IBPS RRB 2016 Prelims: How to Pass & How Many Questions to Attend?

The IBPS RRB 2016 Exam for the recruitment of Officers & Office Assistant posts in regional rural banks in scheduled to start from November 5.With a new IBPS RRB exam pattern in place, qualifying in a preliminary exam is compulsory.As there is only very little information on how to crack IBPS RRB 2016 exams, we are providing here you with detailed information about safe number of attempts to pass in the RRB prelims exam.

The IBPS RRB 2016 recruitment was announced to fill 16560 vacancies in 56 regional rural banks spread across various states of India.

Among all the jobs, two important cadres that received maximum number of applications for which the preliminary exams are held on different dates.

• Officer (scale I) – November 5 & 6
• Office Assistant – November 12, 13 & 19

Do you know that a total of 14363 posts are reserved only for these two posts, which is a good chance for freshers to enter banking sector.

How to Clear IBPS RRB 2016 Prelims

Now a big question in most of your minds will be – How many questions should I answer to pass in IBPS RRB 2016 prelims? Before answering it, lets look at the new IBPS RRB 2016 exam pattern:

It is an online test consisting of two papers for 80 marks that should be completed in 45 minutes. The sections are:

• Reasoning (40 questions)

• Quantitative aptitude (40 questions)

No questions from english language would be asked, as banks in rural areas wont have a lot of english speaking customers.

Clearing the RRB Cutoffs:

Like in any banking exam, IBPS RRB prelims also has cutoffs on each section & on the total scores, which all candidates must secure inorder to pass successfully & proceed to mains.

Previous year cutoffs are not available, because this is the first time a preliminary exam is conducted for IBPS RRB officer (scale I) & office assistant positions.

But looking at various PO exam trends, we have come up with the difficulty level & safe number of attempts.

Reasoning: There are 40 questions in this section.Some important topics that you need to focus are:

• Blood relations
• Syllogism
• Inequalities
• Puzzles
• Arrangements
• Direction sense

Try to attend atleast 20 – 25 questions correctly (98% accuracy).

Quantitative Aptitude: This section also has 40 questions & difficulty level could be between moderate to difficult.The important topics to focus in quants are:

• Number series
• Data interpretation
• Quadratic equation
• Approximations
• Other mathematical problems (ratios, averages, time & work, simple/ compound interest, percentages etc)

Answering 25 – 30 questions correctly with 98% accuracy should be considered as safe.

While each correct answer carries 1 mark, 0.25 is reduced as negative mark for every wrong answer.So you lose 1 mark if 4 answers are wrong.

Total Attempts: The overall difficulty level of IBPS RRB prelims could range between easy to moderate only.

Out of the total 80 questions, try to answer atleast 55 – 60 questions correctly (95% accuracy) to stay in the competition.

An important obstacle you will face in IBPS RRB prelims would be – TIME.

With just 45 minutes to answer all the 80 problems, you need to think & act fast – not only in choosing the correct option BUT also in leaving unknown questions.

For you to practice in the latest pattern, here are the online mock tests:

1) RRB Office Assistant Prelims Mock Tests (20 sets) – Click to buy for Rs.399

2) RRB Officer (scale I) Online Mock Tests (20 sets) – Click to buy for Rs.499

All the best for your exams!!

Are you hopeful of attending 50- 60 questions in the exam? Answer via comments..