Negative marks to make MPSC exams tougher

MUMBAI: State civil service exams are about to get tougher, as the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) is introducing negative marking for wrong answers. Beginning May 31, when the Rajya Seva exams for class I and II officers will be held, every one-mark answer that is wrong will earn a quarter-mark penalty.
The Commission, which holds about 15 examinations annually for selecting class I, II and III officers for the state government, decided to apply this rule for all objective-type papers.MPSC secretary A N Tripathy was unavailable for comment, but Commission officials said several other states including Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa and Karnataka had introduced negative marking to make their tests more competitive, along the lines of the Union Public Service Commission which introduced negative marking in 2007.