Andhra Pradesh   

The scare of negative marking

Gopala Krishna

EducationPlus As the purpose of the Preliminary Examination for Civil Services is to pick up serious-minded candidates, it is considered expedient to introduce negative marking for wrong answers.

A major change that has been incorporated in the pattern of the Civil Services Examination from this year is the introduction of penalty marks for wrong answers or negative marking at the Preliminary examination.

The Civil Services Examination is conducted in two parts, i.e., the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination.

The Preliminary Examination serves as a screening test for the Main Examination. When the system was introduced, there was criticism from some quarters that an objective type examination was amenable to guessing and by sheer probability a candidate could score marks even by guessing. However, these fears were unfounded.

System reviewed

The Satish Chandra Committee reviewed the entire scheme of the examination in 1988 and made significant recommendations to improve the system of recruitment. One such recommendation was the introduction of negative marking (or penalty marks for wrong answers) at the Preliminary Examination.

What is the rationale behind negative marking? While answering the test booklets, there is a possibility that a candidate may have no knowledge of the subject but can make a guess in the multiple choices.

As per the existing practice, if the answer is correct, he gets credit for it but for a wrong answer, there is no deduction of marks.

Since the purpose of the Preliminary Examination is to pick up competent and serious-minded candidates, it is considered expedient to introduced negative marking for wrong answers.

The Satish Chandra Committee recommended a 50% penalty for wrong answers. However, the UPSC deferred the introduction of negative marking.

From this year, this recommendation is being implemented with a reduced penalty i.e., 1/3rd of the marks (0.33) assigned to a question will be deducted in case of wrong answer as a penalty.

This change has been major source of anxiety to most of the serious students ever since it has been announced.

The General Studies paper at the Preliminary Examination covers a wide range of areas and the questions are set in such a fashion that the candidate has no choice but to resort to guessing.

In the present scenario, wrong guessing leads to penalties and this is the main source of anxiety.

`Guessing' controversy

Should the aspirant stop guessing? There is probably more controversy surrounding the issue of guessing than any other.

If you ask several people for advise, you will surely get conflicting answers. Guesses are of two types: Wild guesses (where the answer sheet is marked at random hoping that some marks will be scored by probability) and educated guesses (where the candidate is able to eliminate at least two of the four choices and has to choose between two choices).

It is unlikely that you will profit from wild guessing. Educated guessing, on the other hand, can have a positive effect on your score and could be the lifeline between success and failure.

In general it pays to make educated guesses.

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