Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Medical Services Recruitment Board (MRB) has revised its examination process to ensure fairness and eliminate human error, its Chairperson Uma Maheshwari said.

The board, which recruits doctors, nurses and allied medical staff, earlier conducted written tests and later switched to computer-based exams. When the number of candidates surged, the exams were split into two sessions with different question papers. Scores were normalized based on difficulty levels, a system that often disadvantaged candidates.

“Under the old method, a candidate answering easier questions might lose a mark, while another answering tougher questions gained three marks. Both would end up with similar scores, which was unfair,” Maheshwari said.

To address this, the MRB, in coordination with the Directorate of Technical Education, now conducts exams using a single question paper even if over 20,000 candidates appear. Technology is also being used for seat allocation based on reservation norms, leaving no room for human intervention, she added.

The revised process has already enabled MRB to fill 4,385 posts, including 2,572 doctors, 983 pharmacists and 59 Siddha practitioners.