The analysis of IBPS Clerk 2018 Prelim exam held on 8th Dec 2018 (Slot 2) is presented below. Similar to the recently conducted IBPS PO Prelim, SBI PO and Clerk prelim exams, the structure of this exam presented a 20-minute per section time limit, and navigability between sections was disallowed.

Snapshot of the Exam:

Test Area	No of Questions	Max Marks	Duration
Numerical Ability	35	35	20 Mins
Reasoning Ability	35	35	20 Mins
English Language	30	30	20 Mins
Total	100	100	60 Mins

No. of choices per question - 5

Negative marking – 0.25 of the marks assigned to each question

The analysis of the above mentioned session, as reported by our students, is given below.

While no changes were observed in the prescribed pattern of the exam, a few changes worth noting are:

• Introduction of a sectional time limit, similar to the one presented in IBPS PO 2018, SBI PO and Clerk 2018 Prelim examinations.
• A question type that required matching the clauses given in two different columns to form a grammatically and logically coherent sentence. This was a replication of the pattern observed in the SBI Clerk Prelim and IBPS PO Prelim exams this year.
• Absence of questions on Symbols Notations and Coding-Decoding.

Numerical Ability:

According to feedback received from our students who appeared for this slot of the exam, this section was along predictable lines with no surprise elements to catch candidates off-guard; it has thus been rated as ‘easy to moderate’.

The 10 questions on Simplifications were easy. There were 10 questions on Data Interpretation (Table and Caselet) which ranged from easy to moderate.

The 5 questions on Number series can be rated between easy to moderate. Individual questions in this section were 10 in number and pertained to – Ages, Percentages, Profit & Loss, Time & Work, Time & Distance, Simple Interest, and Mensuration etc., and were a combination of easy and moderate.

A student could therefore, solve around 20 to 23 questions in approximately 20 minutes, provided he chose carefully.

Topic	No of Questions
Data Interpretation (Table and Caselet)	10
Number Series (Missing number)	5
Simplifications	10
Individual Questions (Ages, Percentages, Profit & lOSS, Time & Work, Time & Distance, Mensuration and Simple and Compound Interest)	10

Reasoning:

This section has also been tagged as 'Easy to Moderate'.

This slot had 5 questions on Deductions. No questions were asked from Coding – Decoding and Symbol-Notations. Blood Relations and Alphabet Series presented 2 – 3 questions, while Numeric Series had 5 doable questions.

There were 4 puzzles, one each on Linear arrangements (12 persons facing North and South), Floor Arrangement, Distribution (7 people and 7 cities), Month based puzzle. Though these were easy to moderate, they were lengthier than other questions in the same section.

Thus, almost 23 to 25 questions could possibly be solved in about 20 minutes in this section.

The topic -wise split, as per feedback received from our students, is as given below:

Topic	No of Questions
Analytical Puzzles( Linear arrangements (12 persons facing North and South), Floor Arrangement , Month based puzzle and Distribution (7 people and 7 cities))	20
Deductions (Syllogisms)	5
Blood Relations	2 - 3
Alphabet Series	2 - 3
Numerical Series	5

English Language:

This section was almost as expected, and fluctuated between easy to moderate.

• There was a single Reading Comprehension passage that was conventional in its presentation, and 6 questions were asked from it.
• There were 4-5 questions on Error Identification, where 4 sentences were given and the test-taker had to opt for the Gramatically correct one.
• There were 5 questions on pairing of clauses to form a grammatically and logically correct sentence.
• The 5 questions on Para Formation had 5 sentences in jumbled order and need to be sequentially arranged to form a meaningful paragraph.
• There were 4 - 5 questions on single blank fillers which were easy to attempt.
• There were word usage related questions, where one was expected to identify that sentence out of the given three, in which the given word was used correctly.

We can deduce that about 18 - 20 questions could possibly be solved in the given 20 minutes in the English section. The break-up of the questions is as follows:

Topic	No of Questions	Difficulty Level
Reading Comprehension	6	Easy
Para Jumbled Sentences (5 Sentences)	5	Easy - Moderate
Error Identification (Identifying the Gramatically Correct Sentence)	5	Easy - Moderate
Match the following Clauses to form grammatically and logically coherent sentence.	5	Easy - Moderate
Fill in the blanks (Single Blank)	5	Easy
Word Usage	4	Easy - Moderate

Over all, the difficulty level of the paper in this particular slot can be pegged between Easy to Moderate.

Good Attempts:

Test Area	Good Attempts
Numerical Ability	22 - 24
Reasoning Ability	23 - 25
English Language	19 - 21
Overall	64 - 71

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