The SBI PO prelims is the phase I of selection process and is only a qualifying exam held to filter competition for 2300 vacancies.It is scheduled to be conducted on April 29, 30 & May 6, 7 at various centres across India.
Candidates are required to pass in each section and score the necessary cutoffs.Only those who secure above the cutoff scores shall get shortlisted for the SBI PO main exam.
The online preliminary test consists of 100 questions from 3 sections that should be answered in 1 hour.Though the pattern is similar to IBPS PO prelims, the level of questions is always different.
The SBI PO prelims paper on April 29 & 30 was termed easy by a vast majority of candidates.Compared to previous years, the difficulty level of questions were relatively lower which surprised many aspirants.
Here is the most detailed section-wise analysis of SBI PO prelims examination:
English Language: Though questions were from expected topics, few modifications were added to the pattern such as Phrase replacement and Cloze test (based on new pattern).
Those who knew the concepts were able to answer the new questions easily, while others had to struggle to understand it.The topics were:
Safe Attempts: If you answered 20 + questions correctly, it can be considered as safe.
Reasoning Ability: There were no questions from syllogism and had many puzzles, which was not difficult, though.Because of the calculations involved, few complained the reasoning as difficult and time consuming.
Safe Attempts: Answering 18 + questions with good accuracy will put you in safe zone.
Quantitative Aptitude: Thankfully, the aptitude questions were not like last year.They were relatively easy to moderate and was easily solvable, expect for few problems that required further reading to understand.The topics were:
Safe Attempts: Attending 22 + questions with correct answers can be taken as safe to qualify.
Overall Safe Attempts: On the whole, a person who has attempted 55 + questions with 99% accuracy in all sections can be considered to be in the safe zone.
For those in OBC, SC, ST categories, attempting 40 – 50+ questions can be termed safe.
| Section | Total Questions | Safe Attempts | Difficulty level |
| English Language | 30 | 18 – 20 | Easy to moderate |
| Reasoning Ability | 35 | 15 – 18 | Moderate |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 35 | 20 – 24 | Easy to moderate |
| Total | 100 | 55+ (general) | Easy to moderate |
The SBI PO prelims examinations are conducted on 4 different days in 4 shifts.So averaging of marks (normalization) will happen at the time of evaluation after taking into account, the difficulty level, candidate performance in each shift, total attempts etc.,
PO vacancies are NOT filled state-wise.Hence there are NO state-wise cutoffs and a common cutoff score is only fixed all over India.
Based on the feedback and exam reviews received from candidates, we believe the SBI PO 2017 prelims expected cutoffs of individual sections may fall in the following ranges:
The cutoffs on total score that differs for each category which could hover around:
How was your SBI PO prelims exam? Share your total attempts, category & your review of the exam.