Situation Reaction Test Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The keyed response is to advise the client that you can help him to save the taxes payable, but only through legal means.

Reducing tax through deductions, exemptions and proper planning is legitimate tax planning, and helping clients with it is part of a Chartered Accountant's work. What is not permitted is tax evasion. So the professional response is to offer lawful help and make the limit clear.

Taking extra money to save tax 'by all means' is evasion and professional misconduct. Refusing outright treats a lawful request as wrong, and reporting the client to the tax authorities is unwarranted, since he has asked for help, not committed an offence.

Answer: D

The keyed response is to discuss with those people why they do not use the toilets, and try to convince them about the benefits.

Toilets unused after construction usually point to habits, beliefs or practical problems such as water supply or maintenance. Finding out the reasons and persuading people about the health and dignity benefits addresses the cause, which is the behavioural approach the Swachh Bharat campaign itself relies on.

Doing nothing ignores a public health problem that affects the whole village. Getting families to force people breeds resentment rather than change, and complaining to the authorities adds nothing, since the toilets already exist and the problem is that people do not use them.

Answer: D

The keyed response is to try to convince him to switch to paper bags or other eco-friendly alternatives, and if that fails, report to the authorities.

Persuasion first respects the vendor, who may not know the rules or the alternatives, and gives him a chance to comply. If he still breaks the ban, reporting him is a legitimate step to enforce a law made for the environment.

Threatening him is coercive and not a citizen's role. Ignoring the problem out of sympathy lets the law and the environment suffer, and fighting with him solves nothing and may create a law-and-order problem of its own.

Answer: A

The keyed response is to admit him provisionally, on the condition that he produce the Aadhaar card at the time of discharge.

An emergency patient needs treatment at once, and refusing care over a document he has merely forgotten could cost his life. Provisional admission treats him immediately while keeping the hospital within the government scheme, which still requires the card before the free treatment is finally accounted for.

Sending him away, or insisting on the card first, puts paperwork above an emergency. Admitting him only if he agrees to pay defeats the purpose of free treatment for the poor, which he is entitled to.

Answer: B

The announcement most likely to be heard is the departure/arrival of the next train.

The main purpose of the public address system at a railway station is to tell passengers about train movements: which train is arriving or leaving, from which platform and at what time. These announcements are made continuously throughout the day.

Lost and found notices and help desk information are announced only occasionally. The reservation status of an individual passenger's train is never announced on the P.A.; it is checked on the ticket, the charts or online.

Answer: D

The keyed response is to inform the Police and Child Welfare Organizations to help in rescuing the child.

Employing a child as domestic labour and ill-treating the child are offences under the child labour and juvenile justice laws. The child needs to be rescued and protected, which only the police and child welfare bodies can do effectively, whatever the neighbour's influence.

Keeping quiet out of fear and doing nothing leave the child in danger. Merely telling the neighbour to stop does not rescue the child, and an influential offender is unlikely to listen.

Answer: C

The keyed response is to explain to your superior that you will take the help of your sub-ordinate and submit the report with both names.

This gets the work done on time, keeps the superior informed of how it is being done, and gives the sub-ordinate due credit for the contribution, which is both honest and fair.

Putting your own name on a sub-ordinate's work is dishonest. Refusing the task outright is unhelpful when a solution is available, and submitting irrelevant material just to fill the report defeats its purpose.

Answer: D

The keyed response is to encourage the sub-ordinate to publish the paper on her own.

Authorship belongs to those who did the work. She did the research on her own, so the paper is hers to publish, and a good supervisor encourages that. Adding a name that contributed nothing is gift authorship, a recognised form of research misconduct.

Taking her data and publishing it in your own name is plagiarism. Asking to be added as an author, or making it a condition of allowing publication, abuses the supervisor's position to claim credit that is not earned.

Answer: D

The first thing to do is try to solve the questions as much as possible.

A difficult paper is difficult for every candidate, and marks are earned only by attempting questions. A calm candidate reads the paper, starts with the questions he or she can answer and makes the best possible attempt at the rest. Any genuine objection about the syllabus can be raised afterwards through the proper channel.

Telling the examiner that the questions are out of course does not change the paper during the examination. Copying from others is unfair means and leads to disqualification, and walking out of the hall throws away every mark that could have been earned.