The Public Service Commission (PSC) is raising the marks and time of the preliminary test in the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations.
Published : 09 May 2014, 09:55 PM
PSC officials said exams with the new marks and time might be introduced from the 35th BCS test.
Commission member Main Uddin Khandakar told bdnews24.com on Friday a proposal to raise the preliminary exam marks to 300 from 100 and time to three hours from one hour is with the public administration ministry.
PSC officials said they initiated the move to cut down on the number of examinees who qualify in the preliminary test to sit written exams.
Khandakar said: “30,000-40,000 candidates are to be selected (for the written test) because of the high pass rate in the preliminary.
“But exams can be conducted properly and without hassles if 20,000-25,000 candidates are picked for the written exams.”
“This is why the proposal to change the preliminary exam method has been made,” he added.
The PSC member said too many jobseekers taking the written test created problems with exam schedule and answer sheet evaluation.
A total of 221,575 job aspirants sat the preliminary test of the 34th BCS and 46,250 of them qualified for the written exams against only 2,052 vacancies.
Khandakar said most of the members of PSC had favoured a two-hour long 200-mark preliminary test.
“I personally believe the ministry will approve 200-mark two-hour exam taking into consideration every aspect. If the proposal is approved, preliminary test under the new method will be held from 35th BCS,” he said.
Senior Secretary to the public administration ministry Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury said they were working on the PSC proposal.
The proposal would be placed in the next meeting of secretaries, he added.
On Jan 30, Abdus Sobhan Sikder, Senior Secretary to the public administration ministry at the time, told bdnews24.com that 1,149 posts had been approved for the 35th BCS.
However, it was not known when the 35th BCS would be advertised.
Several phone calls to the commission chairman and exam controller (cadre) went unanswered.