HYDERABAD: The day-one of the Group-II exam was conducted successfully at 1,386 centres in all the 33 districts across the state on Sunday.
The day-one had paper-I of General Studies and General Abilities and paper-II of History, Polity and Society scheduled in two sessions - forenoon from 10 AM to 12:30 PM and afternoon from 3 PM to 5:30 PM, respectively.
The exam was conducted in MCQ pattern with unique OMR answer sheets for each candidate. Each paper was of 150 marks, with a total of 150 questions and 1/4th negative marking for a wrong answer.
Candidates said that they found the Paper-I tougher than Paper-II due to the vast topics on which the questions were asked.
Raghuvaran Yadgir, a candidate from Kompapally, said, “ Paper-I was tough, especially the reasoning questions, whereas Paper-II was lengthy but easier, I was not expecting paper-I to be so in-depth. I am hoping to do better in the next exams”.
Another candidate Sindhu from Ibrahimpatnam, who had also appeared for the Group-I exam, said that she found the Group-II exam to be comparatively easier.
At some exam centres, candidates who reached late by a minute were denied entry by the security as entry was closed at 9:30 AM for the morning and 2:30 PM for the afternoon session.
Security staff said that enough time was given to the candidates to enter the centre as the entry was allowed from 8:30 AM onwards for the forenoon session and 1:30 PM for the afternoon session.
TGPSC Chairman Burra Venkatesham inspected the examination centre at Begumpet Government Women’s Degree College for security arrangements. At one of the centres in Vikarabad, a candidate was caught with a mobile phone.
TGPSC officials said that a candidate at the exam centre number 4419 was found with a foldable mobile phone in the exam hall. Following this, he was not allowed to write the exam and was handed over to police for enquiry, they added.
Officials also said that action was initiated against the candidate as per the notification number 28/2022 and Malpractice Case Act 25/97.
The day-2 of the exams will have the Paper-III: Economy and Development and Paper-IV: Telangana Movement and State Formation scheduled in the same sessions of forenoon and afternoon.
Over 5.5 lakh candidates registered for the recruitment of 783 vacancies in the Group-II services in the state government.
According to TGPSC officials, out of 5.51 lakh candidates, 74.96% had downloaded the hall tickets. The attendance for Paper-I was 46.75% with 2,57,981 candidates appearing for the exam and 46.30% for Paper-II with 2,55,490 candidates present for the examination.