{Strategy} UPSC-CSE: The pattern of the Civil Services examination makes a mockery of the UPSC’s demand for ‘depth of understanding’ from candidates
- The Union Public Service Commission’s Civil Services (Main) Examination,
2012, just got over. The results for this phase of the multi-tiered
examination will be declared around March/April, 2013. Based on the
marks scored in this examination, candidates will be shortlisted for the
Personality Test, also known as interview, to be conducted around
April/May, 2013. Based on their performance in the main examination and
the interview, candidates will be recommended for All-India and Central
government services.
- The Constitution has tasked the UPSC with preserving the merit system in
the country. The merit system, as opposed to the spoils system, may be
defined as one in which recruitments are made on the basis of objective
evaluation of skills and knowledge through open examinations.
- The ‘merits’ that UPSC looks for in the candidates are mentioned in its
Notification for the examination, where it is emphasised that no marks
will be allotted for superficial knowledge, and that credit will be
given for orderly, effective and exact expressions.
- The main examination
intends to assess, according to the UPSC, “the overall intellectual
traits and depth of understanding of the candidates rather than merely
the range of their information and memory.”
- Even a brief analysis of the huge number of questions asked, length of
answers stipulated and the three-hour time limit raises doubts about
whether it is possible to find a candidate’s “overall intellectual
traits and depth of understanding” through this type of examination. In
fact, it seems the examination system and the stated desired outcome are
quite incompatible.
- For instance, the General Studies papers are common for all candidates.
This year’s GS Paper I contained 33 questions requiring answers ranging
from 250 to 10 words. In other words, candidates are expected to write a
total of around 3,000 words within three hours to answer 33 questions.
- How realistic is that? A normal student may struggle to put together
3,750 words, legibly written, on a pre-selected subject within three
hours. It should be noted here that these 3,750 words are to be expended
not on one question, but on 20 very different questions with no time
given to think through them. It is unrealistic to expect candidates to
show their true intellectual traits and depth of understanding in the
answers they write in the short time given, on so many tricky questions.
- In GS I, a 250-word question asks
for a “critical examination of the issues involved in the context of the
growing demands for the ban of Endosulfan in the country. What, in your
view, should be done in the matter?” Another question asking for a
150-word answer is: “There is an urgent need for the Planning Commission
to revise the chapter on health in the 12th Plan document. Comment.” As should be evident, these are not very easy questions. Good answers to
these questions require nuance and complex arguments, which in turn
require thinking and time, even for someone well-versed with the
subject. Framed with more time at hand, the answers to these questions
may indeed help analyse a candidate’s intellectual traits and depth of
understanding. But the problem is that the three-hour time limit does
not allow for thinking, or even for basic organisation of thought. In
the Civil Services (Main) examination, time is such that if you start
thinking, you are in trouble.
- How do candidates cope? Given the severely limited time given, one often
has no choice but to cram and mug up so that you have as much
information as you can on your fingertips. You practise writing
continuously for speed and flow. You make notes and diagrams, or buy
material from coaching centres.
- Weighted down by the clock, candidates usually write whatever
comes to their mind. Some say that they gave opinions in their answers
that on second thought, they would have reversed. That means the
candidate’s answers often do not reflect his or her considered opinion.
- Hence, while the questions may be good, the circumstances, especially
the severely limited time relative to the number of words required, do
not allow for proper answers to be given. The answers, written in a
hurry, often give a misleading and deceptive account of the candidate’s
‘intellectual traits’. Add to this the requirement of mastering not one
but two subjects, as part of two optional papers.
- All this load of work
makes a mockery of the Commission’s pious demands for ‘depth of
understanding’ from candidates. It all boils down to hard work,
perseverance, tenacity, consistency, good memory, and good coaching
notes.
- As in previous years, around 1,000 candidates will eventually make the
cut in this year’s examination cycle, counted from the highest mark
until the vacancies are filled. They will be put through a gruelling
training regimen and inducted into service. Some will shine. Others will
be just mediocre, jack of all trade-types, good for gruelling routine,
file-shuffling work. As for the deep-going, analysing, intellectual
types that the UPSC professes to want, they would be lost in the rush.
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