Need to address statistical issues in entrance, recruitment exams: NSC Chairman to government

The government has been called on to form a comprehensive policy on certain statistical issues related to entrance and recruitment exams by Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar, Chairman of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), who argued on Sunday that different agencies conducting their own exams have their own methods that can lead to dissatisfaction among candidates and legal proceedings.Speaking at the 19th Statistics Day organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Karandikar said statistical issues such as negative marking and normalisation of marks in examinations that are being conducted online and see lakhs of candidates should be addressed “appropriately”.

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’The fact that when such a large number (of candidates) appear (for exams), we don’t have computer systems which simultaneously 27 lakh candidates can write,” Karandikar said, referring to an earlier recruitment exam held by the railways. “So we have parallel exams, or exams in phases, different question papers. Then the question comes: how do we compare them? This is a strictly statistical question.”