Today was the second last round of the IBPS RRB PO Prelims and by tomorrow the third round of examinations would be over as well. With the last shift, we usually witness the difficulty level going up. But let’s see through the analysis what turned out to be the reality. The students who clear the cut-off for RRB PO prelims will appear for the RRB PO mains examination.
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Puzzles (Year-based, comparison, square-based, month-date based, Linear north with variable) | 24 |
| Coding-Decoding | 5 |
| Pairing | 1 |
| Blood Relation | 3 |
| Direction & Distance | 3 |
| Syllogism | 3 |
| Meaningful Word | 1 |
| Total | 40 |
| Topics | No. Of Questions |
| Approximation (easy) | 5 |
| Arithmetic | 13 |
| Wrong Number Series | 5 |
| DI (Case-let, Single pie chart-lengthy, tabular) | 15 |
| Miscellaneous | 2 |
| Total | 40 |
| Sections | Good Attempts |
| Reasoning Ability | 31-36 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 22-25 |
| Total | 54-57 |
| Sections | No. of Questions | Difficulty Level |
| Reasoning Ability | 40 | Easy |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 40 | Easy-Moderate |
| Overall | 80 | Easy-Moderate |
| Topics | Number of questions |
| Puzzles & Seating Arrangement (dual row, box based-10 boxes, circular, uncertain linear, tabulation puzzle) | 25 |
| Syllogism | 4 |
| Direct Inequality | 5 |
| Direction Test | 3 |
| Miscellaneous | 3 |
| Topics | Number of Questions |
| Data Interpretation (Case-let, Pie chart, Bar) | 15 |
| Quadratic Equation | 3 |
| Number Series Missing | 5 |
| Approximation | 3 |
| Arithmetic | 14 |
| Total | 40 |
| Sections | Good Attempts |
| Reasoning Ability | 30-35 |
| Quantitative Aptitude (Moderate) | 24-27 |
| Total | 55-60 |
The reasoning section as usual since morning has been easy. And this time puzzles didn’t have variables this time to challenge the aspirants. The overall quant section was easy-moderate. The only surprising element was the 3 DIs given in a single paper. All three shifts have been easy so far except for a few challenges. Moreover, the fourth shift might take a different tangent altogether.
| Sections | No. of Questions | Difficulty Level |
| Reasoning Ability | 40 | Easy |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 40 | Quite Moderate |
| Overall | 80 | Moderate |
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Puzzles (Year-based, Linear base With variable, Inside & Out circle, post-wise, Comparison) | 22 |
| Coding-Decoding (1 single, rest of mix) | 5 |
| Inequality (1-2 comma 2, 3 ) | 5 |
| Blood Relation | 3 |
| Direction & Distance | 3 |
| Word arrangement | 1 |
| Number Based | 1 |
| Total | 40 |
| Topics | No. Of Questions |
| Approximation (easy) | 5 |
| Quadratic equation (easy) | 5 |
| Arithmetic | 11 |
| 2 Case-let (Speed, time & distance, mall) | 9 |
| DI (Bar, Tabular) | 10 |
| Total | 40 |
| Sections | Good Attempts |
| Reasoning Ability | 30-35 |
| Quantitative Aptitude (Moderate) | 22-23 |
| Total | 54-58 |
Shift-2 has followed the same pattern for reasoning. RRB is quite consistent with Direction & Distance & with Blood Relation questions (3 questions each in every shift). Also, asking for 1 puzzle with a variable is also common this year. Quant was surprising because of 2 case-let questions which surely raised the difficulty level. Approximation & Quadratic equation questions were the balancing act. Aspirants with rigorous preparation will enjoy this shift but for other categories of aspirants, there were tricky elements.
| Sections | No. of Questions | Difficulty Level |
| Reasoning Ability | 40 | Easy |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 40 | Moderate but lengthy |
| Overall | 80 | Moderate |
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Puzzles (Date, month, parallel row Box-based 10 box, 9 floor with variable) | 20 |
| Coding-Decoding | 5 |
| Syllogism | 4 |
| Word formation | 1 |
| Inequality | 4 |
| Blood relation | 3 |
| Direction and Distance | 3 |
| Total | 40 |
IBPS RRB PO Prelims 2021 Detailed Exam Analysis 1st Aug- All Shifts
| Topics | No. Of Questions |
| Approximation | 6 |
| Quadratic equation | 6 |
| Arithmetic | 13 |
| Wrong Number Series | 5 |
| DI (Table, double pie chart – ticket holder) | 10 |
| Total | 40 |
| Sections | Good Attempts |
| Reasoning Ability | 30-35 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 23-24 |
| Total | 54-58 |
The reasoning section was easy but aspirants were surprised by the floor puzzle as it came with a variable. Generally, variables aren’t expected in prelims. But it wasn’t something that couldn’t be solved. The quant section was too long because of the DI as it was calculative. And some of the arithmetic questions were meant to be left. Although attempts of quant can be maximized, most aspirants attend reasoning first. And reasoning being easy; tempted the aspirants to attend more of the questions. This would have caused some time loss for attempting the quantitative section.
The shift we are discussing here was the first shift of the examination. All the instructions were also provided in regional languages state-wise. No changes were observed from the last year’s paper in terms of the exam pattern.
The overall difficulty level estimated was easy to moderate. Any prepared aspirant could easily have a good number of attempts with decent accuracy as well. The table below, however, mentions the average number of reasonable attempts.
| Subject | Good Attempts |
| Reasoning Ability | 28 – 32 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 22 – 27 |
| Total | 52 – 57 |
The reasoning section was easy compared to the other sections. The section was dominated mainly by puzzles and seating arrangements. Around 25 questions were asked from the mentioned topic. Coding-decoding was the next topic that took the limelight by having been asked five times. Other topics included direction sense, alphabet-based, inequality, number-based, and a day-based miscellaneous question.
| Topics | No. of Questions | Level |
| Puzzle and Seating Arrangement | 25 | Easy to Moderate |
| Direction Sense | 3 | Easy |
| Number Based | 1 | Easy |
| Alphabet Based | 2 | Easy |
| Inequality | 3 | Easy |
| Coding-Decoding | 5 | Easy to Moderate |
| Day based miscellaneous question | 1 | Easy |
| Total | 40 | Easy to Moderate |
Again, this section was also categorized as easy to moderate. As expected, the section was dominated by data interpretation and arithmetic word problems. The other topics which were asked were quadratic equations, missing number series, and quantity 1 and quantity 2 based inequality. A total of five questions were given for each of these quantitative topics.
| Topics | No. of Questions | Level |
| Data Interpretation | 10 | Easy to Moderate |
| Quadratic Equation | 5 | Easy |
| Missing Number Series | 5 | Easy |
| Quantity 1 and Quantity 2 are based on inequality | 5 | Easy to Moderate |
| Arithmetic Word Problems | 15 | Easy to Moderate |
| Total | 40 | Easy to Moderate |
Four techniques for RRB PO Prelims coding-decoding questions
1. 20, 12, 14, 23 ?.
2. 19, 20, 42, 129 ? 2605
3. 520, 532, 508, 544, ?, 556.
3. 2033, ?, 2054, 2075, 2103, 2138.
4. 302, 142, 62, ?, 2, -8.
Q1. A and B together can complete a work in 4 days. An alone takes 6 days less than B alone takes. In how many days c alone completes the work if he is 50% more efficient than B?
Q2. There are 240 students in class ix, and out of that, 40% appeared in the exam, and in-class x 210 students out of that, 30% appeared in the exam. Then find the difference b/w number of students not appeared in the exam from both classes?
The level of paper last year for prelims was easy to moderate, and that can explain why the cut-off for last year was relatively low compared to the previous year in 2019. However, this doesn’t mean one should underestimate the IBPS RRB PO this year. On the contrary, it’s better to prepare for the best as we can never be sure about the difficulty level maintained by any of the examining bodies.
Read this article for IBPS RRB PO 2021 Cut-off Analysis
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