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No more mandatory optional subject in PCS, 2 new papers introduced
Instead, two papers of general knowledge have been introduced to quiz the candidates about the state in which they wish to serve.
As the state cabinet has done away with the mandatory optional subject in the Combined State/Upper Subordinate Services (Main) Examination, popularly known as PCS (Main), aspirants and subject experts believe that the road to success has become fairer as the move will remove scaling/moderation aspect of the exam.
The decision was taken at a recent meeting of the state cabinet chaired by chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Instead, two papers of general knowledge have been introduced to quiz the candidates about the state in which they wish to serve.
President of the Pratiyogi Chatra Sangharsh Samiti, a body representing students preparing for competitive exams, Avnish Pandey said the biggest advantage of this change was that it’d get rid of the scaling/moderation aspect of PCS.
Scaling converts the score of one exam to the score scale of another exam to bring uniformity. These techniques are applied to UPSC scoring by applying them to optional subjects.
“Aspirants who failed remain dejected as they feel that the reason behind their failure is scaling/moderation and not their poor performance. Now, the result will be fairer than before,” he added.
Subject experts believe that the latest move of introducing two new papers based on UP, will, however, make it difficult for candidates who primarily focus on UPSC Civil Services Examination and use PCS as a secondary option.
Till now, in both exams, the candidates were required to choose optional subjects, the syllabus of which were the same for both exams. Due to this, those who reached the interview round of the CSE found it easy to qualify the PCS. “But now, all candidates will be required to prepare separately for the UP special papers. Many may skip the exam altogether,” said Naveen Pankaj, a well-known civil services coach.
Since the last few years, the issue of scaling in the UPPSC mains exam had been a bone of contention. The process was introduced by the commission in 1996 to introduce parity between different subjects.
Through this exercise, raw marks awarded in different subjects are converted to a ‘score’ on a common scale by applying a statistical formula. The ‘raw marks’ when converted to a common scale are known as the ‘scaled marks’.
What aspirants say
“The abolition of optional subjects is completely in the interest of aspirants. This will end the discrimination based on the language in which the exam is being attempted, and scaling. Candidates from all backgrounds will be able to compete on an equal footing,” Mohd Rizvi said.
“The state government’s decision to remove the compulsion of the optional subject will prove to be a logical and encouraging step. Aspirants opting to write the exam in Hindi medium and chose any humanities subject were discouraged by the commission’s scaling process,” Om Pandey said.
