular stand up to this kind of hopelessness. The mistakes should be rectified at the earliest and all the deserving examinees who have answered correctly be awarded marks accordingly.”
