The much-awaited IBPS Clerk 2015 exam was held today. All four slots of today’s exam are over. The remaining slots will be conducted on 6th, 12th & 13th of December. Candidates are very curious by now to know the analysis of the newly introduced IBPS Clerk Prelims exam. In this article we will discuss a detailed & topic-wise analysis of each section in all the exam slots. Also, we will look at the expected overall & sectional cut-offs of this exam.

     As we all know, IBPS has changed the pattern of Clerk exam from this year by introducing the Preliminary exam. IBPS Clerk 2015 prelims has a pattern similar to IBPS PO 2015 Prelims exam. It has three sections namely Verbal aptitude, Quantitative aptitude and reasoning ability. There are total 100 questions distributed among these 3 sections which are to be solved within 60 minutes. Let’s take a look at topic wise analysis of each of these sections.

1) Reasoning Ability

Total marks : 35 marks

Topic                                         Number of questions

Seating arrangements                       10 (2 sets)         

Linear arrangements                           5 (1 set)

Number series                                        5

Coding-decoding                                   5

Inequality                                                5

Miscellaneous                                         5

         The difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate. There were total 3 sets on arrangement topic, but for well practiced candidate, they were quite easy and quick to solve. Surprisingly, there was not a single question on Syllogism. Questions based on other topics were quite easy to solve.

2) Verbal aptitude

Total marks : 30

Topic                                         Number of questions

Spotting error                                          05

Para jumbles                                            05

Sentence improvement                           05

Cloze test                                                  05

Reading comprehension                          10

        Verbal Aptitude section was the easiest section in this exam. The passage given for reading comprehension was a story based passage (a story about a king and his three sons) and a bit lengthy one. Also, topics like ‘cloze test’ and ‘para jumbles’ were story based too. So, being a story based parajumble, it was bit easy and quick to solve.

3) Quantitative Aptitude

Total marks : 35

Topic                                             Number of questions

Data Interpretation                                 05 (1 set)

Number series                                            05

Simplification                                               10

Arithmetic                                                    15

        The difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate. But as per the reviews from few candidates, this section specifically the Arithmetic, was bit calculative and quite time consuming. The major change in this section was the absence of ‘Quadratic equations’.  Also there were 10 questions based on simplication. There was only one set of DI based on tabular graph which was quite easy.

Overall Analysis :  

       If we compare IBPS 2015 Clerks prelims with IBPS PO 2015 prelims, the level of difficulty is much easy as expected. The questions were easy, straight forward & less time consuming. With strong basics & enough daily practice candidates can easily sail through.

Overall Cut-offs :

Category         Cut-off marks

General                    43-47

  OBC                       40-43

    SC                        33-36

    ST                         23-26

    Candidates should note that the above
mentioned cut-offs
may vary in the range of +/- 3. (Further, there is some chance that the cutoffs
may be lower than this – however, it is unlikely that the cutoffs would be
higher than this.)

Sectional Cut-off :

Sectional cut-offs per section will be around 4-6 marks. So, do not worry about sectional cutoffs. Clearing sectional cutoff is an easy task. 

Ideal number of attempts :

Let us now consider the minimum number of questions that candidates should have attempted to secure their chances of clearing IBPS Clerk 2015 Prelims and get selected for Mains.

       Based on the
difficulty level of the questions, we can say candidates should have ideally
attempted around 55-60+ questions out of 100 questions (to be on safe side)
with around 90% accuracy.

         So, while concluding we can say that, the
first ever IBPS Clerk 2015 Preliminary exam paper was quite easy. But
introduction of few major changes in topic wise pattern (No syllogism,
quadratic equations) might cause some marks during very hour of exam. Still,
candidates who have devoted a good amount of time for daily practice before the
exam will not have to face any problem to clear prelims.

Best of luck!!!