Today was the first day of the IBPS Clerk Preliminary Exam 2018. Spanning a period of one week (ending December 15, 2018), the exam is being conducted in four time slots: 2 each in the morning and evening.
A total of 100 questions had to be answered in 60 minutes. All the sections, except English Language, were available in both English and Hindi. Every correct answer will fetch 1 mark, while every incorrect answer will reduce the score by 0.25. This year there is sectional timing of 20 minutes.
The detailed break-up of IBPS Clerk Preliminary Exam 2018 is as follows:
Section |
Total Questions |
Level of difficulty |
Good Attempts |
Time taken (in minutes) |
English Language |
30 |
Easy- Moderate |
20- 22 |
20 |
Reasoning Ability |
35 |
Easy-Moderate |
28-30 |
20 |
Numerical Ability |
35 |
Easy-Moderate |
22-25 |
20 |
Total |
100 |
Easy-Moderate |
71-78 |
60 |
Note: Section wise and overall cut-offs are not uniform for all states.
Topic |
Number of questions |
Level of difficulty |
Reading Comprehension – based on flexibility in jobs (There was one question based on synonyms.) |
6 |
Moderate |
Parajumbles /Sentence rearrangement – based on craze of cricket. |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
Fill in the blanks (Based on single FIB) |
4 |
Easy-Moderate |
Phrase Replacement |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
Vocabulary based (Spelling) |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
Match the following (Sentence Completion) |
5 |
Moderate |
Reading Comprehension was lengthy. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate.
Topic |
Number of questions |
Level of Difficulty |
AR (Data Arrangement – 7 Persons/Location/Month) |
5 |
Moderate |
AR (Linear Seating Arrangement - in 2 parallel rows facing North/South) |
5 |
Moderate |
AR (Square Seating Arrangement – facing in/out) |
5 |
Moderate |
AR (Data Arrangement – Day based) |
5 |
Moderate |
Direction – set based |
5 |
Difficult |
Alphabet Series (5 words was given) |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
Word based (Pairs of letters) |
1 |
Easy-Moderate |
Syllogism |
4 |
Easy-Moderate |
There were four sets of five questions each from Seating Arrangement and Data Arrangement. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate.
Topic |
Number of questions |
Level of Difficulty |
Data Interpretation (Table based) |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
Simplification/Approximation |
10 |
Easy |
Number Series (Series Completion) |
5 |
Easy |
Comparison of variables: Quadratic Equations |
5 |
Easy |
Comparison of quantities: Quantity I and Quantity II |
5 |
Moderate |
Mensuration |
1 |
Moderate |
Ratio and Proportion |
1 |
Moderate |
Average |
1 |
Moderate |
Time, Speed and Distance |
1 |
Moderate |
Miscellaneous (Quant based) |
1 |
Moderate |
There was one set of five questions from Data Interpretation (table based). 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