The SBI clerk mains exam was held recently for the recruitment of junior associates & agricultural junior associates in state bank of india.But the SBI clerk main exam reviews of candidates seems to paint a different picture than what was expected.Most of them who had easily cleared the prelims test felt the main examination as too tough.Based on their feedback, here is the complete review & SBI clerk mains exam 2016 expected cutoffs.
Who wouldnt want to be part of India`s largest public sector bank?That was the reason behind the massive response for SBI recruitment to fill 17000 clerical jobs.
Following the release of SBI clerk prelims results, candidates had to appear for the main examinations on June 25 & 26th.The sbi clerical mains was the important test to qualify as these marks would only be considered for final selection.
SBI Clerk Mains – Tough & Tricky Exam
In a clear shift of things, SBI clerk mains was not the exam it used to be few years ago. They have incorporated many new changes, right from pattern to question difficulty.
The general overview of clerical mains as shared by candidates is:
With a new system of time limit being introduced for each section, candidates need to complete answering a particular test within the specific duration.
The order of online test was fixed and all candidates should take questions only in the following order:
- General awareness (35 mins),
- English language (35 min),
- Reasoning ability & Computer aptitude (45 mins) and
- Quantitative aptitude (45 mins)
Since this was the first time, some candidates grew nervous thinking about the time limit.
SBI Clerk Mains Expected Cutoffs
When SBI clerk prelims cutoffs were released, it was very surprising to see single digit marks as sectional cutoffs.
We had mentioned that prelims cutoffs could be in the range of 55 – 62 but in Delhi & Punjab, it even reached 66.
On the other hand, candidates of Tamilnadu, Telengana, Andhra pradesh were even more shocked to see very low total cutoffs for their states.
So its not clear on what basis SBI is calculating the cutoff scores.But with whatever feedback we received from candidates, here are the SBI clerk mains expected cutoffs:
- General awareness: 12 – 16
- English: 10 – 15
- Reasoning: 8 – 14
- Quantitative aptitude: 7 – 13
There are seperate state-wise cutoffs on the total scores as well which will differ for junior associate & junior agricultural associate.
- General: 90 – 110
- OBC: 85 – 100
- SC: 80- 90
- ST: 60 – 75
Cutoffs depend on the number of vacancies, exam performance, difficulty level etc.,So we need to wait for the results for exact marks.
SBI Clerk Mains Results Status:
After nearly 4 months, State Bank of India has finally declared the final list of candidates who are chosen for the post of clerks.
October update: SBI Clerk Recruitment: Main Exam & Final Results released
SBI Clerk Mains Exam Review:
Since it was not possible to attend questions from another section midway, individuals found it tough to manage time.Here is the detailed review of each section.
General/ Financial Awareness: Though the questions were not too tough, it was not easy as well.Inaddition to banking & economy related questions, there were also traditional/ static GK such as parks, headquarters, lakes, rivers etc.,
Anyone who studied these topics wouldnt find this section as tough to answer.But a majority of candidates were worried about their performance in general awareness.
Safe attempts: Answering 32+ questions correctly gives a best chance to qualify in this part.
English Language: Nothing much to discuss here as the questions were similar to that of prelims.Reading comprehension, Cloze tests, Parajumbles, Sentence correction etc were the topics asked.
Safe attempts to qualify: 30+ correct answers
Reasoning & Computer aptitude: Here came the twist.There was a hope of getting atleast 20 computer awareness questions along with reasoning questions.
But it had only aptitude problems to solve involving binary digits & symbolic representations.It was a major disappointment for candidates who expected some basic questions on computers, which are easy to answer.
Coming to reasoning problems, the difficulty level was between easy to moderate.Some topics are:
- Puzzles
- Input/ Output
- Data sufficiency
- Arrangements
- Inequalities
Few questions were tricky & involved lot of calculations pushing up the time spent on this particular section.
Safe attempts to qualify: 30+ answers with good accuracy
Quantitative Aptitude: This was quite difficult for many especially for those who started appearing for bank exams recently.
The inability to recognize the concept was the biggest problem because only few questions were direct.All others required understanding of concepts first.
- Number series
- Data interpretation
- Quadratic equations
- Simple/ Compund interest
- Data sufficiency
- Time & work/distance
- Simplifcations
- Trigonometry
With just 45 minutes limit, few candidates found it hard to answer after their poor show in the remaining sections.
Safe attempts to qualify: 25+ with 100% accuracy should be good enough to qualify