The much awaited Odisha Assistant Section Officer (ASO) exam was successfully conducted by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) on 20th January in 30 districts of the State. OPSC will shortlist candidates for filling up 500 vacancies in Assistant Section Officer in Odisha Secretariat Service under Home Department. OPSC had notified the recruitment in 2018 and near about 2 lakh candidates have participated in the recruitment drive.
Summary
33 Zones * 484 Centres * 198555 Candidates
Many of us are quite excited to know the expected Cut-off and analysis of the ASO Exam. This article will take you through the overall analysis and expection from the recently concluded ASO exam.
The Scheme of Examination was as follows.
The General Awareness paper was of Moderate to Difficult Level. General Awareness questions were asked from all aspects of GA. The major area of focus this year was on General Awareness questions in the field of Polity, Modern History, Current Affairs and Geography. The Subject-wise break-up of the questions asked in the General Awareness Paper are given below.
💢General Awareness
- Polity & Governance – 14 Questions
- Modern History – 13 Questions (No questions from Ancient/Medieval History)
- Current Affairs & Government Schemes – 25 Questions
- Science & Tech + Defence – 6 Questions
- Geography – 17 Questions
- Economy – 7 Questions
- Books & Authors – 3 Questions
- Important Days – 2 Questions
- Odisha G.K. – 1 Question
- Miscellaneous G.K. (Defence / Sports / International Organisations, etc.) – 12 Questions
The questions asked this year were within the boundaries of the prescribed syllabus. Also we can see that 1/4th of the questions were from the Current Affairs portion (this was un-expected).
Given the above sectional analysis, I this average score in this section would be around 40 to 50 marks.
💢Test of Reasoning & Mental Ability and Mathematics
The Mathematics, Reasoning & Mental Ability paper was of Easy to Moderate Level. The questions in this paper were not very difficult to answer, but students would have to invest few extra seconds in order to attempt all the questions within the given time limit of 90 minutes. The overall level of difficulty was Moderate, with the majority of questions asked being a bit of a task to solve. But, there were a few easy ones too.
So, I think the average score in this section should be around 55 to 65 marks out of 100.
💢English Language
The English Language paper was of Easy to Moderate Level. Particular sections like Fill In the Blanks, Sentence Improvement, Idioms and Phrases, Error Detection could be attempted with an average preparation and those like Synonyms, Antonyms and simultaneously Active Passive, Direct Indirect and Phrase Substitution questions demanded preparation.
The average score in this section should go around 70 to 80 marks out of 100.
💢Odia Language
The questions in Odia Language Paper were of Moderate to Difficult Level. Odia Language section surprised candidates with twisted questions and arduous language. Though the questions were not of high difficulty level, it surely demanded better preparation from the candidates. This section might have been little easier for those hailing from Odia medium schools.
The average score in this section might be around 35 to 45 marks out of 100.
So as per personal review the average marks may be within 200-240 out of 400.
