The State Bank of India Clerk Preliminary Exam are over and it is now time to prepare for the Mains Exam. The prelims exam is over and SBI clerk result for prelims will be announced soon. The candidates who clear in the preliminary exams will be eligible for the Mains Exam. The aspirants must be eager to know their status. The SBI clerk Mains exam is scheduled to be held on 5th August 2018. This article provides the SBI Clerk syllabus and the pattern with important topics to prepare for. Also keep a check on the official site for any kind of updates regarding the date of exam and admit cards.
SBI Clerk Mains Syllabus:
The Mains examination assess the candidates in 4 sections Reasoning & Computer Awareness, General English, General/Financial Awareness, and Quantitative Aptitude. The syllabus in detail is given below:
| Quantitative Aptitude | General English | General/Financial Awareness | Reasoning Ability | Computer Awareness |
| Simplification | Reading comprehension including Synonyms and Antonyms | Current Affairs – news on banking industry, awards and honors, books and authors, latest appointments, obituaries, new schemes of central and state governments, sports, etc. | Internet | Basics of Computer: Hardware, Software, Generation of Computers |
| Number Series | Sentence rearrangement or Para jumbles | Static GK – country-capital, country-currency, headquarters of financial organizations (of insurance companies), constituencies of ministers, dance forms, nuclear and thermal power stations, etc. | Machine Input/Output | DBMS |
| Data Sufficiency | Sentence Correction/ Error Finding | Banking/Financial terms | Syllogism | Networking |
| Data Interpretation | Spell Checks | Static Awareness | Blood Relation | Internet |
| Quadratic Equation | Fillers | Banking and Financial Awareness | Direction Sense | MS Office |
| Time & Distance, Work | Cloze Test | Inequalities | Input-Output Devices | |
| Partnership | Puzzles | Important Abbreviations | ||
| Profit & Loss | Coding-Decoding | |||
| Simple and Compound Interest | Ranking | |||
| Mixture and Allegations | Statement and Assumptions | |||
| Ratio & Proportion, Averages, Percentages |
SBI Clerk Mains Exam Pattern:
The duration is given for each section. There will be negative marking of 0.25 marks for an incorrect answer. There is no sectional cut-off on SBI Clerk Mains exam.
| Serial Number | Section | No. of Question | Total Marks | Duration |
| 1. | General English | 40 | 40 | 35 minutes |
| 2. | Quantitative Aptitude | 50 | 50 | 45 minutes |
| 3. | Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude | 50 | 60 | 45 minutes |
| 4. | General/Financial Awareness | 50 | 50 | 25 minutes |
| Total | 190 | 200 | 2 hours 40 minutes |
The important topics for SBI Clerk Mains Exam:
The topics given here will be section-wise.
General/ Financial Awareness:
Ensure to cover Static GK and Current Affairs, Banking and Financial Awareness. The exam is relating to the Bank, therefore, it is a must for the candidate to have sufficient knowledge about Banking and Finance. The new launches, banking developments, latest government schemes, banking terminologies are all important. Answer 35 plus questions accurately, it will be sufficient and considered as safe attempt.
General English:
Preparation for English test is never ending, and the learnings help throughout the career. In the Mains Exam, you can expect some tricky questions in this section. Reading Comprehension, Cloze test, Synonyms/Antonyms, Cloze Test, Sentence Completion, Spotting Errors, Parajumbles are some of the topics you must prepare thoroughly. Answer 25 plus questions accurately, it will be a safe attempt.
Quantitative Aptitude:
The topics you come across will be similar to Reasoning Ability however, the level of difficulty will vary. Here in Mains, the duration is 45 minutes to solve 50 questions and i.e., 1.2 mins per question to be precise. The important topics are Number Series, Data Interpretation/Sufficiency, Time & Work / Distance / Speed, Simple & Compound Interest, Ratio, Averages, Percentage and Simplification. Solving 30 plus questions accurately will be a safe attempt.
Reasoning and Computer Aptitude:
The number of questions are 60 and the duration for this section is 45 Minutes. Here is a catch, the questions asked in Reasoning may have higher marks compared to the computer aptitude. Be thorough with the basics of computers, abbreviations, short definitions in Computer Aptitude. The topics under Reasoning that you must be thorough with are Blood Relations, Puzzles, Syllogism, Data Sufficiency, Statement & Conclusions, Inequalities, Direction Tests, Coding/Decoding. A safe attempt is when you answer 35 plus questions accurately.
Considering the numbers mentioned above, if you answer 190 questions out of which 130 plus questions to compete in the clerical race. The sectional cut-offs are low, but then the candidates must score more marks to improve the total score. The best way to get this kind of accuracy is practice the model papers and take SBI Clerk mains mock tests regularly. Analyze your focus areas and prepare a plan to improve in those areas. A candid study plan along with this kind of strategy should help in cracking the SBI Clerk Mains Exam.
