IBPS Clerk Prelims – Previous Year’s Exam Analysis

IBPS Clerk Prelims 2021 has been released recently featuring 5,830 vacancies. The IBPS Clerk Prelims exam is scheduled for 28th August, 2021 thereby leaving not much time for the exam preparation. Have you started preparing well for the IBPS Clerk prelims 2021 examination? Those who have already started with it have made a good step, however those who haven’t done it yet must start preparing for the same without delaying any further. Taking a free mock test of IBPS Clerk Prelims would be first step to start with your preparation as it will give you a bird’s eye view of your initial exam preparation level. In order to stay ahead of the crowd one must master all the concepts, topics and he or she must practice a lot. Candidates are advised to create a study plan so that they don’t miss out on any important topic. We have created a comprehensive IBPS Clerk prelims study plan that can be incorporated in your exam preparation. It can be tweaked according to your own preparation.

Let us take a closer look at the IBPS Clerk prelims exam pattern:

IBPS Clerk Prelims Exam Pattern

S. No.	Name of Tests	No. of Questions	Max Marks	Time allotted for each test (separately timed)
1	English Language	30	30	20 mins
2	Numerical Ability	35	35	20 mins
3	Reasoning Ability	35	35	20 mins
	Total	100	100	60 mins

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NOTE:

• Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing 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.
• There will be penalty for wrong answers marked in the Objective Tests. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate one fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty to arrive at corrected score. If a question is left blank, i.e. no answer is  marked by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.

Considering the fact that you need to deal with 100 questions in 60 minutes, it will obviously be a challenge maintaining accuracy and speed. But there is a solution. With practice, you can attain the desired speed along with maintaining a decent accuracy. 

Coming to the previous year exam analysis, this will surely help you to gain some insights as what kinds of questions have been asked previously so that you can prepare those well at least as you never know if any of those gets repeated this time. We always say that its good to practice previous year question papers and its time for the aspirants to have a look at those and solve it. So, here we are with the previous year section-wise exam analysis of the IBPS Clerk Prelims examination. Last year the examination was held on Dec 7 & Dec 8, 2020.Check out the exam analysis below:

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IBPS Clerk Prelims Dec 7, 2019 Section Wise Analysis

Shift 1 Exam Analysis

English Language Shift 1 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Topic: Tiger Reserves & Population)	10
Error Detection	5
Single Fillers	3
Spelling Errors	3
Sentence Rearrangement (Sentence based)	5
Cloze Test	4
Total	30

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Numerical Ability Shift 1 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation (Bar Graph)	5
Simplification	10
Wrong No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Word Problems	10
Total	35

Reasoning Ability Shift 1 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating Arrangement & Puzzles -Double Row Seating Arrangement -Puzzle of Uncertain no. of People -Month Based puzzle -Square based puzzle	20
Alphanumerical Series	5
Syllogism	5
Blood Relation	3
Miscellaneous	2
Total	35

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Shift 2 Exam Analysis

English Language Shift 2 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Topic: Travelling)	10
Sentence Improvement	5
Error Detection (Error in words)	5
Single Fillers	5
Sentence Rearrangement	5
Total	30

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Numerical Ability Shift 2 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation -Bar Graph	5
Simplification	10
Wrong No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Caselet	5
Word Problems (Boats & Streams, P & L, Age-based)	5
Total	35

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Reasoning Ability Shift 2 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating Arrangement & Puzzles -Square-based puzzle -Double Row Seating Arrangement -Floor-based puzzle -Day-based puzzle (to manage 7 days) -Order-based puzzle	23
Alphanumerical Series	5
Syllogism	5
Miscellaneous	2
Total	35

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Shift 3 Exam Analysis

English Language Shift 3 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Topic: Renewal Energy)	10
Sentence Improvement	5
Word Swap	5
Single Fillers	5
Sentence Rearrangement	5
Total	30

Numerical Ability Shift 3 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation -Tabular based	5
Simplification	10
Missing No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Word Problems	10
Total	35

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Reasoning Ability Shift 3 Analysis

This section was easy-moderate. Coding-decoding appeared for the first time since the morning.

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating Arrangement & Puzzles -Circular Seating Arrangement -Single Row Seating Arrangement of 8 members -Box-based puzzle of 8 boxes	15
Inequalities	3
Direction sense	3
Numbers Arrangement	5
Coding-decoding	5
Syllogism	3
Odd one out	1
Total	35

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Shift 4 Exam Analysis

English Language Shift 4 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Topic: Gross Domestic Product) 2 Vocab-based questions	10
Error Correction	5
Single Fillers	5
Phrase Replacement	5
Word Swap	5
Total	30

Numerical Ability Shift 4 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation -Tabular based	5
Simplification	10
Missing No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Word Problems	5
Total	35

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Reasoning Ability Shift 4 Analysis

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating Arrangement & Puzzles -Parallel Seating Arrangement -Month-based Puzzle -Circular Seating Arrangement -Box-based Puzzle	20
Direction sense	2
Alphanumeric Series	3
Coding-decoding	4
Inequalities + Syllogism (Only & Few)	6
Total	35

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IBPS Clerk Prelims Dec 8, 2019 Section Wise Analysis

Shift 1 Analysis

English Analysis

No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Topic: Coffee Production) 2 to 3 questions from Vocab	10
Error correction	5
Single Fillers	5
Spelling Errors (Multiple options)	5
Sentence Rearrangement	5
Total	30

Numerical Ability

This section was Easy.

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation (Table Form) Ratio	5
Simplification	15
Missing No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Arithmetic (1 question on Age, 2 questions SI & CI)	5
Total	35

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Reasoning Ability

This section was Easy.

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating arrangements & Puzzles Square based Arrangement Linear Seating Arrangement North facing 8 persons Month and Day based puzzle	15
Alphabetical Series	1
Coding Decoding	5
Inequality	5
Alphanumeric series	5
Blood Relation (set based)	3
Miscellaneous	1
Total	35

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Shift 2 Analysis

English Language

This section was Easy

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Topic: Work Pressure and Stress) Vocab 2 questions, 1 Filler	7
Error Detection (old pattern)	6
Single Fillers	7
Phrase replacement	5
Sentence Rearrangement (Set based)	5
Total	30

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Numerical Ability

This section was Easy to Moderate.

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation (Table DI)	5
Simplification	10
Missing No. Series Multiplication & Difference	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Word Problem	10
Total	35

Reasoning Ability

This section was Easy.

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating arrangements & Puzzles Circular Table (6 people, outside facing) Month & Date based puzzle Parallel Line (6 person facing north, 6 person facing South)	15
Alphabetical Pair	2
Inequalities	5
Syllogs (Only a few)	5
Alphanumeric series	3
Blood Relations (Set based)	3
Miscellaneous	2
Total	35

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Shift 3 Analysis

English Language

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Employee and Employer relationship..Example: Mc Donalds) 2 to 3 vocab questions, Synonym (Gain) word 1 filler question	7
Spelling Errors	5
Parajumbles (Water Conservation)	5
Phrase replacement	5
Word Rearrangement	4
Error Detection (Identifying the correct sentence out of 5)	4
Total	30

Numerical Ability

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation (Table based DI) Month & 4 Companies Consumers data given	5
Simplification (One Liner)	10
Missing No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Word Problems	10
Total	35

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Reasoning Ability

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating arrangements & Puzzles Floor based (8 floors & 8 persons) Square seating arrangement Grid Matrix Puzzle (8 Bags 8 people) Linear arrangement (uncertain number)	20
Syllogisms	5
Numeric Series	5
Direction Sense Test	3
Miscellaneous	2
Total	35

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Shift 4 Analysis

English Language

This section was easy to moderate.

Topic	No. of Questions
Reading Comprehension (Pros & Cons of Gadgets) 2 questions on vocab	8
Parajumbles (Set based)	4
Cloze Test (Digital based)	8
Sentence Correction	5
Error Detection	5
Total	30

Numerical Ability

This section was Easy.

Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation (Tabular DI)	5
Simplification	10
Wrong No. Series	5
Quadratic Equation	5
Word Problems	10
Total	35

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Reasoning Ability

This section was easy.

Topic	No. of Questions
Seating arrangements & Puzzles Month based puzzle (2 dates given, 6 person to be arranged) Parallel row puzzle (5 people in one line) Circular arrangement (8 person, inside facing)	15
Coding Decoding	5
Syllogism	5
Alphanumeric series	5
Blood relations	3
Miscellaneous (alphabet based)	2
Total	35

IBPS Clerk Prelims 2021 free mock test

This brings us to the end of the article. This previous year’s exam analysis of IBPS Clerk Prelims will surely help the candidates to prepare better for this year’s IBPS Clerk Prelims 2021 examination.