BU gets tough on evaluation

Manipulating answer sheets of examinations conducted by Bangalore University will soon be a thing of the past, what with the varsity authority evolving a fool-proof method to curb the exploits of unscrupulous evaluators and their nexus with middle men.

Before an answer script is sent to an evaluator’s desk, the university will from now on detach its optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet.

The top portion (Part A) containing a student’s register number, subject, course, subject code, title of the paper, month and year of examination, answer book number and signature of the invigilator will rest with the custodian of the evaluation centre concerned.

Only Part B containing a candidate’s score, names and signatures of the evaluator and the reviewer, however, will be given to the evaluator.

Thus, the evaluator, in no way, will know whose answer script he/she is examining.

Not just that. Both portion A and B will have two boxes which will be assigned an identical dummy number so that they are affixed later without any hassles.

This number will be generated by a special scanner using the bar code allotted to both parts. According to a Bangalore University senior official, hiding the register number from the evaluator is crucial to curb manipulation.

The register number comprises two digits of the year of examination, three digits of college code and five digits of serial number.

“Hiding the entire number is important. If a dishonest evaluator gets to know at least the college code, he may tamper with the candidate’s score,” he said.
The top portion is most vulnerable to manipulation.


Manipulation

“While the scale of manipulation in the answer scripts is negligible, all tampering takes place through the top portion of the OMR sheet. Hence, detaching it will deal a body blow to irregularities in evaluation,” a senior official said.

At the examination centre, the invigilator will keep 18 answer sheets in an envelope after collecting them from students.

Later, the detachment process and assignment of a dummy number will begin at the evaluation centre concerned under the watchful eyes of its custodian.

Far from tedious process

The new system is a far cry from the previous tedious process of detaching only the register number.

Till now, only the top most portion containing the register number used to be detached.

Affixing it with the other portion was not only tiresome but it also led to fixation of wrong register number with the answer script.

How it works

*An answer script will be split into Part A and B. Part A containing a student’s register number and other particulars will not be given to the evaluator.

*To affix both portions after    the evaluation, an identical dummy number will be put in two boxes.

*The aim is to hide a candidate’s register number from the evaluator so that he/she cannot tamper with the answer script.

*Until now, only the top most portion of the examination answer sheets containing the register number was being detached.