SBI CLERK

Chennai School of Banking (CSB), the Leading Training Institute in Chennai, provides dedicated coaching to those appearing for the national level examination conducted by the State Bank of India for clerical level appointment in various departments across its branches. Join CSB to have a go at both the Preliminary and Main examinations with confidence.

Table of Contents

What is SBI Clerk exam?

  • The roles and responsibilities of an SBI Clerk (Junior Associate) include client interactions and customer-related operations like Customer Support and Inbound & Outbound Sales. SBI Clerk is a national-level banking exam conducted by the State Bank of India every year to recruit candidates for the Clerical cadre/Junior Associate posts in various departments of SBI across the country. SBI Clerk is a graduate-level exam that offers entry-level clerical jobs to deserving aspirants.
  • The SBI Clerk exam has a two-stage selection process – Prelims and Mains. The final selection of candidates is done based on marks scored in these exams. The aspirants who will clear the Prelims exam will be eligible to appear for the Mains exam.
  • The final selection will be done based on scores in the Mains exam. The selected candidates will be responsible for all client-related interactions and operations.

SBI Clerk Exam – Eligibility Criteria

The candidates must check the eligibility criteria before applying for the exam. The SBI Clerk Eligibility Criteria involves nationality, educational qualification, and age limit.

 

Nationality:

The candidates who fulfill any one of the given nationality conditions can apply for the SBI Clerk exam:

  • Citizenship of India.
  • A subject of Bhutan or Nepal.
  • Tibetan refugee whose family migrated to India before January 1, 1962.
  • Persons of Indian origin migrated from Burma, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, or East African countries like Ethiopia, Zambia, Uganda, Zaire, Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania, with the intention of permanently settling in India.

 

SBI Clerk Exam: Educational Qualification

  • The candidate must have completed graduation in any discipline from any recognized institution.
  • The candidates who are in the final semester/year can also apply if they are able to submit the degree completion proof.
  • The candidate must have verbal and written proficiency in the official language of the state or union territory they are applying in.

SBI Clerk Exam: Age Limit and Relaxation

The candidates should fulfill the upper and lower age limits without fail.

Exam

General Category

OBC

SC/ST

 

Min. age

Max. age

Min. age

Max. age

Min. age

Max. age

SBI Clerk

20 years

28 years

20 years

31 years

20 years

33 years

 

SBI Clerk Exam Selection Process:

The State Bank of India (SBI) has set up a three-stage selection process for the SBI Clerk Recruitment: Preliminary exam, Mains exam, and local language test. The selection process for all three stages is mentioned in detail below.

  • Preliminary exam – This is the first stage of the SBI Clerk exam. It is an online computer-based exam consisting of three sections for 100 marks. The time duration is 1 hour for this exam.
  • Mains exam – This is a second stage exam for the SBI clerk exam. After qualifying for the prelims exam the candidates are eligible to appear in the Mains exam. This exam consists of four sections for a total of 200 marks.
  • Language test – This is the last stage in the SBI Clerk exam, in which the candidates are tested whether they will be fluent in their local language or not. After clearing this test the candidates are finally selected for the post of SBI Clerk.

SBI Clerk Exam Pattern:

  • There are two papers in the SBI Clerk examination. The SBI Clerk Exam Pattern for Prelims and Mains is almost the same. The only difference is in the total number of questions, time duration, and weightage of sections.
  • SBI Clerk Prelims Exam:In this online examination, the candidates need to answer 100 questions comprising 3 sections – Reasoning Ability, Quantitative Aptitude and English Language.
  • SBI Clerk Mains Exam: This SBI Main exam carries 200 marks. The paper is divided into four sections – General/ Financial Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning Ability & Computer Aptitude and General English.

SBI clerk Prelims Exam Pattern:

  • The SBI Clerk Prelims exam has 3 sections.
  • There are a total of 100 questions carrying 100 marks.
  • The duration of the exam is 1 hour.
  • If you mark wrong answer, 0.25 marks are deducted as penalty.
  • Also for each section, 20 minutes of time duration is allotted in a separate manner. So you cannot swap between the sections.
  • There is no sectional cut off for this exam. Candidates clearing the overall cut off are called for the mains exam.

S. No

Section

No. of Questions

Maximum marks

Duration

1

Reasoning Ability

35

35

20 minutes

2

Quantitative Aptitude

35

35

20 minutes

3

English Language

30

30

20 minutes

 

Total

100

100

1 hour

SBI Clerk Main Exam Pattern:

  • There are totally 40 questions in the English language section. The total marks for this section is 40. The sectional time given for this section is 35 minutes.
  • As there are separate timings for each section, you cannot navigate through the sections as per your wish. Only after the completion of time for a particular section, you can attend the next section.
  • For each wrong answer you mark, 1/4th of the marks assigned to the question get deducted as penalty.
  • There is no sectional cut off for the individual sections.

S No.

Section

No.  of Qs.

Max. marks

Duration

1

Reasoning Ability & Computer Aptitude

50

60

45 minutes

2

Quantitative Aptitude

50

50

45 minutes

3

General/Financial Awareness

50

50

35 minutes

4

English language

40

40

35 minutes

 

Total

190

200

2 hours 40 minutes

 

  • SBI Clerk Mains exam consists of a total of 190 MCQ questions from the four sections.
  • There is a fixed time provided to solve all the sections.
  • There is one-fourth negative marking for every wrong answer.
  • After qualifying the cut-off marks of the mains examination, the candidates become eligible to appear in the local language exam.

SBI Clerk Language Exam Pattern

This is the last stage exam in the SBI Clerk exam. The candidates who qualify in the Mains exam are eligible to appear for this exam. This test is not compulsory for all candidates. The candidates who could not provide evidence for their language proficiency need to appear for this exam.

The candidates who give evidence for their language in their qualification mark sheet do not need to appear for this exam. The candidates can show the proof of language by providing the class 10th and 12th standard mark sheets or certificates.

SBI Clerk Syllabus

Although the exam pattern of the Preliminary and Main exam might look similar, the difficulty level of the latter is higher. Here is a comprehensive guide to the syllabus for SBI Clerk Prelims:

SBI Clerk Syllabus: Prelims

Reasoning Ability

Quantitative Aptitude

English Language

Logical Reasoning

Simplification, Sequence & Series

Reading Comprehension

Alphanumeric Series, Puzzle, Tabulation

Profit & Loss, Number Systems, Data Interpretation

Paragraph Completion

Ranking/Directions/Alphabet Test

Mixtures & Alligations, Time & Distance

Para jumbles

Data Sufficiency, Coded Inequalities, Syllogism

Simple Interest & Compound Interest & Surds & Indices

Multiple Meaning /Error Spotting

Blood Relations

Work & Time, Mensuration – Cylinder, Cone, Sphere

Fill in the blanks

Seating Arrangement

Permutation, Combination & Probability

Cloze Test

Coding-Decoding, Input Output

Ratio & Proportion, Percentage

Miscellaneous

Inequalities and Puzzles

Data Sufficiency, Quadratic Equation, Averages

Synonyms and Antonyms

The SBI Clerk Mains syllabus is given in the table below (Syllabus for English, Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude are the same as that of Prelims):

SBI Clerk Syllabus: Mains

General/Financial Awareness

Computer Awareness

Banking/Financial terms

Basics of Computer

Static Awareness

Hardware and Software

Banking and Financial Awareness

Generation of Computers

Current Affairs: news on the banking industry, awards, and honours

DBMS, Networking

Important Days, books, and authors, latest appointments, obituaries, new schemes of central and state governments, sports, etc.

MS Office

Static GK: country-capital, country-currency, headquarters of financial organizations (of insurance companies), constituencies of ministers, dance forms, nuclear and thermal power stations, etc.

Important Abbreviations

SBI Clerk Result

  • Once both the SBI Clerk Prelims and Mains exam are over, the SBI will publish the results for both the exams individually. After each stage of the SBI Clerk examination, the conducting body releases the result on its official website based on which candidates are shortlisted for the next phase of the examination.

SBI Clerk Exam Cut-off

  • The cut-off of the SBI Clerk exam depends on various factors like the number of students who appeared in the exam, level of exam, number of shifts, and the average score of students. One can get an idea about the qualifying marks with the help of the previous year’s cut-offs as mentioned below.

SBI Clerk Exam Preparation Tips

  • For all the candidates who aspire to take the SBI Clerk exam must follow a regular study schedule. Following tips can help aspirants to score better marks in the exam:

– Review the exam pattern and syllabus in detail

– Create a study schedule for the test and adhere to it strictly

– Cover the whole syllabus and pay special attention to current affairs

– To understand the types of problems asked in the exam, solve previous year’s Qs. papers

– Take practice exams/ mock tests to increase your speed and accuracy

– Focus more on revision

– Stay calm and positive during the examination

  • Practising the SBI Clerk’s previous year’s papers will give the candidates an overview of the actual test and help them to gear up their preparation accordingly. They can also take a few SBI Clerk mock tests to identify their strengths and weaknesses and work closely on those areas that need improvement.
  • Make Effective Timetable – The candidates should make an effective timetable for study. The timetable should be as per the candidate’s choice. There is a proper time for all subjects in the timetable. Time management plays an important role to crack any competitive exam with the expected score. Candidates having good time management can crack the exam with the highest score.
  • Analyze syllabus and exam pattern – Before starting preparation for the SBI Clerk exam, the candidates should analyze the exam pattern and syllabus of every section properly. It gives an idea to the candidates to make their preparation strategy to crack the exam. The syllabus of this exam is lengthy, it requires much practice and accuracy to get the final selection. The students should solve the questions by analyzing the time required to solve that particular question.
  • Follow relevant study material – The students should follow the relevant study material as per the latest exam pattern to crack the exam with a good score. The students can make their handwritten short notes to prepare well in the limited time.
  • Revision – Revision is the key to cracking the exam within limited time duration. The students should revise all the sections well to ace their scores. Revision can be done through the short notes or following any crash course. The students can make revisions as per their choice. During revision, the students should prepare first the sections having more weightage in the exam.
  • Mock test – Mock test is the only way to analyze the level of preparation. It also gives an accurate idea about the strong and weaker sections. The students should analyze the marks of the mock test and then make a plan of preparation to increase the score and accuracy in the exam. The candidates should solve the mock test regularly. They can join the paid test series also to attempt the most relevant mock test.
  • Practice is important – Practice is key to cracking any exam. The quantitative aptitude and reasoning section requires much practice to score good marks, but the English and GK/GA section requires practice as well as remembering of facts and rules. The candidates should solve many questions on every concept and formula to make it strong. But it needs much practice.