Analysis of IBPS PO (Prelim) Online exam held on 14th Oct 2018 (Slot 2)

The analysis of the IBPS PO 2018 Prelim exam held on the 14th 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.

Snap shot of the Exam:

Test Area	No. of questions	Duration
Quantitative Aptitude	35 Questions	20 Mins
Reasoning Ability	35 Questions	20 Mins
English Language	30 Questions	20 Mins
Total no. of Questions	100 Qs	60 Mins

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

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 10 questions (2 sets) on Data Interpretation (5 questions each on Line Graph + Table and Pie Chart). Questions on Line Graph+Table were lengthy and calculation based. There were 5 questions on Wrong number series and 5 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 15 in number. These were a combination of easy, moderate and difficult ones.

A student could therefore, have solved around 17 - 19 questions in 20 minutes, if he chose judiciously.

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation (2 sets. Line graph + Table and Pie Chart)	10
Number Series (Wrong number)	5
Quadratic Comparisons	5
Individual Questions:
Ratio	1
Percentages	2
Profit & Loss	2
Partnership	1
Compound Interest	1
Time & Work	2
Trains	1
Boats & Streams	1
Numbers	1
Averages	1
Mixtures & Alligations	1
Mensuration	1
Probability	1

Reasoning:

This section has been given a 'Moderate' tag.

There were 20 questions on Puzzles (Linear Arrangement (facing North & South), Linear facing North, Circular Arrangement with 10 persons facing centre, Distribution (5 people, 5 days, 5 classes), Bags and weights based, Box based puzzle), which were of moderate level of difficulty and time consuming. There were four questions on Deductions and 3 questions on Direction Sense. These questions ranged from easy to moderate. The two questions on Coding-Decoding and Word Formations were easy.

About 15 to 17 questions could possibly be solved in 20 minutes. The topic -wise split, as reported by our students, is as given below.

Topic	No. of Questions
Puzzles (Linear Arrangement (facing North & South), Linear facing North, Circular Arrangement with 10 persons facing centre, Distribution (5 people, 5 days, 5 classes), Bags and weights based, Box based puzzle)	26
Coding – Decoding	1
Deductions	4
Direction Sense	3
Word Formation	1

English Language :

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

• The lone Reading Comprehension passage was conventional in its presentation, and comprised 7 questions. All questions were based on the given passage. No vocab questions. The passage was based on Computerization in Banking.

• Questions on Phrase Replacement comprised a sentence in which a part was in bold font. This was followed by three phrases numbered (I), (II) and (III), from which one of more could be picked from five choices listed below them.
• There were 5 questions on Cloze test and 3 questions on single blank fillers.
• There were six Para Forming Questions.
• A comparatively new question type was posed this year to our test takers. A sentence with four words in bold, and numbered A, B ,C and D was given. A candidate was expected to read and decide if the words in bold were correct per se, or needed any rearrangement. The correct choice was to be picked accordingly.

Thus, about 18-20 questions could possibly be solved in 20 minutes in the English section. The break-up of the questions is as follows:

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension	7
Phrase Replacement	6
Cloze Test	5
Fill in the Blanks (Single Blank)	3
Sentence with Words Jumbled	3
Para Forming Questions	6

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:

Test Area	Good Attempts	Expected Cutoff
Quantitative Aptitude	17 - 19	10 - 12 Marks
Reasoning Ability	15 to 17	8 – 10 Marks
English Language	18 - 20	11 to 13 Marks
Overall	50 - 56	50 to 52 Marks

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