New Delhi, March 21: When banking examination was refurbished to avoid the individual pain of aspirants going for multitude of examination conducted by each PSB, the pooling affect was welcomed by all concerned.
Pooling of the qualified in the written examination meant that the students had greater chances of qualifying in the written part. After that the interview coupled with the individual criteria of the individual banks was taken into consideration for calling the students who have made the minimum qualifying marks in the IBPS.
IBPS also conducted one such exam whose score card will be valid for the students for one year. But the complications and restrictions from the individual banks setting cut-off criteria in “absurd” manner has spilled the baby with the water.
For a fortnight now, thousands of candidates have been awaiting interview calls from about a dozen public sector banks. These banks have about 12,500 officer jobs on offer. About 1.10 lakh candidates passed the common written exam conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
Cut-offs for qualifying
Banks have the discretion to fix their own cut-offs for qualifying.
Ergo, the minimum cut-off adopted by different banks ranged from as low as 125 to as high as 166 marks. The low cut-offs announced by some banks raised hopes of many candidates who thought they stood a good chance of selection. Yet, they found the wait only getting longer and anxiety levels rising as they watched bank after bank calling only the toppers. Social media and discussion groups have seen a number of aspirants vent their ire about what they term a ‘flawed process'.
No candidate disputes the discretion of the bank to call toppers. But as one of the hopefuls, Bijeta, said, “Why did banks fix a low cut-off mark if they are anyway going to call toppers? And the same candidates get multiple interview calls from various banks.”
There is no explanation from banks as to why they fixed low cut-off marks. While admitting that only toppers get the call, officials say, in their defence, that they don't have prior access to IBPS scores of individual candidates. They come to know of them only when the candidates apply for the jobs. Responding to the criticism that the same candidates get offers from all banks, bank officials say that this is unavoidable. They say that, they cannot in all fairness deny any candidate the right to apply or appear for an interview just because they may get offers from other banks.
Banks do concede that candidates lose some money - spending Rs 200 for each of the 19 banks individually - but have no solution to offer on this.
Perhaps it might help matters if IBPS puts out a ranking of candidates or provided some statistics on how many people have scored marks in different frequency intervals. This may give candidates a clearer assessment of their chances and mitigate their disappointment.
The lackadaisical approach of the IBPS is again seen with its new notification on the net but with a grave mistake that the link that takes the applicant to the on-line form still has the older dates. It is high time that such mistakes are minimized so that the sanctity of the IBPS and similar bodies are maintained.
New Delhi, March 21: When banking examination was refurbished to avoid the individual pain of aspirants going for multitude of examination conducted by each PSB, the pooling affect was welcomed by all concerned.
Pooling of the qualified in the written examination meant that the students had greater chances of qualifying in the written part. After that the interview coupled with the individual criteria of the individual banks was taken into consideration for calling the students who have made the minimum qualifying marks in the IBPS.
IBPS also conducted one such exam whose score card will be valid for the students for one year. But the complications and restrictions from the individual banks setting cut-off criteria in “absurd” manner has spilled the baby with the water.
For a fortnight now, thousands of candidates have been awaiting interview calls from about a dozen public sector banks. These banks have about 12,500 officer jobs on offer. About 1.10 lakh candidates passed the common written exam conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
Cut-offs for qualifying
Banks have the discretion to fix their own cut-offs for qualifying.
Ergo, the minimum cut-off adopted by different banks ranged from as low as 125 to as high as 166 marks. The low cut-offs announced by some banks raised hopes of many candidates who thought they stood a good chance of selection.
Yet, they found the wait only getting longer and anxiety levels rising as they watched bank after bank calling only the toppers. Social media and discussion groups have seen a number of aspirants vent their ire about what they term a ‘flawed processes'.
No candidate disputes the discretion of the bank to call toppers. But as one of the hopefuls, Bijeta, said, “Why did banks fix a low cut-off mark if they are anyway going to call toppers? And the same candidates get multiple interview calls from various banks.”
There is no explanation from banks as to why they fixed low cut-off marks. While admitting that only toppers get the call, officials say, in their defence, that they don't have prior access to IBPS scores of individual candidates. They come to know of them only when the candidates apply for the jobs. Responding to the criticism that the same candidates get offers from all banks, bank officials say that this is unavoidable. They say that, they cannot in all fairness deny any candidate the right to apply or appear for an interview just because they may get offers from other banks.
Banks do concede that candidates lose some money - spending Rs 200 for each of the 19 banks individually - but have no solution to offer on this.
Perhaps it might help matters if IBPS puts out a ranking of candidates or provided some statistics on how many people have scored marks in different frequency intervals. This may give candidates a clearer assessment of their chances and mitigate their disappointment.
The lackadaisical approach of the IBPS is again seen with its new notification on the net but with a grave mistake that the link that takes the applicant to the on-line form still has the older dates. It is high time that such mistakes are minimized so that the sanctity of the IBPS and similar bodies are maintained.
