The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted online examination for the recruitment of Specialist Officers (IT) across the country on January 28, 2017.
There were 200 questions in the paper, which had to be answered in 120 minutes. 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.
|
Section |
Total Questions |
Max. Marks |
Level of Difficulty |
Good Attempts |
Possible Score |
Time allotted for each section (In Minutes) |
|
Reasoning |
50 |
* |
Moderate-Difficult |
23-27 |
20-24 |
30 minutes |
|
English Language |
50 |
* |
Difficult |
21-25 |
18-22 |
25 minutes |
|
Quantitative Aptitude |
50 |
* |
Easy-Moderate |
24-29 |
21-26 |
30 minutes |
|
Professional Knowledge |
50 |
80 |
Moderate |
39-43 |
36-40 |
35 minutes |
|
Total |
200 |
80 |
Moderate-Difficult |
109 -122 |
|
120 |
* Only qualifying in nature – Marks obtained in these sections will not be considered in deciding merit for the interview.
Professional Knowledge section is the one on the basis of which merit list will be formed.
This section primarily saw questions which were moderate-difficult in nature. Some of the questions were time consuming. Still, a candidate could have easily attempted at least 23 questions with good accuracy.
This year there was a set based on seating arrangement around a square table with 4 people sitting on the sides of the square and the remaining 4 people on the 4 corners of the square. The other sets were based on parallel rows and data arrangement. All the sets were difficult in nature except the linear arrangement set based on age.
The detailed break-up of the questions is as follows:
|
Topic |
Number of questions |
|
Circular Seating Arrangement (8 people sitting around a square) |
5 |
|
Linear Seating Arrangement (Two parallel rows) |
6 |
|
Linear Data Arrangement (7 boxes and 7 items) |
5 |
|
Linear Arrangement (In the order of Age) |
5 |
|
Syllogism |
5 |
|
Input-Output |
5 |
|
Mathematical Inequality |
5 |
|
Critical Reasoning |
4 |
|
Coding-Decoding |
5 |
|
Data Sufficiency |
5 |
The questions in this section were difficult in nature due to the appearance of new types of questions. Therefore, a candidate should have attempted around 22 questions with good accuracy to stay safe.
Questions based on “fill in the blanks and error-finding” appeared in new patterns. In FIB, four sentences were given with a blank in each sentence and it was asked that “which of the given words does not fit in the blanks appropriately”. Similarly, the questions based on finding the errors were quite difficult too as a set of four sentences were given and it was asked that, “which sentence(s) is/are grammatically correct”. Apart from these topics, there were questions based on Reading Comprehension, Cloze Test and Paragraph-Jumbling as well.
|
Topic |
Number of questions |
|
Reading Comprehension (Based on Infrastructure of different countries) |
10 |
|
Para Jumbles |
5 |
|
Cloze Test (Preposition based) |
10 |
|
Phrase Replacement (Based on 2 and 3 phrases) |
10 |
|
Spot the Error |
10 |
|
Fill in the Blanks |
5 |
The difficulty level of questions in this section was easy to moderate because most of the questions were conventional in nature. A candidate could have easily attempted at least 25 questions with good accuracy.
The questions were, basically, based on Number Series, Arithmetic, Quadratic Equation, Data Interpretation and Approximation.
|
Topic |
Number of questions |
|
Comparison of Variables |
6 |
|
Profit, Loss and Discount |
1 |
|
Percentage |
1 |
|
Simple Interest / Compound Interest |
1 |
|
Time, Speed and Distance |
1 |
|
Time and Work |
1 |
|
Series – Next Number |
5 |
|
Mixture and Alligation |
1 |
|
Partnership |
1 |
|
Average |
1 |
|
Area and perimeter |
1 |
|
Data Interpretation (Based on missing data in Table) |
6 |
|
Data Interpretation (Based on double Pie-Chart) |
6 |
|
Data Sufficiency |
6 |
|
Approximation |
6 |
|
Data Arrangement (Based on Venn-Diagram) |
6 |
Questions in this section were of moderate difficulty level because unlike the last year it threw few surprises at students. Yet, a candidate should have attempted at least 36 questions with good accuracy.
Questions were asked from the following topics to test the basic knowledge and awareness of information technology. Java, iOS, Android, Linux commands, MIS (Management Information System), SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), CCM (Capability Maturity Model), OSI Model and TCP/IP Model, Networking and Data Communication.
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.
CL extends its best wishes to all aspirants
All the very best!
Team CL