Last week the Public Service Commission published the results of the AAP and as expected, a significant number of candidates haven't made it through this stage. I can understand their frustration because I was in that position last year and undoubtedly would've been this year too if an ailment hadn't hindered my participation.
The huge number of applications every year for the limited civil service positions means that the list must be made more manageable. How does one go about separating the wheat from the chaff or the milk from the water as we like to say in our part of the world? The answer is to introduce an exam with a fancy title claiming to test everything from logical reasoning to general knowledge. This so called scientific assessment – apparently meant to ensure 'the survival of the fittest' – guarantees instead, that even deserving candidates are subject to the roll of the dice and 'culled' before they even have a chance to be tested in their area of expertise.
It's no secret that lady luck plays a part in this test and a brief chat with both successful and unsuccessful candidates is likely to affirm this fact for you.Yes, hard work does make you more prepared for AAP and you can condition yourself to make educated guesses at the answers, but the assessment topics means that the luck of the draw is still a factor in your success or lack of it.
It's not just the reliance on good fortune that leaves a lot to be desired but also the relevance of the criteria (General Knowledge, Aptitude) used to gauge a candidate's overall capabilities. Take for example the General Awareness component which constitutes 60% of the test and has a prescribed syllabus by the Public Service Commission (PSC). Take a closer look at it and you come to realize that it is of cosmic proportions, requiring you to know almost everything about everything. Economics? Check. History? Check. Geography. Yes. Art? Covered. Politics? Check. Science and Technology? Yup. International Affairs? Oui. The kitchen sink? Yeah, that too.
Honestly, they might as well do away with the syllabus and tell the candidates to come prepared for everything under the sun. How are our future officials going to able to perform better at their jobs by knowing which way the trade winds blow (another sample question)? In this age of internet and information availability, candidates are required to memorize the sort of information that might have been of questionable value to Christopher Columbus himself.
The Aptitude test, on the other hand, has it's saving graces in the form of the basic quantitative and general mental ability portions but even that tests qualities (or does it?) extraneous to job requirements. But I suppose choosing the right water or mirror images out of a possible four, guessing the number of squares and triangles, coding and decoding gibberish and drawing Venn diagrams is exactly the kind of criteria we should use to justify our selection because these are the skills really needed in the office, not unlike those calculus formulas we learnt in school and have since gone on to become indispensable to us in our daily lives.
The irony of criticizing a system, that I believed I could clear at the first time of asking, is not lost on me and neither is the fact that all this sarcasm can be construed as of a case of sour grapes from a disgruntled job seeker. But looking beyond these trivial considerations, the PSC really could do something more systematic for recruitment, to test for knowledge, competency or skills in a particular area or for a certain position so that those in the service of the nation are more able and specialized.
It would certainly give a boost to inclusion in civil services which must surely be suffering as a result of this testing system. With specialized hiring for fixed disciplines (non-technical) it could even help curb the sometimes arbitrary transfers of officials to different ministries making them jacks of all trades but masters of none.
After all, how many of those selected will remember the useless trivia, ways to decode something or the order of a certain geometric progression even six months from now. I have a feeling that most of our current officials would be left red faced if asked to front up for this type of exam. Actually they should be required to do it without the time constraints because it's not like as if time really matters in a government office anyway. Jokes aside, it will be a logistical nightmare and I won't endear myself to the PSC when I say this but their remit and workload give them enough leeway to design a system that better tests a person's skills and capabilities against requirements for relevant positions.
It's not just the government service but even banks and other private companies who are in on this 'general knowledge and aptitude' act. You'll probably have to give these types of exams in the future for all types of jobs. If you should ever fail you needn't worry because at least you'll end up, like me knowing some pretty useless trivia like who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1978 or the name of everyone to be killed during Kot Parva.
Oh! I almost forgot. The answer to the first question is a helioscope. That's the instrument used to observe the sun. See, I told ya!
gunjan.u@gmail.com
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