Agga

NOTICE

Equalisation of scores in SSC Examinations

Staff Selection Commission has been conducting various examinations in multiple batches because of large number of candidates and difficulties in getting adequate educational institutions for holding the examinations in a single batch. For perhaps the first time in its history, the number of applicants in a single examination exceeded one million when the Combined Higher Secondary Level Examination, 2010 for the recruitment of Lower Division Clerks and Data Entry Operators, elicited response from over 16 lakh candidates, with app. 21% of them applying online. This would require the Examination, rescheduled on 27 & 28.11.2010 (in view of Common Wealth Games), to be held in at least three batches. The Commission, with the help of experts, has striven to construct question papers of comparable difficulty level. While such an exercise is theoretically possible, in practice it is impossible to have two or more question papers of identical difficulty levels. Even if the difficulty levels of question papers vary slightly, candidates taking more difficult papers may be at a disadvantage viz-a-vis others. Therefore, there is a need for equating of the marks in examinations involving multiple batches and question papers.

2.

The Commission had examined the views of an Expert Group,

constituted by it with the approval of Government of India in 2009, on this issue. The Commission had placed before the Expert Group that the technique to be followed for equating should be transparent, easily comprehensible to the candidates, acceptable to experts and prove itself in Courts of Law if and

when challenged.

This was accepted by the Expert Group which further

advised the Commission to place a paper on the technique on its website for adequate time, give publicity to such placement through the media, invite comments, observations and suggestions and decide on adopting the technique thereafter.

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