It was a day that many were expecting for a long time.Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted the Clerk Main Exam for its recruitment announced in 2015. As you may all know that only the qualifiers of preliminary exam are eligible to appear for the main exam.In this article we are going to provide you an overview of IBPS Clerk Mains Review cum Analysis.
According to the clerical exam pattern, you are required to answer 200 objective type questions in 5 sections – Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning, English Language, Computers & General Awareness within 120 minutes.
Mains Exam was Easy
All candidates who had appeared for the exam are terming the question paper as easy.See table for an overall analysis:
|
Section |
Total Questions |
Difficulty Level |
Maximum Time |
|
Quantitative Aptitude |
40
|
Easy to Moderate | 35 mins |
|
Reasoning | 30 mins | ||
|
English Language | 25 mins | ||
|
General Awareness | 15 mins | ||
| Computer Knowledge |
Easy | 15 mins |
Since question were of moderate level of difficulty,the overall safe number of attempts can be around 135 – 145.
How were the Sections?
There will be seperate cutoff scores for each section & you need to qualify in each for clearing the mains.So here is the section-wise analysis:
Reasoning: The questions were on expected lines only & one could have easily completed this part in 30 minutes.
|
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Difficulty Level |
|
Syllogism |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
|
Floor arrangement |
5 |
Easy |
|
Row arrangement |
5 | |
|
Square In out arrangement |
5 | |
|
Number-symbol series |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
|
Inequality |
5 |
Moderate |
|
Coding Decoding |
5 |
Easy |
|
Data sufficiency & direction test |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
Good Attempts: If you had correctly attempted 30-35, there is very good chance of qualifying in reasoning.
Quantitative Aptitude: Though not very easy, QA was still answerable in 35 minutes. Some called it tough & time consuming but it was not hard like in PO mains.
|
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Difficulty Level |
|
Number series |
5 |
Moderate |
|
Data Interpretation |
5 | |
|
Simplification |
15 | |
|
Arithmetic & Geometry |
15 |
Easy to Moderate |
Good Attempts: Just because it involved lot of calculative work, 25-27 attempts will be safe.
English Language: The questions were of standard pattern only.It doesnt take more than 20-25 minutes to move from this section.
|
Topic |
Number of questions |
Difficulty Level |
|
Reading Comprehension |
10 |
Moderate |
|
Cloze test |
10 |
Easy |
|
Fill in the blanks (Double) |
5 | |
|
Sentence Errors |
5 | |
|
Para jumbled |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
|
Sentence Errors |
5 |
Good Attempts: 25-27 attempts with accuracy of over 90% shall put you in safe zone.
Computer Knowledge: This was the easiest among all other sections.The questions asked were based on:
Computer basics, Internet, Text formatting of paragraphs, Computer shortcuts,
File transfer, Web search, E-mail, Input-Output Devices, Application Software, Memory, Software, Hard ware, Networking, DBMS and Software application .
Good Attempts: 30-32 can be classifed as safe.
General Awareness: Atleast 15-17 questions were about latest events in banking, finance & business.The remaining were from current affairs, banking terms & regular (static) GK
Anyone who had prepared GK affairs for the last 6 months would have attended this section quite easily.
Good Attempts: 22-25 questions should help you clear the cutoffs.
What Will be IBPS Clerk Mains Cutoffs?
As mentioned earlier, the clerical main exam was overall an easy paper.Therefore, the chance of high cutoffs is very much possible.
Accuracy & Time management will play an important factor in deciding your scores.
All those who were cool during the exam in spite of the short time would be able to post decent scores.
However, candidates who rushed at the last minute due to lack of time could find their scores going down further due to negative marks.
Since there will be state-wise cutoffs, candidates with a total of 130+ attempts can be very sure of qualifying in mains.
Therefore, it will be a close call for many individuals.
Share your main exam performance along with attempts in comments section below.