Dear readers,

IBPS successfully conducted the IBPS CWE Clerk 2015 Mains exam on January 2nd & 3rd, 2016, in morning and evening slots. 

Most of you would be curious to know about the questions asked, the difficulty level and the expected cut-offs. This article gives you a detailed, section-wise and topic-wise analysis. Also, we will look at the expected, overall and sectional cut-offs for this exam.

As we all know, from 2015 onwards, IBPS started conducting the Clerk exam in three phases-Prelims – Mains – Interview. So, we will first take a look at the exam pattern. This two-hour test comprised five sections and a total of 200 questions. The segregation is as follows:

Section                          No. of Questions          No. of Marks

Reasoning Ability                     40                                40

English Language                    40                                40

Quantitative Aptitude              40                                40

General Awareness                 40                                40

Computer Awareness              40                                40

Now, let’s go look into the topic-wise analysis of the IBPS CWE Clerk 2015 Mains exam.

1) English Language:

Total Marks: 40

Topic                                   No. of Questions

Spot the Error                                  05

Para Jumbles                                  05

Cloze Test                                       10

Reading Comprehension (1 set)     10

Sentence Improvement                   05

Double fillers                                   05

The difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate. There was no change in the topic-wise pattern this year. Questions based on RC and Spot the Error were of moderate difficulty level. 

2) Reasoning Ability:

Total Marks: 40

Topic                               No. of Questions

Syllogism                                   05

Seating Arrangement               05

Linear Arrangements                05

Puzzle                                        05

Data Sufficiency                        03

Number – Symbol Series          05

Coding-decoding                      05

Inequality                                   05

Direction                                    02

The difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate. However, many students have indicated that this section was the toughest one. Puzzle questions were of moderate difficulty level and a bit time-consuming. Interestingly, this year there were no questions based on Input-Output. 

3) Quantitative Aptitude

Total marks: 40

Topic                               No. of Questions

Data Interpretation                    05

Number series                           05

Arithmetic                                   15

Simplification                              15  

The difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate. This year the exam had questions based on Geometry. Simplification questions were easy but quite time-consuming. Questions based on Arithmetic were of easy to moderate difficulty level. Surprisingly, no question was asked from Quadratic Equations topic.

4) General Awareness

Total marks: 40

In this section, a total of 25 questions were asked. While most questions on Current Affairs were about appointments, awards, committees, book & authors, etc, a few were also based on static GK. Around 15 questions were asked on Banking Awareness. The difficulty level of this section was moderate.  

5) Computer Awareness 

Total Marks: 40

Questions asked in this section were simple and easy to tackle. Thus, the difficulty level of this section was easy. Many questions were asked on topics like Hardware and MS Office. Considering the level of difficulty, candidates should easily be able to score 30+ marks in this section. If so, this section will play a crucial role to attain the expected cut-off marks.

Overall & Sectional Cut-offs:

To discuss the overall state-wise cut-offs for the IBPS CWE Clerk 2015 Mains exam, we need to first go through last year’s cut-offs. 

This year’s cut-offs might be in the range of -3 to +7 marks vis-à-vis last year. In order to calculate their tentative range, note the 2014 cut-offs for your respective state & category and add -3 to +7 marks to it. For example: The cut-off range for a General Category candidate from Uttar Pradesh, who needed to score 116 marks last year, would be around 113-123 marks this year. 

Good Number of Attempts:

As per the above example, a candidate who needs to score 113-123 marks should attempt at least 155-160 questions out of 200, with at least 80% accuracy. 

Sectional Cut-offs:

This year sectional cut-offs might increase by 1-2 marks vis-à-vis last year. For the Computer Awareness section, cut-offs may well increase by 2-3 marks as it was fairly easy. Given below are last year’s cut-offs for all five sections:

Section                            Cut-off Marks           Total Marks

Reasoning Ability                     16                              40

English Language                    10                              40

Quantitative Aptitude              13                              40

General Awareness                 10                              40

Computer Awareness              18                              40

We can conclude that the difficulty level of this exam was similar to last year’s test. So, you should be confident that your hard work and practice will pay off.

Best of Luck!!!