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Probationary Officers (PO) and Management Trainees (MT) are recruited every year through a Common Written Examination (CWE), commonly known as the IBPS PO exam. The CWE was started in 2011 and is being conducted for the 10th time this year and hence is officially called IBPS PO /MT CWE XI 2021.The IBPS PO selection process consists of 3 phases (preliminary, mains and interview) and the candidate must qualify each of them to proceed to the next phase. Mentioned below are the important steps of the IBPS PO Recruitment Process:
An adequate number of candidates in each category are shortlisted by IBPS depending upon requirements for Online Main Examination
Candidates must qualify the sectional as well as overall cutoff in the main exam to be eligible for interview.
Interview will be conducted by the Participating Organizations and coordinated by the Nodal Bank in each State/ UT with the help of IBPS
The Final result is declared on the basis of candidates combined performance in IBPS PO Mains and Interview Rounds.
The provisional allotment of the qualified candidate is released on the official website. The IBPS Banks are allotted based on candidates’ preferences which are made at the time of online application.
IBPS plays its part in the selection process only till the provisional allotment to different banks. After that, the responsibility to intimate the qualified candidates about their joining dates and procedure lies with the respective banks.
Public Sector Banking has become an illustrious career option in current times as it comes with the promise of attractive salary, perks, job security, fast growth and good work-life balance. Government of India had set up Personnel Selection Services (PSS) in 1975 for recruitment of probationary officers and clerks to all public-sector banks. PSS was later changed to Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) in 1984 as per the mandate of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
IBPS introduced separate sectional timing for each section in preliminary exam. The IBPS PO exam (CWE 10) for hiring candidates will be based on an online written exam in two parts: Tier 1 or IBPS Preliminary Exam and Tier 2 or IBPS Mains Exam. This examination is followed by a face-to-face interview process.
The IBPS PO preliminary examination has a total duration of 1 hour and 20 mintues for each sections, which will be conducted in online mode. It consists of 3 sections with a total of 100 questions and maximum score of 100 marks. There is negative marking in IBPS PO pre exam and 0.25 marks are deducted for each wrong answer. Candidates must clear the cut-off in all 3 sections to qualify for the IBPS PO Main exam. The section-wise details are given below:
S. No. |
Name of Tests (Objective) |
No. of Questions |
Maximum Marks |
Duration |
1 |
English Language |
30 |
30 |
20 minutes |
2 |
Numerical Ability |
35 |
35 |
20 minutes |
3 |
Reasoning Ability |
35 |
35 |
20 minutes |
Total |
100 |
100 |
60 minutes |
Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing minimum cut-off marks to be decided by IBPS. Adequate number of candidates in each category as decided by IBPS depending upon requirements will be shortlisted for Online Main Examination.
The IBPO PO Main exam is also conducted online, it has 5(4+1) sections with a total score of 200+25 marks and total duration of 180+30 minutes. IBPS will be conducting a descriptive paper in its mains exam for selection of candidates to the post of Probationary officer. The sections must be attempted in the same order and the allotted time as mandated at the time of the exam. A candidate has to clear both preliminary and mains examination to be eligible for the interview process.
S.No. |
Name of Tests (Objective) |
No. of Questions |
Maximum Marks |
Duration |
1 |
Reasoning & Computer Aptitude |
45 |
60 |
60 minutes |
2 |
English Language |
35 |
40 |
40 minutes |
3 |
Data Analysis & Interpretation |
35 |
60 |
45 minutes |
4 |
General Economy & Banking Awareness |
40 |
40 |
35 minutes |
Total |
155 |
200 |
3 Hours |
|
5 |
English Language (Letter Writing & Essay) |
2 |
25 |
30 minutes |
The candidates who have qualified the mains exam are called for a face-to-face interview which carries a maximum of 100 marks. The minimum qualifying marks in the interview is 40% (35% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD candidates).
The interview round is generally 15-20 minutes long, where a panel of bank officials ask questions to the candidates about themselves, banking sector, current affairs, general awareness, etc. The candidates must be well dressed, confident and carry all required documents to the interview.
The final merit list is prepared on the basis of marks obtained in mains examination and interview. The final score is calculated by IBPS with weightage of marks given to the main examination and interview in the ratio of 80:20 respectively.
There is a penalty for wrong answers marked in the Objective Tests of both Preliminary and Mains exams. A wrong answer to an objective question by the candidate will lead to a penalty of one fourth of the marks assigned to that question. For example, 0.25 marks will be deducted as penalty for wrong answer to a question that carries 1 mark. There will be no penalty for leaving a question blank, i.e., if no answer is marked by the candidate.
The final score for the IBPS PO exam is calculated keeping the following points in mind:
IBPS exam syllabus is no different from any other bank exam. While IBPS issues only the broad subjects, they can be further subdivided into individual topics, based on the questions that have appeared in the exams over the past few years. The IBPS PO syllabus is divided into two parts:
This comprises of Reasoning Ability, Quantitative Aptitude and English Language.
Reasoning |
Quantitative Aptitude |
English Language |
Logical Reasoning |
Simplification |
Reading Comprehension |
Alphanumeric Series |
Profit & Loss |
Cloze Test |
Ranking/Direction/Alphabet Test |
Mixtures & Alligations |
Para jumbles |
Data Sufficiency |
Simple Interest & Compound Interest & Surds & Indices |
Multiple Meaning / Error Spotting |
Coded Inequalities |
Work & Time |
Fill in the blanks |
Seating Arrangement |
Time & Distance |
Miscellaneous |
Puzzle |
Mensuration – Cylinder, Cone, Sphere |
Paragraph Completion |
Tabulation |
Data Interpretation |
|
Syllogism |
Ratio & Proportion, Percentage |
|
Blood Relations |
Number Systems |
|
Input Output |
Sequence & Series |
|
Coding Decoding |
Permutation, Combination &Probability |
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