BCS preliminary test in new format

The Public Service Commission (PSC) will announce the preliminary tests for the 35th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations in a new format.

Currently, job seekers have to sit a one-hour-long, 100-mark MCQ exam in the preliminary test administered by the PSC.

Now, the new format will be of two hours and 200 marks.

PSC Chairman Ekram Ahmed told bdnews24.com that they would issue the circular of the 35th BCS exam's preliminary tests as soon as the BCS recruitment rules were amended.

Public administration secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury said that the President and Prime Minister have approved the amendment.

"The SRO (statutory regulatory order) over the amendment will be issued within one or two days," he told bdnews24.com.

Usually, the PSC issues BCS exam circulars at the beginning of the year.

PSC chairman says they are ready to administer the tests, but the delay was due to the pending amendment.

"We are prepared, as soon as the ministry issues the SRO we will announce the circular," he said.

State minister for public administration Ismat Ara Sadique told a Parliament session on Feb 9 that the 35th BCS will appoint 1,749 people.

The 35th BCS preliminaries will be a two-hour 200-mark MCQ test.

The application form will now cost Tk 700, up Tk 200 from last year.
But the price for underprivileged groups and people with disabilities has been reduced by Tk 150, a public administration ministry official said.

The official, who wished to be anonymous, told bdnews24.com the pass mark for the viva voce had been raised from 40 percent to 50 percent, while the pass mark for the written test stays the same at 50 percent.

The official said written test scores under 30 percent would be considered a zero score.

Earlier, public administration ministry’s Deputy Secretary Md Halimuzzaman had told bdnews24.com that the Secretarial Committee on Administrative Development Affairs had not made changes in the basic criteria like the applicant’s age and education.

Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, too, said the SRO for the new service rules would be issued since the committee had approved it.

The Public Service Commission in May had sought an amendment to the service rules to the public administration ministry, including changes such as the preliminary tests stretched to 300 points.

The ministry vetted the proposal and sent it to the secretarial committee on May 11. The committee decided on 200 points.

After the approval of the state minister for public administration it was sent back to PSC.

PSC then sent it to the law ministry for vetting, and final approval was then obtained from the prime minister and the president. Now, an SRO will be issued to give effect to the amendments.