IBPS CWE PO (Online) Exam-2013 Analysis

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted online examination, for the recruitment of Probationary Officers/Management Trainee across the country on the 19th of October, 2013.

There were 200 questions in the paper, which had to be answered in 2 hours. There were five sections in all - Reasoning, English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, General Awareness with special reference to Banking Industry, and Computer 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.

The pattern of the test was as follows:

Section	Total Questions	Max. Marks	Level of Difficulty	Possible Attempts	Possible Score
Reasoning	50	50	Moderate to Tough	28-32	26-28
English Language	40	40	Tough	22-25	18-20
Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	Moderate	35-38	30-32
General Awareness	40	40	Easy to Moderate	26-30	25-27
Computer Knowledge	20	20	Easy	15-18	15-18
Total	200	200			114-125

The details of the individual sections are given below:

Reasoning
This section primarily saw moderate level of questions. A student should have attempted at least 30 questions. Some of the questions were time consuming. There were questions on symbols, Linear Arrangement, Seating Arrangement, Syllogism, Word Arrangement, Data Sufficiency and Critical Reasoning.

English Language
There were two Reading Comprehension passages with 10 questions each. The passages were not easy reads and both of them were related to the Indian economy. There were 5 questions on sentence correction, Parajumbles and there was a cloze passage of 10 questions. The questions in this section were tougher as compared to last year.

Quantitative Aptitude
In general, this section was of moderate to tough difficulty level. This section was dominated by questions of Arithmetic, Number Series and Data Interpretation that include Pie Chart, Line Chart, Table etc. Some DI questions were wrong resulted in students wasting their time unnecessarily.

General Awareness  
This section was the easiest. Unlike last year, wherein the maximum number of questions was from Banking and Economy, this year, questions were mostly based on Current Affairs.

Computer Knowledge
This section comprised questions of moderate difficulty level based on basic knowledge of computers. The main areas from which questions were asked are: Windows, Networking, Hardware and Software.