One Day, One Shift, No Normalisation: UPPSC PCS, RO/ARO Exam Aspirants Protest Over New Exam Format – News18

Last Updated:November 12, 2024, 09:38 IST

UPPSC decided to conduct the examination in more than one day and adopt the process of normalisation in the evaluation due to the non-availability of examination centres

Aspirants of Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) PCS Prelims 2024 and Review Officer and Assistant Review Officer (RO/ARO) preliminary examinations have been protesting against the exam formats. Thousands of candidates took part in the protest on November 11 demanding “One Day, One Shift, No Normalization”. As per media reports, the protesters broke the barricade and reached inside the commission office. Following a clash, the police used force to stop the protestors.

The UPSC announced new dates for the preliminary exams of PCS and RO/ARO, after which the candidates started protesting against it. The candidates demand that these exams should be held in two days and more than one shift. Apart from this, normalization formula should not be used for evaluation in the exam. Earlier on October 21, thousands of candidates had staged a sit-in protest outside the commission bulding.

Both the exams of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission are to be held in December. Out of these, the PCS pre exam is scheduled to be conducted on December 7 and 8. These exams will be conducted in 41 districts. The PCS Pre exam will be held from 9:30 am to 11:30 am and the second session exam will be held from 2:30 pm.

Similarly, the preliminary exam of RO/ARO will be held on December 22 and 23. The first shift exam will be held from 9 am to noon and the second shift from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Candidates however are opposing the two days of the exam and demand it be conducted in one day, in one shift.

A total of 5,76,154 candidates have registered for the UPPSC PCS Preliminary Examination 2024. For this, the commission needed a total of 1758 centres in all 75 districts of the state but got only 55 per cent of the centers. The commission got a total of 978 examination centres, in which only 4,35,074 candidates could be examined.

Similarly, a total of 10,76,000 candidates have registered for the RO/ARO exam. For this too, adequate arrangements could not be made. The government has directed that examination centres will be set up only within a radius of 20 km from the Collectorate/Treasury and private colleges will not be made centres. Due to many standards, full examination centres could not be found for this exam as well. The commission decided to conduct the examination in more than one day and adopt the process of normalisation in the evaluation due to the non-availability of examination centres.

UPPSC has also released the evaluation formula for these exams, under which it has been said to apply normalisation formula. Candidates are opposing this too. According to the normalisation formula, to know the percentage score of a candidate, the quotient of the number of all candidates securing equal to or less than the marks obtained by him and the total number of candidates present in that shift should be multiplied by 100. Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission says that with this formula the percentage score of the candidates can be up to six digits after the decimal point.