The RCSC awarded an extra point for wrong options in the answers

An extra point awarded due to a clerical error by the Royal Civil Service Commission in its preliminary examination has increased the number of graduates qualifying the preliminary examination to 1,024 from 927.

Following an appeal from three individuals – a college student, a public servant and a graduate, on August 25 for verification of question 63 in the problem solving category, the commission re-declared yesterday that a clerical error had resulted in incorrect answers to the question. The commission awarded a point each for the question to 3,231 of the 3,409 graduates that appeared the PE.

The three individuals are Rohit Upreti, a graduate of Asia Pacific University in Malaysia, Tandin Dorji, an employee of the National Pension and Provident Fund (NPPF), and Ngawang Tobgay, a student at the Royal Institute for Management.

Ngawang Tobgay said that they discussed on the social media application, WeChat, about the question and the appeal letter with students who scored 49. “Many were unaware of the wrong question and when they knew they wanted to go forward with the letter. There were about 43 of them on the group chat.”

Rohit Upreti, who appeared the preliminary examination, said that when he realised that the question had no right answer, he memorised the question and wrote it down later. “We thought that the RCSC might have known about the error and we were expecting that the commission would do something.”

They decided to appeal after they did not hear from the commission. In a press release the commission issued yesterday, it stated that question 63 would be considered null and void.

Of the 102 students who scored 49 percent in the preliminary examination (PE) this year, 97 received an extra point for the question and qualifying for the RCSC’s main examination. The cut off marks for the prelims was 50 percent.

The commission however didn’t award the extra point to178 graduates. An official said that these 178 did not receive the mark for the question as they had already been awarded the point earlier. “Although the answer options are wrong, there is a key answer, which the machine will detect as the right answer. These 178 students already got a mark for choosing the key answer.”

He said that five students of the 178 students who did not receive a point for the question this time had scored 49 percent.

A graduate from Sharda University in India, Tashi Nyimdem, said that she had scored 49 percent and with the change, there is an opportunity for her. “I am glad that some of our friends went forward with the appeal which has helped more than 90 students,” she said. “The RCSC also didn’t try to ignore the issue and reconsidered it.”

The commission declared the prelims results on August 24. A RCSC official said that the commission would try and inform the 97 students about their results through SMS. The commission said that there had been no such cases in the past and they regret the inconveniences caused due to the mistake.

The commission re-declared the results yesterday afternoon on their website and social media page. With the re-declaration, the pass percentage for prelims has now risen to 30 percent from 27 percent.

Phurpa Lhamo

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