Today was the first day of the SBI Clerk Preliminary Exam 2018. Spanning a period of one week (ending June 30, 2018), the exam is being conducted in four time slots: 2 each in 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.
| Section | Total Questions | Level of Difficulty | Good Attempts | Good Score | Time Taken (In Minutes) |
| English Language | 30 | Easy-Moderate | 21–24 | 18–20 | 20 |
| Numerical Ability | 35 | Easy-Moderate | 20–22 | 18–20 | 20 |
| Reasoning Ability | 35 | Moderate | 21–24 | 18–20 | 20 |
| Total | 100 | Easy-Moderate | 66–72 | 59–65 | 60 |
Note: Section wise and overall cut-offs are not uniform for all states.
| Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| Reading Comprehension (Industry/ Employment Based) | 7 | Easy-Moderate |
| Para-jumbles | 5 | Easy |
| Spot the Error (Old Pattern) | 8 | Easy-Moderate |
| Phrase Replacement | 5 | Easy-Moderate |
| Fill in the Blanks | 5 | Easy |
The English Language section was more or less along the same lines as the old pattern. Questions on Spot the Error were based on fundamentals of grammar. Questions from the RC passage were mainly factual. Two questions were from Vocabulary (1 Synonym and 1 Antonym). Overall, the level of difficulty of this section was easy-to-moderate.
| Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| Number Series (Series Completion) | 5 | Easy |
| Approximation/Simplification | 10 | Easy-Moderate |
| Data Interpretation (Pie Chart) | 5 | Easy-Moderate |
| Comparison of Variables (Quadratic Equations based) | 5 | Easy-Moderate |
| Arithmetic Based (Time, Speed and Distance – Trains, Boat and Stream, Time and Work, Mensuration-2D, Partnership, Ratio and Proportion, Simple Interest & Compound Interest, Percentage, Age, Mixtures & Allegations, Profit, Loss and Discount, Average etc.) | 10 | Easy-Moderate |
There was 1 set of five questions from Data Interpretation (pie-chart based). The questions on Number Series were easy. The Arithmetic-based questions were primarily from Time and Work, Ratio, SI & CI, Percentages, Ages, Profit, Loss & Discount, etc. The overall difficulty level of this section was easy-to-moderate.
| Topic | Number of Questions | Level of Difficulty |
| AR (Linear Seating Arrangement – 2 parallel rows – 12 persons) | 5 | Easy-Moderate |
| AR (Linear Seating Arrangement – single row) | 2 | Easy-Moderate |
| AR (Data Arrangement – Floor based – 5 floors) | 2 | Easy-Moderate |
| AR (Data Arrangement – Years and books based) | 5 | Easy-Moderate |
| AR (Data Arrangement – people and their researches based) | 5 | |
| Coding-Decoding | 2 | Easy |
| Blood Relation – Set based | 2 | Easy-Moderate |
| Directions | 2 | Easy |
| Alphanumeric Series | 5 | Easy |
| Numerical Series | 5 | Easy |
There were three sets of five questions each from parallel seating arrangement, data arrangement (years and books based) and data arrangement (people and their researches based). No syllogism questions were asked this year. The overall difficulty level of this section was 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