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.