The Karnataka Public Service Commission has done it again. For an agency entrusted with the task of recruiting the right candidate to man the state’s bureaucracy, goofing up on the job, it seems, has become a habit.This time, the candidates taking the Excise Sub-Inspector’s Examination had to deal with mistakes in Paper II (General Studies), apart from differences in English and Kannada versions of the same questions.Ironically, the blunders in General Studies test on October 27 last have come to light because the KPSC later hosted the ‘‘right’’ answers to 75 objective-type questions, carrying 2 marks each, on its website.Consider question 70 of Paper II: ‘‘Which is the largest palace in the world?’’ The choices given were: ‘‘Laxmi Vilas, Jaganmohana Palace, Buckingham and Vatican.’’If you tick Vatican you add two marks to your total score, because the KPSC unambiguously says so on its site. Although according to records, this honour goes to Imperial Palace in China, it is not even included in the four options.Buckingham ranks only second among the residential palaces in terms of size, says records. In any case, the KPSC has made it tough for the candidates to score with their own set of discrepant answers.Similarly, question 62 in the English version asks: ‘‘Which is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust?’’ But in the Kannada version the same question reads as: ‘‘Which is the most abundant metal inside the earth?’’ KPSC’s answer for both versions is the same.
