SBI Associate Banks Clerical Exam Analysis 2014
The 135 minute online test held on February 15, 2015 was conducted in two time slots - morning and evening. 1 mark will be awarded for every correct answer while 1/4th marks will be deducted for every incorrect answer.
The detailed break down of the paper is as follows:
| Section |
Total Questions |
Level of difficulty |
Good Attempts |
Good Score |
Approximate time taken |
| General Awareness/ Banking |
40 |
Easy |
35 |
25 |
20 minutes |
| General English |
40 |
Easy |
35 |
25 |
25 minutes |
| Quantitative Aptitude |
40 |
Moderate |
30 |
25 |
30 minutes |
| Reasoning Ability |
40 |
Easy |
35 |
30 |
30 minutes |
| Marketing Aptitude/ Computer Knowledge |
40 |
Moderate |
30 |
25 |
25 minutes |
| Total |
200 |
Easy to Moderate |
165 |
130 |
130 minutes + 5 minutes (for review) |
Expected Cutoffs for qualifying for the interview (Note: These cut-offs are not uniform for all states and wide variations are expected)
| Subject |
General |
SC/ST/OBC |
| General Awareness (Out of 40) |
15 |
13 |
| General English (Out of 40) |
16 |
13 |
| Quantitative Aptitude (Out of 40) |
15 |
11 |
| Reasoning Ability (Out of 40) |
17 |
14 |
| Marketing Aptitude/ Computer Knowledge (Out of 40) |
14 |
10 |
General Awareness
The section was dominated by questions on general knowledge. There were about 8 to 10 questions from basic banking awareness that the candidates would not have found difficult to attempt. All in all, this section was easy - moderate.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficult Level |
| General Knowledge (Current + Static) |
30 |
Easy - Moderate |
| Banking Awareness |
10 |
Easy - Moderate |
English Language
This section was on expected lines. The 10 questions RC passage was based on team work. It was an easy read. Around 5 questions in the RC were vocab based. The Para Jumble set had 5 questions and its level of difficulty was easy to moderate. The 10 blank Cloze Test was very easy. There were two types of Error Spotting questions in the test. In the first type the sentence was divided into four parts and a student was required to find out the grammatically incorrect part. In the other type, four words were marked in bold and one of them was either wrongly spelt or was grammatically incorrect. Each type had 5 questions. The level of difficulty of this question type was easy to moderate. Fill in the Blanks also had 5 questions, which were quite easy.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficult Level |
| RC |
10 |
Easy |
| Para Jumble |
5 |
Easy - Moderate |
| Cloze Test |
10 |
Easy |
| Spot the Error |
10 |
Easy - Moderate |
| FIB (1 Blank) |
5 |
Easy |
Quantitative Aptitude
The difficulty level of this section ranged from moderate - difficult with questions being asked from varied topics. Algebra featured prominently in this section.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficult Level |
| Algebra |
16 |
Moderate |
| Number series |
5 |
Easy |
| Data Interpretation |
5 |
Moderate |
| Ratio & Proportion, Profit and Loss, Simple Interest, Compound Interest, Time, Speed and Distance, Mixtures and Allegation |
14 |
Moderate - Difficult |
Reasoning Ability
This section comprised questions from Syllogisms, Coding-Decoding, Inequality, Sitting Arrangement (both linear and circular), Number based logic, Number Arrangement, Word Based Logic, Making words and Puzzle. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficult Level |
| Syllogism |
5 |
Easy |
| Coding - Decoding |
5 |
Easy |
| Inequality |
5 |
Easy - Moderate |
| Sitting Arrangement (Linear + Circular) |
2 sets (6 questions each) |
Easy - Moderate |
| Number Based Logic |
1 set (5 questions) |
Easy |
| Number arrangement |
5 |
Easy |
| Word Based logic |
5 |
Easy |
| Puzzle, Making words |
3 |
Easy - Moderate |
Marketing Aptitude/ Computer Knowledge
This section had around 20 questions each from Marketing Aptitude and Computer Knowledge. The questions on Computer Knowledge were easier than that of Marketing Aptitude. Another thing to note is that the questions from the two areas were not segregated.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
Difficult Level |
| Marketing Aptitude |
20 |
Moderate - Difficult |
| Computer Knowledge |
20 |
Easy - Moderate |
Disclaimer: All information on cut-offs, analysis, answer key and scores are based on independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher & iLearn Centre. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.
All the Best!
Team CL
