The analysis of IBPS Clerk 2018 Prelim exam held on 9th 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:

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.
• Absence of questions on Symbols Notations, Blood Relations and Directio Sense.

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 5 questions each on Data Interpretation (Bar Graph) and Quadratic Comparisons which were easy to solve.

The 5 questions on Number series (Missing number) 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, Pipes and Cistern, Boats and Streams, Simple Interest, and Mensuration etc., and were a combination of easy and moderate.

A student could therefore, solve around 25 to 27 questions in approximately 20 minutes, provided he chose carefully.

Reasoning:

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

This slot had 5 questions each on Deductions, Coding-Decoding and Set of numbers. No questions were asked from Symbol-Notations, Blood relations and Direction Sense. The 4 questions on Sequence were doable.

There were 3 puzzles, one each on Linear arrangements (Uncertain no. of persons), Floor Arrangement, and Circular Arrangement (8 persons facing centre). Though these were easy to moderate, they were lengthier than other questions in the same section.

Thus, almost 24 to 26 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:

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 8 questions were asked from it. There were 2 questions based on Vocab.
• There were 5 questions on Error Identification, where 4 sentences were given and the test-taker had to opt for the Gramatically correct one.
• There were 7 questions on Cloze Test.
• There were 5 questions on Sentence Rearrangement which were easy to attempt.
• There were 5 questions on Phrase Replacement where a sentence with one part in bold font was to be replaced with the correct choice from among the five given.

We can deduce that about 21 - 23 questions could possibly be solved in the given 20 minutes in the English section. The break-up of the questions is as follows:

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

Good Attempts: