Panjim: Majority engineering students are making effective use of their profound understanding of math, logical reasoning and analytical skills to clear the initial round of the Goa Public Service Commission (GPSC) exams.
While the recently held pre-screening and Computer Based Recruitment Test (CBRT) exams to fill in 22 vacancies of Junior Scale Officers (JSO) were quite disappointing, analyses of the outcome of the first level of exam indicates that nearly 60% pass-outs were engineering graduates.
GPSC Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha, on being contacted by Herald, said that of those who cleared the pre-screening test, held on November 21-22, around 60% were engineering graduates or postgraduates while around 30% were those with graduation degrees in Arts, Commerce or Science and the others held degrees in other disciplines.
The prescreening results saw around 101 aspirants – out of a total 3,700 applicants – entering the CBRT round on December 13. But only three have cleared the 75-mark test with written followed by oral tests to be scheduled shortly.
“There are two reasons for the high number of technical graduates – either extensive exposure to mathematics at the engineering programs resulting in better understanding of reasoning concepts or students who generally fared better academically entered the engineering discipline and would therefore perform better. There could however be other reasons as well,” said a former government officer.
The trend of fewer candidates clearing the JSO exams has been regular. Incidentally, JSO is one of very few gazette posts where candidates from across the streams are eligible to apply for vacancies. “It however does not mean that candidates from other disciplines do not crack the exam. JSOs from non-engineering backgrounds are also selected but candidates should make serious preparations for the exams and keep practicing. The mantra for clearing a competitive exam is thorough preparation,” the expert said.
With engineering students having better analytical aptitude, the UPSC too has engineering besides management graduates taking over the top chart.
