THE STENOGRAPHER.

4. The stenographer shall perform such appropriate duties as may be assigned to him by the commission, or under its direction, by the chief examiner and secretary.

EXAMINERS.

5. Regular boards of examiners will consist of three members, one of whom shall act as secretary, and two of whom may conduct an examination in the necessary absence of the third. The secretary shall keep a complete record of the proceedings of the board and of all the examinations held by it in such form as the commission may prescribe.

6. The chief examiner shall, subject to the commission, issue authority for holding examinations for positions in Schedules B and C, and shall prepare questions and supervise other preliminary arrangements for such examinations.

7. The boards of examiners will conduct the examinations and estimate and mark the standing of the persons competing, or in a non-competitive examination shall estimate the qualifications of the person examined, and in both cases shall transmit all the papers with their report to the commission.

8. Whenever the special qualifications required for a position are of an expert or professional character, the commission will give to the examining board such advice and assistance from competent sources as may be expedient and available.

9. Boards of examiners for positions in Schedule D shall examine such persons as are named to them in writing by any officer authorized to employ persons in the positions in that schedule, and shall only certify such as satisfy the qualifications for such positions as prescribed by the rules and regulations. They shall report to the commission the names of persons examined by them with other pertinent information, on forms furnished for that purpose, and will keep on file the minutes of their proceedings, with all papers connected therewith, which shall at all times be subject to the inspection of the commission and its agents.

10. Special boards will be selected and special regulations for examinations will be issued by the commission in such cases as it may deem expedient.

11. No examiner or person serving under the commission must attempt to influence the selections, nomination or appointment of any persons for the civil service.

12. Care must be taken by examiners to preserve order and decorum at examinations, and to prevent such visitors as they may admit by conversation or otherwise to obstruct or distract those being examined.

13. Examiners must not disclose for public information, unless by consent of those examined, more than the general results of examinations, without the details of answers given.

14. Any person after receiving official notification of his standing, as ascertained by a competitive examination, may in person, or by duly authorized agent, inspect in the presence of the chief examiner, or the secretary of the commission, his examimation papers and the markings thereon.

15. Complaints which show any injustice or unfairness on the part of any examiner or examining board, or by any one acting under the commission, will be considered by the commission, which reserves the right to revise the marking and grading on the papers, or order a new examination, or otherwise act as substantial justice in the premises may require.

16. For the purpose of examinations, examiners are authorized by the last clause of the third section of the Civil Service Act to request the use of suitable rooms in public buildings and the lighting and the heating of the same. In all cases the requisition for such accommodations should be in writing, reciting the provision of law above referred to, and denoting the amount of room required, and should be addressed to the State, county, city, town or village officer having custody of the public building. School-rooms are generally best adapted for examinations.

17. Accounts for examiners (who are not otherwise in the civil service) for services and for reimbursement for necessary expenditures should be rendered in the forms prescribed and sent to the commission for approval before payment.

APPLICATIONS FOR POSITIONS.

18. Applications for admission to competitive examinations for positions in Schedule B, will be directed to the "Civil Service Commission, Albany, N. Y." Blank forms for such applications, and for the requisite certificates, will be furnished upon request, which should specify the position in the service sought by the applicant. All applications for positions in Schedules A, C and D must be made to the head of the department, office or institution wherein the position is sought.

19. The commission can not advise persons as to vacancies in the service, nor furnish any information as to the duties, salaries, course of promotion, or other conditions of positions, except such as may be [Assembly, No. 63.]

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found in printed regulations. No advice can be given as to the course of preparation that applicants should follow, nor can specimens of the examination papers be furnished.

20. All application papers and accompanying certificates will remain on file in the office of the commission, and under no circumstances or conditions will the originals be returned to the applicant.

EXAMINATIONS.

1. Competitive.

21. Applicants will be admitted to examination upon the production of the official notification to appear for that purpose. Each applicant will receive a number, which will be indorsed upon his notification when produced, and the notifications so indorsed shall be sealed in an envelope; such applicant will sign his examination papers with his number, omitting his name, and the envelope shall not be opened until all the examination papers have been received and the markings and gradings made.

22. All examinations shall be in writing, except such as refer to physical qualities or expertness, excepting that to the written examination the examiner or examiners may add such an oral examination as may be necessary in certain cases to elicit the respective qualifications of the several applicants. When possible, a stenographic report of the examination must be made and filed with the papers.

23. The sheets of questions will be numbered, and will be given out in the order of their numbers, each after the first being given, only when the competitor has returned to the examiners the last sheet given to him. In general, no examination shall extend beyond five hours, without intermission; and no question given out at any session, to any candidate, can be allowed to be answered at another session. Each applicant must complete his examination on the obligatory subjects before taking up any of the optional subjects.

24 Each examiner will exercise all due diligence to secure fairness, and prevent all collusion and fraud in the examinations.

25. The time allowed for completing the examination will be announced before the first paper is given out. For the obligatory subjects the examination should be confined to a single day, but the examiners may extend such time in special cases of emergency.

Marking.

26. The examination papers shall be reviewed by each examiner separately, and, in any case of disagreement, the average of the mark

ings made on any question or paper by all shall be the final marking. on such question or paper, subject to the regulation as to revision.

27. The papers of all the competitors in each subject should be examined, compared and marked before the papers in another subject are taken up.

28. The marking of each question or subject shall be made on a scale of 100, which maximum shall represent accuracy of the highest possible attainment; and 0 shall represent absolute ignorance. Handwriting will be judged by its legibility, uniform and correct formation of letters, and ease of execution. Upon a comparison of the handwriting of all the competitors, the best and worst should be first agreed upon, and the two extremes of the scale thus fixed, the others should be marked relatively to them. In writing from dictation or copying from manuscript, the omission, repetition or substitution of words, the erasures, blots and other evidences of carelessness, will, proportionately to their numbers, reduce the marking below 100. Spelling will be marked with reference to the ratio the misspelt words bear to the whole number of words dictated. Making abstracts or summaries of documents and letter writing will be marked as in handwriting, by agreeing upon the best and worst examples, and having marked them, then proportionately marking the others.

In each of the other subjects, each question shall be marked on the scale of 100, and the sum of such markings divided by the number of questions in that subject shall be the competitor's standing on such subject.

Grading.

29. The absolute or average general standing of each competitor will then be made up in form as follows, in accordance with the respective weight according to each subject by the regulations, thus:

It will be observed that the standing on each subject is multiplied by the weight given that subject and the product placed in the third column, and the sum of these products divided by the sum of the weights gives the general average standing.

If, in the marking, it is found that the standing of a competitor on any subject falls below fifty, the furcher marking of the papers of such competitor may be dropped (Rule 15), and such fact recorded on the face of the paper in red ink.

30. The grading of the several competitors being completed, their names will be enrolled in the order of their excellence, as determined by such examination, upon a register of eligible persons in form as prescribed by the commission.

31. Every paper in any examination, not formally certified by the examiners, will be signed with his initials in ink by each examiner who has reviewed and marked it.

32. Priority of date in examination will give no advantage in position on the eligible list. The names of the three persons highest in general average standing on the list for any grade will be certified for selection without regard to dates of examination, and subject only to the preferences of competitors on record for certain departments or offices, or to the certificate of the appointing officer, that an optional subject is of prime importance.

Non-Competitive.

33. Schedule C. The boards of examiners before whom shall appear any person named for a position in Schedule C, subject to a non-competitive examination, will report to the commission the facts regarding such person furnished to, or ascertained by, them upon the first three