Respected OPSC Chairman,
Ref:- Advt No 26, 2021-22, ASO Examination
Your Highness, recently OPSC ASO exam was concluded on 27th Aug 2022. It consisted of three papers(GA, Math & Reasoning, Language(Eng & Odia)).
If we assign the difficulty level to all these three papers, then arguably GA was tough, Odia was relatively above standard, and English and Math were super easy.
Now the point is that most of the students have not done so good in GA, despite putting in good effort while preparing for the subject. On the other hand, a section of students who originally prepare for SSC, Banking, etc. totally skipped GA, but since they have a strong precedent of being super strong in Eng and Math, they have outnumbered those section who put their effort equally in all the three papers during their preparation.
In effect, now there are people who totally skipped GA in their preparation and kept on banking their might in Eng and Math as a part of their comprehensive preparation for other exams, so those sections are scoring well above 230 despite making low scores like 10-15 or 20 in General Awareness Paper.
The other section of students who did not plan like that and gave equal weightage while preparing somehow do not match with the SSC, Banking students.
Now what will happen is that these SSC, Banking people might qualify if SECTIONAL CUTOFF is not invoked in ASO. They may not even stay in ASO and after joining ASO after one or two years they might leave this job and will join the profile/services for which they have been originally prepaparing for. But those who originally prepare for ASO might fall short of the cutoff score.
Therefore, we sincerely request you to look into the matter and make it a level playing field for all types of students. Since the pattern was not unified, considering Math & Eng super easy and GA and ODIA difficult, if you invoke a sectional cutoff(30%) in all three Papers, then it will make it equitable for all and that will certainly make a fair evaluation of the things, which would eventually render an equal footing for all types of students.
Invoking a sectional cutoff will also set a right precedent for future examinations and processes, where the students would be compelled to take subjects like GA seriously, otherwise without a sectional cutoff, they will just strategise their position and they will completely leave the GA part, and they will bank upon their Math skill and Eng skill to maximize the score and by doing so they can easily offset their weakness on GA.
As we have gone through the notification of ASO, there is a sectional cutoff clause, of course, it is purely at the discretion of OPSC to invoke it as and when they feel it appropriate. Given the kind of pattern in the recently concluded ASO exam, we think that invoking the section cutoff would be very timely and appropriate to make it more equitable and fair in the selection of candidates for ASO.
Your Highness, we call your attention to appropriate/normalize the uneven pattern of the recently concluded ASO exam with tools like SECTIONAL CUTOFF so that it will set the right precedent for all the other future exams and it will also send a message to all the students that you can not take any subjects for granted, particularly the GA subject where the effort to output ratio is not encouraging in the first place. Without sectional cutoff in exam like ASO, where there is no interview the students will continue to gamble the GA part which is time-intensive and cost-prohibitive as compared to MATH and other subjects.
For any error and typo, please forgive us, Sir, herewith we once again draw your attention to take a call on SECTIONAL CUTOFF to make it fair, equitable, and rational in the selection process of ASO.
Thank you.
Note- GA- General Awareness