IBPS CWE SO (Online) Exam-2016 Analysis (14th February, 2016 – Afternoon Slot)

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted online examination for the recruitment of Specialist Officers (IT) across the country on 14th February 2016.

There were 200 questions in the paper, which had to be answered in 2 hours. There were four sections in all - Reasoning, English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, and Professional Knowledge.  All the other sections except English Language section 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.

The pattern of the test was as follows:

Section	Total Questions	Max. Marks	Level of Difficulty	Possible Attempts	Possible Score	Approximate Time Taken (In Minutes)
Reasoning	50	50	Moderate	30-32	27-29	40 minutes
English Language	50	25	Easy to Moderate	33-36	13-16	15 minutes
Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	Easy-Moderate	32-36	28-32	40 minutes
Professional Knowledge	50	75	Moderate to Tough	30-35	44-48	25 minutes
Total	200	200	Moderate	130-140	115-120	120

 

Reasoning

This section primarily saw moderate level of questions. A student should have attempted at least 30 questions. Some of the questions were time consuming.
This year there was a question set based on circular sitting arrangement but not around a circle, rather around a square table with 4 people sitting on the sides of the square and 4 people sitting on the 4 corners of the square. Besides that there was a question based on finding the pair of letters in a word “SHARPLY” which have the same number of letter between them as in the alphabetical series.
The detailed break up of questions is as follows –

Topic	Number of questions
Circular Arrangement (Square)	5
Linear Sitting Arrangements (in two parallel rows)	5
Linear Arrangement (8 Floors)	5
Matrix Arrangement	6
Syllogism	5
Input-Output	5
Mathematical Inequality	5
Critical Reasoning – Strong & Weak Argument	1
Critical Reasoning – Probable Reason	1
Critical Reasoning – Inference	2
Critical Reasoning – Conclusion	1
Alphabetical Order	1
Coding – Decoding	6
Data Sufficiency	2

 

English Language

There was one Reading Comprehension passage with 10 questions. The only change in the reading comprehension was the number of vocabulary based questions. Unlike the trend of previous years and other IBPS examinations where there are 4-5 questions based on vocabulary, this year there were only 2 questions on it.
The passage was an easy read and can be attempted easily.  Unlike last year, there 10 questions on Spot the error although last year there were only 5 questions.
Similarly, Phrase replacement also saw 10 questions.
As usual, the cloze test was an easy read with 10 preposition based blanks.
Besides that, there were 5 questions each on Para jumbles and Fill in the blanks (2 in each question).

An attempt of 33 questions can be considered as a good attempt.

Topic	Number of questions
Reading Comprehensions	10 (2 Vocabulary Based)
Para Jumbles	5
Cloze Test (Preposition based)	10
Phrase Replacement	10
Spot the Error	10
Fill in the Blanks	5

 

Quantitative Aptitude

In general, this section was of easy to moderate difficulty level. This section was a good mix of all type of questions which include questions of Arithmetic (Time and Work, Boats & Streams, CI/SI, Percentage etc.), Number Series and Data Interpretation that include Pie Chart, Line Chart, Table etc. The DI questions were relatively less difficult in comparison to previous IBPS Exams.
A well prepared would have attempted 32 questions easily in this section.

Topic	Number of questions
Comparison of Variables	6
Profit, Loss and Discount	1
Percentage	2
Simple Interest / Compound Interest	1
Time, Speed and Distance	1
Time and Work	1
Boats and Steams	1
Series – Next Number	6
Mixture and Alligation	1
Partnership	1
Ages	1
Data Interpretation - Line Graph	7
Data Interpretation – Table	6
Data Interpretation – Pie Chart	5
Data Sufficiency	5
Approximation	5

 

Professional Knowledge - IT

This section comprised questions of moderate difficulty level based on basic knowledge of the area of specialization viz. in IT-Officer scale-I, the questions comprised of computer network, DBMS, Web Technology and Data mining and warehousing. There were a few questions based on conceptual knowledge of programming languages like C++, Java, etc.
An attempt of 30-35 questions can be considered as a good attempt.

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