It has been reported by our students, that the online IBPS PO/MT CWE 2018 Main examination held on 18th Nov 2018 was tedious, time-consuming and difficult vis-a-vis with the one held in 2017.

The Reasoning section was difficult while the English section ranged between moderate to difficult. The Quant section was both time-consuming and challenging, whereas the one on GA was less intense.

The following changes / new question types were observed in the exam this year:

1. 5 statement questions on data sufficiency in Reasoning;
2. A new format of Puzzle questions (Triangle + Distribution, Circular+Symbols+QBR);
3. The presentation of Cloze test paragraph in the English section was entirely offbeat – a paragraph with 10 to 12 questions was given on - fill in the blanks, replacing a phrase, replacing the whole sentence etc..
4. Individual questions combined with Data Sufficiency
5. Data Comparisons involving three quantities
6. Para Jumbled Sentences with the fifth sentence fixed. Questions asked were, way different from the commonly asked ones, loke - ‘Which of the following connects Sentence ‘a’ and Sentence ‘b’? Which of the following sentence can come between in ‘c’ and ‘d’?

The snapshot of the exam is given below:

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

Quantitative Aptitude:

According to feedback received from our students who appeared for this exam, this section can be rated as very difficult and was quite time-consuming.

Questions on DI were long drawn-out and required arduous effort to solve; questions on caselets were tough, while those on number series were reportedly a mix of moderate and difficult. Individual questions in this section were based on topics like Age, Profit and Loss, Time & Work, Time & Distance, etc.. Though they are not direct questions, they have been described as tricky, and only an in-depth knowledge of concepts could have helped a candidate solve them out accurately. Questions on Data Sufficiency (3 statements) too ranged from moderate to difficult. The 5 questions on Data comparisons involving three quantities were also reportedly within reasonable levels.

Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude:

This section has been labelled as 'difficult'.

The emphasis here was on puzzles, which were a twister. There are three new types of puzzles – Triangular arrangement and floors+flats+QBR, Circular+Symbols+QBR. There were 4 questions on Input-Output, 3 questions on sequence and 1 question each on Coding-Decoding and Direction sense. The Data Sufficiency questions followed by 5 statements posed difficult questions. About 9 - 10 questions were asked on Critical Reasoning.

There were no questions on Computer Aptitude in this section.

English Language:

This section varied between moderate to tough. There were 7 to 8 RC passages with approximately 20 to 22 questions. There were 5 Para jumbled questions with the 5th sentence fixed. Questions posed from this jumble were a far cry from the commonly asked ones. A few of them were like – Which of the following connects statement ‘a’ with statement ‘b’? Which of the following sentences can be placed between sentences ‘c’ and ‘d’?

The Cloze test paragraph was very inconventional in its presentation, with its 10 to 12 questions. Questions were not consistent with those characteristic of a cloze test, and included a multitude of question types namely, fill in the blanks, phrase in bold replacement, Error identification, Para Completion Question.

On a whole, this section can be rated as ranging between 'Moderate to Difficult'.

General Awareness:

While half of the questions asked here were based on Banking Awareness and Indian Economy, the other half were drawn from Current Affairs. Current Affairs presented questions from the events that took place in April , May and June. Students have reported this as a moderate and doable section.

(B) Descriptive Test:

This section was conducted for 25 marks, with a time limit of 30 minutes, and comprised Letter and Essay Writing. There were 5 topics for writing essays and 5 for letters, and the test-taker had to pick one topic from each of these to write on. Both the letter and essay were to be written in about 150 words each.

Essay topics:

1. Dizitization of Magazines and Journals
2. Fake news and steps to prevent it
3. Does India need Universal health care?
4. Advantages of learning a foreign language
5. NOTA

Letter Writing:

1. Letter to the Editor about pollution during festivals
2. Letter to your neighbours thanking them for their timely help in admitting one of  your family members to hospital
3. Letter to the Muncipal officer about encroachment from street hawkers
4. Letter to the author of a newly released book and commending his work
5. Letter to the branch manager requesting him to have a separate queue for senior citizens

The analysis of the IBPS PO 2018 Prelim exam held on the 13th of October 2018 (Slot 2) has been presented below. Similar to the recently conducted SBI PO and Clerk prelim exams, the structure of even this exam presented a sectional time limit, no navigability between any section, and each section time bound for 20 minutes.

Snapshot of the Exam:

No of choices per question – 5

Negative marking: 0.25 of the marks assigned to each question

As per feedback received from our students who appeared for this exam, the exam can be rated as moderate. Although no major changes were reported in the prescribed pattern of the exam, a few changes worth noting are:

• Introduction of a sectional time limit;
• Modified Grammar question
• Matching the Clauses given in two different columns to form grammatically and logically coherent sentence.

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

Quantitative Aptitude:

This section can be rated as moderate and was time consuming. No new question types / pattern of questions were asked in this slot of the exam.

There was no question on Simplifications, Approximations, Data Sufficiency and Data Comparison.

There were 15 to 18 questions (3 sets) on Data Interpretation (5-6 questions each on Line Graph, Table and Caselet). Questions were lengthy and calculation based. There were 5 questions on Wrong number series and 6 questions on Quadratic Comparisons. Questions on Quadratic comparisons were easy to moderate to solve whereas questions on Wrong number series were moderate in nature.

Individual questions were 7 to 8 in number. These were a combination of easy, moderate and difficult ones.

A student could therefore, have solved around 16 - 18 questions in 20 minutes, if he chose judiciously.

Reasoning:

This section has been given a 'Moderate' tag.

There were 20 questions on Puzzles (Linear with quant based reasoning, Square, Quant based Reasoning + Ages, Box puzzle), which were of moderate level of difficulty and time consuming. There were five questions on Symbols and Notations and 3 to 4 questions on Blood Relations. These questions ranged from easy to moderate. The three questions on Data Sufficiency were moderate and time-consuming.

About 18 to 20 questions could possibly be solved in 20 minutes. The topic -wise split, as reported by our students, is as given below.

English Language :

This section has been tagged as 'Moderate’ by our students.

• The lone Reading Comprehension passage was conventional in its presentation, and comprised 7 to 8 questions, of which 2 were vocab questions.

• There were 5 questions on the Error Identification (Word Usage) pattern. One sentence with four to five words in bold was given, and the aspirant was expected to pick the contextually inappropriate word from among them.
• There were 4 to 5 questions on Word Replacement and 2 to 3 questions on word usage.
• There were 5 questions on pairing of clauses to form grammatically and logically correct sentence.

Thus, about 15-17 questions could possibly be solved in 20 minutes in the English section. The break-up of the questions is as follows:

Over all, the paper was a combination of easy, moderate and difficult questions across all the three sections and can hence be rated as 'Moderate'.

Good Attempts and Expected Cutoffs:

The online IBPS RRB Officers Main examination held on 30th Sep 2018 was moderate in terms of difficulty level, according to test takers.

While the Reasoning and English Sections were moderate, the Quant section was time-consuming. The GA section was ranged between easy and moderate, and the one on Computers can be tagged as easy.

A snap shot of the said exam is given below:

Quantitative Aptitude:

This section can be rated as moderate and lengthy.

The questions on DI were time-consuming. Individual questions in this section were drawn from topics like Ratio, Time & Work, Time & Distance, Mensuration, Averages, Mixtures and Alligation, Percentages, Profit & Loss, Partnership, Probability etc. Most of these questions were reportedly tricky and required an in-depth knowledge of concepts to solve them. The 5 questions on Data Sufficiency were moderate with regard to level difficulty. There were 5 questions on Quadratic comparisons too, which were relatively easier to work out.

Reasoning Ability:

This section can be given a moderate tag, from feedback received by our students.

The emphasis here was on puzzles, which were challenging. Questions on Critical Reasoning and Input-Output can be assigned a moderate level of diffciulty. The Data Sufficiency topic posed questions with a moderate level of difficulty.

English Language:

This section was moderate in terms of difficulty level. There was a single RC passage from which ten questions were posed. The Cloze passage comprised 8 blanks. There were 5 one-blank Fill in the blank questions, and 5 on Sentence Rearrangement. Error Identification presented a total of 10 questions on, out of which 5 were the commonly asked traditional ones, while the other 5 were presented in a novel form. One sentence with four words in bold was given, and the aspirant was expected to pick the contextually inappropriate word from among them.

General Awareness:

As reported by our students, about 60 % – 70 % of the questions asked here were typically drawn from topics related to Current Affairs and Banking Awareness. Questions on Current Affairs were based on events organised in the months of April, May and June, or ones that took place during this period.

Computer Knowledge:

Questions in this section dealt with Acronyms, MS Office, Networking, Operating System, Internet, Computer Architecture etc.

It has been reported that the online RRB Officer (Scale I) Prelim examination held on 11th August 2018 was of moderate difficulty level. A similar trend was observed for exams held across all slots.

A snap shot of the prelim exam is given below.

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

The following changes were observed in the paper this year:

1. Questions on Data Comparison generally asked in the Main exam found a place in this paper.
2. Increased focus on questions based on Analytical puzzles.
3. Questions on Data sufficiency generally a part of the Main exam were asked in this exam.

Quantitative Aptitude:

Common topics for all slots:

• There were 15 questions on Data Interpretation. These questions involved calculations and were of moderate level of difficulty .
• There were 5 questions on Number Series which were easy to solve.
• The individual questions varied from 10 to 15 in number across different slots. These questions were a combination of easy, and moderate levels of difficulty.

Spread of topics in some slots:

• In some of the slots, there were 5 questions on Quadratic Comparisons whereas in other slots, questions on Data comparisons were given instead of questions from Quadratic Comparisons.
• In some of the slots there were 5 questions on Approximations.

Reasoning Ability:

This section, on the whole, has been tagged as 'Moderate'.

There were 20 to 30 questions on Puzzles (Circular, Linear (Two row), Box puzzle etc..), and all of these questions can be labelled ‘moderate’ in terms of the level of difficulty. Questions on Coding-Decoding, Symbols and Notations, Coding-Decoding and Deductions were easy to crack. There were 3 to 4 questions each on Blood Relations and Direction Sense.

Overall, the paper can be rated slightly difficult as compared to the same exam that was conducted in 2017.

The SBI PO 2018 Main Examination held on the 4th of August 2018, as per the feedback received from our students, was along expected lines with regard to unexpectedness, or in simple words, was mind-boggling!

The overall examination can be rated as tough. Data Interpretation and English sections were difficult, while the Reasoning section was very difficult. The General Awareness section was easy to moderate and thankfully, as per expectations. The sectional and overall cutoff is predicted to be lower than that of SBI PO 2017 main examination.

Surprise elements seem to have become a norm in all Bank exams, and the SBI PO Main exam was no exception to this. Certain unforeseen factors that popped up out of the blue created problems for candidates in terms of accuracy of answering and time management.

Students, let us now understand what these 'surprise elements' are! These are our age-old conventional and commonly asked questions presented to us in different formats, that take the wind off our sails during exams. Which is why test-takers get agitated upon coming across such questions in Bank exams.

Let us present a few examples to elucidate this point:

In this exam, there were a few surprise elements where the same old question had been twisted a bit to give rise to a seemingly new question type, and also panic among candidates.

The RC passage was presented differently, the PFQs were asked differently and new pattern of cloze test, FIBs were asked.

In the Reasoning section too, it rained NEW MODELS!!

Thus, you need to keep your cool when confronted with such questions in your exams. Be thorough with your concepts and think logically to overcome this hurdle called 'surprise elements'!!!

The snap shot of the exam is given below. There was no mention of marks assigned per question in any of the sections.

(A) Objective Test:

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

Quantitative Aptitude:

This section can be rated as moderate - difficult and time-consuming.

There were 3 DI sets (details given in table below). All these sets were difficult and time-consuming.

There were 5 questions each on Data Sufficiency and Data Comparision. The difficulty level of these question types can be pegged between moderate and difficult. There were three sets of caselet based quant questions on Time & Work, Profit & Loss, Partnership.

Reasoning:

This section can be given a 'very difficult' tag.

Overall, this section has been rated as both very difficult and time-consuming. No question was asked from Computers, a trend noticeable in the last couple of years.

The following table gives the break-up of various question types.

There were a total of 23 questions on puzzles which were very difficult to crack. The questions on Input-Output, Direction sense based on symbols and Coding-Decoding were presented in a different format, away from the common presentation.

English Language:

Let us take a look at each question type of the English section.

Para jumbled / formation questions (PFQs) – This year, the pattern changed quite a bit. While there were three questions from the commonly asked PFQ type where six sentences are given that have to be arranged in their logical order, the second type was way different from the former. Out of the seven statements labelled A to F, the middle one that is, statement (D) was fixed, and the ones that preceded and followed it had to be sequenced. Though it may seem just a slight digression from the earlier ones, it would certainly have been more time-consuming. However, the approach needed to be applied here is more or less consistent, and the difficulty level can be pegged between moderate to difficult.

Fill in the Blanks – A single sentence with three blanks was given, followed by six words. The test taker was expected to choose a pair of words for each of the blanks given, and complete the idea thus fractured by the gaps. This is an entirely new question. Thiss too can be rated as tedious.

Reading Comprehension – While one passage was the usual one followed by questions, the other one was way different. It stretched across six paragraphs, and in each one sentence was given in bold. Among the questions asked were those that asked the exam aspirants to choose a sentence that best replaced the highlighted one, or leave it untouched, if it were logical per se. Very difficult, but not unachievable if one keeps track of both the linking thread and the idea flow!

Cloze Test: This question type was also presented in a novel way. Instead of the words which were used to fill up the blanks, phrase/sentence were given.

This section can be rated as difficult, as here, students had to not only deal with the surprise presentations, but also understand how to answer them.

General Awareness:

This section was the saving grace in the entire paper.
As reported by our students, about 70 % – 80 % of the questions asked here were on Current Affairs and the remaining on Banking Awareness, Union Budget, Monetary policies, FDI etc...

(B) Descriptive Test:

This section carried Letter and Essay writing. There were three letters given and the candidate had to write a letter from among them. Among the 3 essays given, one had to be chosen by the test-taker. What was noteworthy was that both the letter and essay were to be written in 150 words each.

Letter writing [20 Marks, 150 words] -

1. A letter to be written to your branch manager about failed UPI transaction.
2. A letter to be written to the branch manager regarding subscription of a monthly journal.
3. A letter to be written to concerned authority regarding the use of pesticides in production of fruits and vegetables.

Essay writing [30 Marks, 150 words]-

1. Bitcoins.
2. About projects and assignments given in school.
3. Mansoon creates havoc every year. Suggest some measures to make the cities better.

The analysis of the SBI PO 2018 Prelim exam held on the 1st of July 2018 has been presented below. Similar to the recently conducted SBI Clerk prelim exam, the structure of even this exam presented a sectional time limit, with no navigability allowed between any section, and each section was time bound for 20 minutes.

Snap shot of the Exam:

No of choices per question – 5

Negative marking: 0.25 of the marks assigned to each question

As per the feedback received from our students who appreared for this exam, the exam can be rated as easy to moderate. Although no major changes were reported in the prescribed pattern of the exam, few changes which are worth noting are:

• Introduction of a sectional time limit
• Unlike the bank exams held in recent past, there was no uniformity in both the number of questions asked, and the question types in each of the sections, among any of the slots.

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

Quantitative Aptitude:

According to the feedback received, this section can be classified as easy to moderate.

All other aspects of this section were on par with those of the same exam held last year, with the exception of two pet PO Main areas – Data Comparisons and Data Sufficiency – that surprisingly popped up in this section of prelim exam.

Since the difficulty level was moderate, an attempt of around 16-18 questions within the allocated time limit of 20 minutes can be rated as good number of attempts.

Following table depicts the number of questions from various topics, which were asked in this section.

Reasoning Ability:

This section has been tagged as 'Moderate'.

Because the questions here were lengthy and time-consuming, the difficulty level of this section was raised a couple of notches higher than before. There was variation in both the number of questions asked, as also in their presence, across slots.

• The number of questions on Puzzles was as low as 12 in one slot, and as high as 27 in another.
• The questions on Input-Output and Data Sufficiency which were in general asked in main exam found a place in this section of prelim exam.
• The difficulty level of puzzles was high as compared to the exam that was held in 2017.

Since the difficulty level was moderate, an attempt of around 14-16 questions within the allocated time limit of 20 minutes can be rated as good number of attempts.

Following table depicts the number of questions from various topics, which were asked in this section

English Language :

This section was rated as the easiest among the three sections in the exam.

Along lines similar to the other two aforementioned sections, questions presented in various slots were different in number, and their presence too was not uniform. Though candidates were tested in all the important areas, the weightage varied as a result of the above mentioned change in the manner of presentation, and this is noteworthy.

Questions on Error Identification were of two differnt types, one on the conventional, commonly asked and formatted one, and the other were on - “Identifying the grammatically correct one from the given choices”. There were a few questions from 'Sentence starters' too, which were hitherto alien to the Prelims part of the SBI PO exams.

Thus, about 15-17 questions in the English section could easily have been solved in the 20 minutes alloted to this section.

Following table depicts the number of questions from various topics, which were asked in this section.

Over all, the difficulty level of the exam can be pegged as Easy to Moderate.