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What You Must Know About the SBI PO Exam Pattern?

SBI PO exam is one of the toughest exams in India. According to experts, you need to have a strategic approach for exam preparation. If you want to excel in your preparation and score well in the exam, you should know the SBI PO exam pattern. Here are the important things related to the exam pattern that can help you succeed.

Important things to know

The SBI PO recruitment is divided into three phases- prelim exam, main exam, and the interview process.  Every aspirant needs to be well-versed with the exam pattern to score well. You need to clear your prelim exam to appear for the exam. To make things easy for you, here is the exam pattern of the prelim exam.

Exam Pattern of Prelim Exam

The prelim exam is conducted online. It has three sections – English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, and Reasoning.  You have one hour to attempt the paper.

  • You have 30 questions in the English language section, and you have 20 minutes to attempt this section. The maximum marks you can score are 30.
  • The Quantitative aptitude section has 35 questions, and the maximum mark you can score is 35. You get 20 minutes to attempt this section.
  • You need to attempt 35 questions in reasoning ability. The maximum marks you can score are 35. You get 20 minutes to attempt all questions in  this section

The merit list is prepared on the aggregate score of the prelim exams.  There are no sectional cut-off marks. If the number of vacancies is 100, around 1000 candidates are shortlisted for the mains exam.  For every wrong answer, 0.25 marks are deducted. There is no deduction for unattempted questions in the SBI PO exam pattern.

Exam Pattern of Mains Exam

The main exam has four sections English Language, General/ Economy/ Banking Awareness, Data Analysis & Interpretation, Reasoning & Computer Aptitude. The total exam time for the main exam is three hours. Besides the online test, you also have a descriptive paper that needs to be completed within 30 minutes.

The maximum marks you can score in a descriptive test are 50, while the maximum marks you can score in an online test are 200.

Here is the main exam pattern in detail.

  • The Reasoning & Computer Aptitude section has a total of 45 questions for 60 marks. You get 60 minutes to attempt questions in this section.
  • The Data Analysis & Interpretation section carries 60 marks, which are distributed between 45 questions. You get 45 minutes to attempt all questions in this section.
  • The General/ Economy/ Banking Awareness section has 45 questions, and you get 45 minutes to attempt this section. The total time you get for this section is 35 minutes.
  • The English Language section consists of 35 questions, and you get 45 minutes for this section. The maximum mark you can score is 40.

The Descriptive test mentioned above has two questions- essay and letter writing. There is no negative marking in the descriptive test. The online test does have negative marking, and you lose 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. No marks are deducted for unattempted questions.

To sum up, knowing exam patterns before-hand can help plan your practice sessions better, which can help you score well.

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