'Coming up with a uniform formula is important at least for central government-conducted examinations.'
National Statistical Commission Chairman Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar has urged the government to come up with a uniform policy for normalisation of marks and negative marking.
This move is likely to benefit millions of students appearing for various recruitment and entrance examinations across the country.
"A comprehensive effort should be made to create one group, which will bring all stakeholders on board, give thought to this (problem) and come up with one policy. This is strictly a statistical issue and should be addressed appropriately," Karandikar said while speaking at the National Statistics Day on Sunday.
Normalisation of marks is a statistical process used to adjust scores in exams conducted in multiple shifts or sessions, where different question papers may have varying difficulty levels.
The process aims to ensure level playing field for all candidates by accounting for these variations in difficulty.
This will ensure that students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the specific paper they receive.
"Millions of candidates appear for exams. It is not possible to conduct such examinations at one place in one sitting in the traditional way. Hence, computer-based exams become the norm and these often stretch over multiple days and sessions," Karandikar explained.
"This means different question papers for different students. So, the question arises as to how we should compare it. Somehow, each agency goes on its own and declares its own formula, which is different.
"This leads to dissatisfaction among people who don't make it, leading to litigation. This has been going on," added Karandikar.
In December last year, thousands of students had come out in protest against the anticipated normalisation process in the Bihar Public Service Commission exam.
Earlier in August 2024, students had also staged protests in wake of the normalisation process used in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam.
Karandikar told Business Standard that devising a 'good' formula is important as students can't be engaged in incessant litigation.
"Sometimes, it has been observed that the selected candidates belong to those appearing in one or two particular shifts and days, while some sessions remain highly under-represented.
"Hence, coming up with a uniform formula is important at least for central government-conducted examinations," he said.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
