Analysis of IBPS Clerk III – Nov 30 and Dec 01

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted online examination, for the recruitment of Personnel in Clerical Cadre in the 20 Nationalized Banks, across the country on the November 30 and December 01, 2013. 

There were 200 questions in the paper, which had to be answered in 120 minutes. There were five sections in all - Reasoning, Numerical Ability, General Awareness, English Language and Computer Knowledge. Other than the fourth section, where in a candidate had to attempt the section in English Language, all the other sections were available bilingually, that is, in both English and Hindi. Each question had 5 options. There was negative marking of one-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question for all the sections.

Overall the examination was Moderate. The questions in Numerical Ability and Reasoning were a bit lengthy and Time consuming. That’s exactly the point where results might make a difference. English and Computer Knowledge sections were easy. General awareness section was moderate and was dominated by Banking Questions.

The pattern of test was as follows:

Section	Total Questions	Max. Marks	Level of Difficulty	Possible Attempts
Reasoning	40	40	Moderate	25-28
Numerical Ability	40	40	Moderate	25-28
General Awareness	40	40	Moderate	30-32
English Language	40	40	Easy-Moderate	32-34
Computer Knowledge	40	40	Easy	32-35
Total	200	200		135-150

Reasoning 
This section was a bit time consuming though the questions were easy. The pattern was on the lines with the previous exams conducted in the Clerical Cadre. There was no question from Non-Verbal Reasoning just as IBPS PO-III Exam. Sitting Arrangement and Puzzles were time consuming.

The details of the section are as follows:

Topic	Number of Questions
Syllogism	5
Data Sufficiency	4
Seating Arrangement	5
Puzzle	5
Coding-Decoding	5
Alpha-Numeric Series	5
Miscellaneous	6
Inequalities	5

English Language

The questions in this section were fairly easy thereby making students, who feel it difficult to score in this section, breathe a sigh of relief.

The details of the section are as follows:

Topic	Number of Questions
Reading Comprehensions	10
Rearrangement	5
Cloze test	10
Error Spotting	5
Phrases	5
Fill in the blanks	5

Numerical Ability 

DI in this section was, IBPS took most of the students by surprise. Though the questions in DI were easy enough, there were a few questions in this section that were time consuming. There were 10 questions on simplification which were tedious.

The details of the section are as follows:

Topic	Section
Number Series	5
Data Interpretation(Pie-Chart, Table)	5-10
Simplification	10
Arithmetic	15-20

General Awareness

This section was of moderate difficulty level as compared to the other sections. Banking and Economy dominated this section. Questions in Current Affairs were asked from International affairs as well as Indian Economy Questions related to RBI were given a special attention. Questions on currency and awards were also asked.

Computer Knowledge 

This section was based on basic knowledge of computers. Questions were very easy. The main areas from which questions were asked are: MS Office, Application Software, Hardware, Software, and Input-Output Units.