The IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) mains exam was conducted over the weekend. In this article we bring to you a detailed section-wise analysis of the IBPS RRB Officer main exam. We would be talking about the sectional and overall difficulty levels of the paper. The article also enlists some pattern changes in the mains exam.
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: Overview of the Paper
As has been the case with all banking exams this year, the IBPS RRB PO mains paper too followed the trend. There was an increase in the overall difficult level of the paper along with pattern changes in the English Language paper.
| SECTIONS | GOOD ATTEMPTS |
| Hindi/English Language | 20-25 |
| Reasoning | 20-25 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 17-23 |
| Computer Knowledge | 19-24 |
| General Awareness | 21-26 |
| TOTAL | 117-128 |
Let us now look at the each of these sections individually.
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: Quantitative Aptitude
The questions were quite calculation intensive and thus time consuming, especially the DI sets. These DI sets had questions from topics such as: percentages, averages etc. which took the difficulty level a notch higher. The following table shows the topic-wise breakup of questions in this section.
| Topic | No. of Questions | Level |
| Data Interpretation | 20 | Moderate – Difficult |
| Quadratic Equation | 5 | Moderate |
| Data Sufficiency | 5 | Moderate |
| Miscellaneous (Mensuration, Boat & Stream, CI and SI, Profit & Loss, Time and Work, Partnership etc.) | 10 | Moderate |
| Total | 40 | Moderate – Difficult |
– There were no questions from Simplification/ Approximation and Quadratic Equations in this section.
– Overall, the section was moderate-difficult.
- Caselet
- Bar & Table mix DI
- Pie DI
- Arthematic and Missing DI
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: Reasoning Ability
The questions in this section were both tricky and time consuming and hence the section was moderate-difficult. The following table shows the breakup of the question types asked in this section.
| Topic | No. of Questions | Level |
| Sitting Arrangement and Puzzles | 18 | Moderate-Difficult |
| Data Sufficiency | 5 (3 statements) | Moderate |
| Logical | 7 | Moderate |
| Direction Sense | 3 | Easy-Moderate |
| Number Based Ques | 1 | Easy |
| Machine Input- Output | 5 | Difficult |
| Alphabet | 1 | Easy |
| Total | 40 | Moderate |
Some points to be noted:
- 9 persons height based puzzle with negative information
- The puzzles were: allocation based (1), scheduling (month) based
- The seating arrangement questions were: square seating (2 variable north south), linear seating (7 persons with blood relation 3 variable)
- Input-Output questions were: double shifting based
- Data Sufficiency questions were: puzzle and coding based.
– There were no questions from Inequality and Syllogism in the reasoning section.
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: English Language
- There was a change in the pattern of questions asked in this section. For instance, in the fill in the blank type of questions, some sentences had 3 blanks followed by 3-word options. The option which contained the words in the correct order in which they fit in the blanks was to be identified.
- There was a variation in the cloze test question type as well. Sentences which would fill the given blank of the passage aptly had to be identified.
- There were a few idiom based filler questions as well.
- In the sentence improvement question type, an interrogative sentence was given, and one had to identify the correct assertive sentence for it (one that didn’t change the actual meaning of the sentence)
The following table shows the topic-wise distribution of the questions.
– Overall the section was difficult.
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: Hindi Language
Overall the Hindi Language section was of a moderate level. The question types were as expected. The following table shows a topic-wise distribution of the various question types.
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: General Awareness
The questions asked in the general awareness section were mostly based on current affairs and banking awareness. The current affair questions were mainly related to the happenings in the month of September & October. The questions belonging the static GK section were also based on the events which were recently in news.
The difficulty level of the section can be stated as: Moderate to Difficult.
For many, this section could be the key to increasing the overall scores as the other sections were quite difficult.
IBPS RRB Officer (Scale-I) Main Exam: Computer Knowledge
The computer knowledge section was Moderate. The questions asked were of the basic level. Broadly the questions asked were from the following topics:
– Software
– Internet
– Networking
We hope that this analysis gives you a general idea of the paper. We would like to mention here, that one can expect the difficulty level to be higher in the upcoming IBPS RRB Office Assistant 2018 Main exam as well.
All The Best!
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