IBPS Clerk (Preliminary) Exam - 2015 flagged off on December 5, 2015. This exam is being conducted for the first time. It is being held in four time slots from morning to evening. The exam will span over a period of two weeks, ending December 20, 2015. A total of 100 questions had to be answered in 60 minutes. Each correct answer will fetch 1 mark while each incorrect answer will reduce the score by 0.25.
The detailed break up of the paper is as follows:
| Section | Total Questions |
Level of difficulty |
Good Attempts |
Good Score |
Approximate time taken (in minutes) |
English Language |
30 |
Easy-Moderate |
20-22 |
17-20 |
15 |
Reasoning Ability |
35 |
Easy-Moderate |
22-24 |
19-21 |
20 |
Numerical Ability |
35 |
Easy-Moderate |
18-20 |
15-18 |
25 |
Total |
100 |
Easy-Moderate |
60-66 |
51-59 |
60 |
Topic |
Number of questions |
Level of Difficulty |
Reading Comprehension (Story based: King and his sons) |
10 |
Easy |
Sentence Improvement |
5 |
Moderate |
Para-jumbles |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
Sentence Correction |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
Cloze Test (Story based) |
5 |
Easy |
The 10 questions on Reading Comprehension were story based involving a king and his sons. The questions were easy. Even the Cloze Test was story based and most likely, taken from a fairy tale. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate.
Topic |
Number of questions |
Level of Difficulty |
Blood Relation |
2 |
Easy to Moderate |
Ranking Arrangement |
2 |
Easy to Moderate |
Coding-Decoding (Single question) |
2 |
Easy |
Pair of Letters |
1 |
Easy |
Row Arrangement (12 persons) |
1 |
Easy |
Number Arrangement (Ascending order) |
1 |
Easy |
Letter Arrangement |
1 |
Easy |
Circular Arrangement (8 persons) |
5 |
Easy |
Row Arrangement (8 persons in single row) |
5 |
Easy |
Number/Symbol Coding |
5 |
Easy to Moderate |
Number Arrangement (5 numbers comprising of 3 digits) |
5 |
Easy |
Mathematical Inequalities |
5 |
Easy |
One thing has to be noted in the question paper. Syllogism and other forms of Verbal Reasoning questions did not feature in the Reasoning Ability section. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate.
| Topic | Number of questions |
Level of Difficulty |
Simplification/Approximation |
10 |
Moderate |
Numbers |
1 |
Easy |
Percentage |
1 |
Easy |
Profit, Loss and Discount |
2 |
Easy |
Simple Interest/Compound Interest |
1 |
Moderate |
Ratio |
1 |
Easy to Moderate |
Mixture |
1 |
Easy |
Partnership |
1 |
Easy to Moderate |
Average |
1 |
Easy |
Ages |
1 |
Easy to Moderate |
Time and Work |
1 |
Easy to Moderate |
Time, Speed and Distance (Boat and Steam based) |
1 |
Moderate |
Time, Speed and Distance (Train based) |
1 |
Easy |
Geometry |
1 |
Easy |
Mensuration |
1 |
Easy |
Number Series |
5 |
Moderate |
Data Interpretation (Table based) |
5 |
Easy |
There was 1 set of table based Data Interpretation which was easy. Furthermore, the questions on Number Series were a little tricky. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate.
Disclaimer: All information on cut-offs, analysis, answer key and scores are based on independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.
All the best!
Team CL