The document discusses various competitive science programs and examinations for students in India, including the National Science Talent Search Scheme, Science Olympiad, and Google Science Fair. It provides details on the history and structure of each program, such as how the Talent Search Scheme identifies and awards scholarships to talented students, the regional and national levels of the Science Olympiad competition, and the global online science fair sponsored by Google. The document also contains sections on the conclusion and references.

1. ASSIGNMENT
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION
FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
Submitted to,
Mrs. Radha
Submitted On, 22.06.2014
Submitted By,
Christy.M.Y

2. INDEX
Sl. No Content Page No
1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 SCIENCE TALENT
SEARCH SCHEME
4
3 SCIENCE OLYMPIAD 6
4 GOOGLE SCIENCE FAIR 9
5 CONCLUSION 10
6 REFERENCE 11

3. INTRODUCTION
The competitive examination method for the recruitment of
Junior Professional staff in the United Nations has now gone beyond The
experimental stage. Ten years have passed since the first
Competitive examination, held in Italy. But it is mainly since 198l that they have
been used systematically.
Recourse to competitive examinations for the recruitment of junior Professional
staff was made compulsory by paragraph 10 of the annex to resolution 35/210,
which decided that "at the P-l and
P-2 levels, recruitment shall be made as a rule through competitive
Examinations", that the principle should be applied by reserving
30 per cent of the posts available for promotion by competitive
Examination from the General Service category to the Professional
Category and that in the case of the remaining 70 per cent, recruitment for all posts
should, as from 31 December 1982, be
carried out by competitive examinations: Devised on a national basis, in
consultation with the governments concerned Geared to candidates with at least a
first-level university degree; and Based on written tests in one of the official
languages of the United Nations, including a general test and specialized
examination by occupational groups. s. This decision supplemented and put more
precisely the texts of the existing resolutions stipulating that recruitment should
be carried out on a competitive basis: regulation 4.3 of the Staff Regulations the
decision of 18 December 1974; resolution 33/143 of 1978, which established the
examination for movement of staff from the General Service category to the
Professional category and had already recommended that "competitive methods of
recruitment should be used in consultation with the governments concerned".

4. Content
Science Talent Search Scheme
• The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was
established by the Government of India in the year 1961 with a view to bringing
about qualitative improvement in school education in the country. No sooner the
Council was set up than it mounted a number of programmes in this direction.
One such programme was to identify and nurture the talented students. This
programme took up the shape of a scheme called National Science Talent Search
Scheme (NSTSS) in the year 1963 which provided for the identification of talented
students and awarding them with scholarships. During the first year of the
implementation of the scheme, it was confined to the Union Territory of Delhi
wherein only 10 scholarships were awarded to the Class XI students.
• In the year 1964 the scheme was extended to all the states and the union territories
in the country with 350 scholarships for the students of Class XI. These
scholarships were awarded on the basis of a written examination, a project report
and interview. The written examination comprised the Science Aptitude Test and
an Essay on a given scientific theme. The candidates were to submit the project
report at the time of the written examination. A stipulated number of candidates
selected on the basis of these three components were then subjected to personal
interview. The performance of the candidates on these four components was
eventually employed for the purpose of awarding scholarships. These scholarships
were awarded for pursuing education only in basic sciences up to doctoral level.

5. Consequent upon the introduction of 10+2+3 pattern of education, the NSTS scheme
also underwent a change in the year 1976. It was no longer confined to only basic
sciences but was extended to social sciences, engineering and medicine as well. It was
renamed as National Talent Search Scheme (NTSS). Since the education system in the
country was undergoing a change, the scheme was made open to the students of
Classes X, XI and XII and separate examinations were conducted for each class. The
number of scholarships was raised to 500. The selection procedure was also changed.
Now the candidates were subjected to two objective type written tests namely the
Mental Ability Test (MAT) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). A stipulated number
of candidates qualifying these two tests were subjected to face-to-face interview. The
final awards were made on the basis of composite scores obtained in the MAT, the SAT
and the interview.
The number of scholarships was again enhanced from 500 to 550 in the year 1981.
These 50 scholarships were exclusively meant for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled
Tribes (ST) candidates. The number of scholarships was once again escalated to 750 in
the year 1983 with a provision of 70 scholarships especially for SC/ST candidates. This
arrangement continued until the scheme was decentralised in the year 1985. In the year
2000, the number of scholarships was raised from 750 to 1000 with the provision of
reservation for SC and ST candidates based on the national norms of 15 per cent and
7½ per cent respectively.

6. Science Olympiad
• Science Olympiad is an American elimentary,middle and high school team competition in
which students compete in 'events' pertaining to various scientific disciplines, including
earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 6,700 teams from 50 U.S.
states compete each year. There are three levels of competition: regional, state, and national.
In addition, some states or private groups offer 'invitational' tournaments which serve as
practice for regional and state competitions. Teams which excel at the regional competitions
advance to the state, and then to the national level. Winners later receive several kinds of
awards from ribbons to trophies.
• Science Olympiad is not in any way associated with the international science olympyad,
which follows a completely different format and set of rules.
• The first recorded Science Olympiad was held on Saturday, November 23, 1974 at
St.Andrews presbyterian in Laurinburg,North carolina. Dr. Donald Barnes and Dr. David
Wetmore were the originators of this event. Fifteen schools from North and South Carolina
participated in this event. It was a day-long affair, with competitions and demonstrations for
high school students in the areas of biology, chemistry, and physics. There were four event
periods during this day and each event period had one fun event (like beaker race or paper
airplane), one demonstration (like glassblowing and holography), and one serious event
(like periodic table quiz or Science Bowl). An article by David Wetmore was published in the
journal of chemical education in January 1978 documenting the success of recruiting
students through Science Olympiad.

7. • The winner of the competition is determined by each team's overall score. Each school is
ranked in every event based on that event's rules. The team's overall score is then calculated
by adding together the rank of the school in all events (e.g. 1st place receives 1 point, 2nd
place 2 points, etc.). The team with the lowest overall score is declared the winner.
However, it should be noted that some state competitions choose to score the competition
by awarding more points per place (e.g. 13 points for 1st place, 12 points for 2nd place, etc.)
and having the team with the most points being declared the winner.
• There are several ways to break a tie:
• One method for tie-breaking is based on medals where the team with more first place
medals wins, if both teams have the same amount of first places, it moves to second place
medals and so on. This is the method that the National Tournament uses.
• Before a competition, the event organizer decides on several events to be used as
tiebreakers. If two teams get the same score overall, the team that rates highest in that one
event will take the lead.
• A third way of tie-breaking is to use a team's score in trial/pilot events. The team with the
best combined score in trial events would win the competition when this method is used.
• In some competitions, there also may questions added into the event,and they will be
labeled tie-breaker. If needed, these questions can be used as tie breakers,although this type
of tie-breaker is generally for only the event and not the end decision.

8. • Science Olympiad competitions occur at the regional, state and national level. Normally, the top
few teams advance from the regional level to state competition, the exact number depending on
how many regions there are and how many teams compete. For example, the regional Science
Olympiad competition in Albany, New York will typically send the top three finishing teams to
the New York state competition. However, an additional team or teams can be sent to the state
competition if one of the top three has been victorious (or has gone to the state competition)
multiple times in a row. In most states, the top team advances from state to the national
competition. Some states with a larger number of teams are allotted a second spot at the
national competition to represent their larger participation. About 120 teams compete at the
national level each year (60 from Division B and 60 from Division C); the number has changed
over the years to accommodate growing participation.
• Many states also hold invitational tournaments. These competitions serve as "practice rounds"
for qualifying tournaments, and are hosted by individual middle schools(View the portion
titled invitational),high schools and/or colleges. These are also often organized by schools
themselves and usually occur some time in January or February. Teams can participate in
invitationals from multiple states depending on availability. At some invitational, only a few
events are held. However, many invitational tournaments mimic regional and state
competitions in their competitive intensity. For example, Solon, Ohio Middle School holds an
invitational each year that fields about 60 teams, including 6-7 past national qualifiers. In this
way, many teams get a lot of practice through invitationals.

9. Google Science Fair
• The Google Science Fair is an online science competition sponsored by Google, Lego, Virgin
galactic, National Geographic and Scientific American.The first ever Google Science Fair was
announced in January 2011; all entries were due at 11:59:59 pm Eastern daylight time on April
7, 2011 and judging occurred in July 2011. The competition is open to 13–18 year old students
around the globe, who formulate a hypothesis, perform an experiment, and present their
results. All students must have an internet connection and a free Google account to participate,
and the projects must be in English, German, Italian, Spanish, or French. The final submission
must include ten sections, which are the summary, an "About Me" page, the steps of the project,
and a works cited page.
• Entries are judged on eight core criteria, which include the student's presentation, question,
hypothesis, research, experiment, data, observations, and conclusion. Prizes are awarded to
three finalists. The grand prize includes a National Geographic trip to the Galapagos Islands, a
US$50,000 scholarship, and an "experience" at a sponsoring organization; finalists will receive a
US$25,000 scholarship and assorted packages from sponsoring organizations. While Larry
Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students at Stanford University in California, they created
Google in January 1996 as a research project; Google employee Tom Oliveri highlighted the
company's early days: "Science fairs help students to explore their vision and curiosity through
science. Our company was founded on an experiment. We firmly believe that science can
change the world," he stated.
• Google's page states, "The Competition is not open to residents of Cuba, Iran, North
Korea, Sudan, Myanmar/Burma, Syria, Zimbabwe and any other U.S. sanctioned country and is
void where prohibited by law."

10. Conclusion
A competitive examination is an examination where candidates are ranked according to
their grades. If the examination is open for n positions, then the first n candidates in ranks
pass, the others are rejected. Examples of this type are the Foreign Service Exam and UN
Competitive Examination.
Competitive examinations are used in many countries for university and college
admissions or admissions to secondary schools (entrance examination) or for positions in
the civil service (Civil service examination). They are considered an egalitarian way of
choosing worthy applicants without risking influence peddling,favoritis or other concerns.
After Baccalauréat examination, France examination process for undergraduate students
includes nation-wide competitive exams prepared in specific prep course referred-to
as Classe Préparatoire aux Grandes Écoles. These competitive examinations taken by
undergraduate students are required for selective entrance into Graduate schools in science
& engineering and into business schools.
In India, entrance examinations are chiefly confined to medicine, engineering, management
and the civil services. These range from the BITS Pilani admission test and IIT-JEE where
only one in a hundreds can hope to get admission to state level entrances which are many
and varied. The stiff competition has led to a situation where many students neglect
their school studies and focus solely on 'entrance coaching' which is time-consuming and
expensive. This has led many states to scrap the entrances and base admissions on the school
leaving marks which, unfortunately are none too reliable.

11. Reference
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_examination
• http://www.ncert.nic.in/programmes/talent_exam/index_talent.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Olympiad
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Science_Fair