Jobseekers fret over test policy

• Source: Global Times
• [02:42 December 08 2009]
• Comments

Xinhua reported earlier that more than 1,000 participants were caught cheating during last year's national civil services exam. The various ways of cheating ranged from micro-earpieces to wireless transmitters.

"The methods we use to get exam questions are various, each year we have teachers attending the exam," Nie Sufang, a teacher from the Teaching and Research Center of Huatu Education, told the Global Times.

"Some questions in the tests are selected from GMAT and MBA tests, so we can find the answers," Nie said.

Some of these institutions defended the authority's decision not to disclose past papers, saying that this can stop candidates from cramming even though some candidates paid institutions to cram for the test.

Liu Bin, deputy chairman of offcn. com, said the current national civil service exam method is reasonable.

"It's fair not to publish the papers and standard answers, as the purpose of the exam is to test the real talent of the applicants rather than training them into exam machines," he told the Global Times.

"The National Exam Center doesn't want the students and experts to research the exam paper and answers in advance as the test is to dig the applicants' potential capability," said Nie from Huatu Education.

"Students would drill exam skills once the paper and answers are published, then the test would lose its original purpose," she added.

The ministry could not be reached for comment Monday.