Synopsis of SBI Junior Associate prelims

The aspirants who have applied for SBI Junior Associates Preliminary Exam and whose online exam slots are confirmed on May 28, May 29, June 4 or June 5 will find this a very useful analysis. As SBI, in its notification, has not revealed the pattern of Preliminary Examination, the test-takers are in a dilemma as to which topics will be covered under the said exam.

Most of the candidates who have taken the actual Preliminary Exam on May 22 have found it to be easier. And that will be good news for those who are going to take it in the remaining slots, as mentioned above. Let us have an overview of the exam held on May 22 during the first day slots.

Overview:
The exam is simpler compared to expectations. The cut-offs are expected to be on the higher side. The overall style and difficulty level of the exam is, more or less, similar to the IBPS Clerical Prelims conducted in Dec 2015.

The test had three sections:
1) English Language - 30 questions
2) Quantitative Aptitude - 35 questions
3) Reasoning Ability - 35 questions

The general features of the test were:
Number of questions: 100
Total Marks:100
Number of options:5
Negative marking: 1/4

English Language
The following questions should definitely have been attempted:

RC Passage
Cloze Test
2-3 questions based on Faulty Construction

The question on jumbled sentences is tougher and could have been left for the end. Overall, the difficulty level of the section is Easy to Moderate.

Students could have attempted 22 - 24 questions in 15 to 17 minutes.

Quantitative Aptitude
The following questions should definitely have been attempted:

Calculation Techniques and DI - Table
A student not very comfortable in the other topics should have used these 15 questions to try and clear the sectional cut-off. Since the pure QA questions were given in a slightly lengthy manner, they could have been attempted last, along with the number series questions.

Overall, the difficulty level of the section is Easy to Medium.

Students could have attempted 19 to 23 questions in 25 minutes.

Overall, the difficulty level of the section is Easy. To maximize the total score, a student should attempt as many questions from this section as possible.

Reasoning Ability
Students could have attempted 27 to 29 questions in 20 minutes. In this slot, focus on Reasoning and Verbal rather than QA would have helped maximize overall score. In QA, focusing on clearing the sectional cut-off would be better.

In general, the difficulty-level of the exam is Easy to Moderate.

Students could have attempted 70 - 75 questions in 60 minutes with more than 90% accuracy. A performance of this level will definitely take the test-takers to Main Exam.

The break-up of questions in all the three sections is as under:

English Language

Chapter/question type	No. of questions	Difficulty	Comments
Reading Comprehension	10	Easy	Story-based passage 2 paragraphs 6 Factual + 4 vocabulary questions
Cloze Passage	5	Easy	Story-based
Jumbled Sentences	5	Moderate	06 Sentences; Story-based
Spotting the errors	5	Easy
Faulty Construction	5	Moderate

Quantitative Aptitude

Chapter/question type	No. of questions	Difficulty	Comments
Calculation Techniques	10	Easy	3 Questions on roots 2 on BODMAS None on approximation
Arithmetic	11	Moderate	Averages - 2 Time and Distance - 2 Time and Work -2 Ratio and Proportion -2 Percentages -1 Profit and Loss -2
Algebra	2	Easy	Ages – 1 Number Theory - 1
Geometry	2	Moderate	Mensuration – 2
Number Series	5	Moderate	Complete the series
DI - Tables	5	Easy

Reasoning Ability:

Chapter/question type	No. of questions	Difficulty	Comments
Circular Arrangement	5	Easy	8 people facing centre Single parameter
Complex Arrangement	5	Easy	2 parameters 7 people & 7 days
Relationships	3		Family Tree – 03
Inequalities	5	Easy	Direct
Sentence Coding	2	Easy	Set of 2 questions
Puzzles	5		Directions – 1 Distance betw. letters - 1 Letter Coding – 1 Alphanumeric Series - 2
Number Series	5	Easy
Alphanumeric series	5	Easy

By:Sree Kumar Guntupalli