Common Merit List Generation Method for Multi Shift Exam using Difficulty Index Value of Question Paper

Abstract

The competitive examinations conducted in multiple shifts have different question papers for different shifts. The assigned difficulty index of the entire question papers are kept same for the entire shift, however the calculated difficulty index may vary. The major challenge faced in the conduction of the multiple shift examination is the generation of the common merit list. This research paper concentrates on the study of various merit list generation techniques used for multi shift examinations. It also proposes a new merit list generation method taking in to consideration the difficulty index of the question paper. This paper also compares various merit list generation techniques such as actual score method, normalized score method, percentile score method and the proposed difficulty index based score method. The merit list generated by percentile score method gives equal number of selection from each shift and does not consider the difficulty index of the question paper. Whereas in normalization method, the score is normalized by considering the mean, standard deviation of the score of each shift and of all shifts. This method also equalises the selection count. However, the proposed techniques take in to account the difficulty index of the question paper as well, which may vary the selection count in each shift. This assures that the deserving and the eligible candidate does not get affected due to the difficulty level variation of question paper.