The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducts national-level exams for various banking posts every year. Through these exams, the IBPS recruits both Grade A and B post banking personnel. The Officer Scale 1 is a Probationary Officer post that works with Regional Rural Banks (RRB). This year, IBPS has announced 4658 openings for the post of IBPS RRB PO (Officer Scale 1).
The IBPS RRB Officer Scale 1 exam is conducted over 3 phases- Prelims, Mains and Interview. The Mains paper is scheduled to be held on September 25, 2021. In this article, we will analyze the previous year’s Mains paper in detail so that we can prepare ourselves for this year’s exam.
IBPS RRB PO 2020 Mains Exam Analysis
Reviewing and analyzing the previous year’s question paper is an important part of preparing for any exam. By studying the previous year’s exam, aspirants can perceive the sectional and overall assessment standard of the exam. We will look at the thematic distribution of questions, important topics from every section, last year’s cut-off marks and the standard of assessment of each section in this article.
English Language
| Topics | No. of Questions | Level |
| Reading Comprehension | 10 | Easy to Moderate |
| Error Detection | 4 | Easy |
| Rearrangement | 6 | Easy |
| Sentence Correction | 3 | Easy to Moderate |
| Para Jumble | 5 | Easy to Moderate |
| Word Replacement | 4 | Easy to Moderate |
| Fill in the blanks | 4 | Easy |
| Match the column | 4 | Easy |
| Total | 40 | Easy |
The English language paper assessment level was moderate to easy. The maximum number of questions were based on Reading Comprehension wherein candidates were given a passage that they had to read. Candidates were then asked to answer some successive questions related to the passage. 3-6 questions were asked from other topics such as Error Detection, Sentence Correction and Word Replacement. Candidates can obtain a good score in this section if they have a strong language background.
Reasoning
The Reasoning section of the IBPS RRB PO exam was moderate. Let us analyse each topic to understand the weightage given to each in the exam.
| Topics | No. of Questions |
| Seating Arrangement | 10 |
| Puzzles (8 Person likes different food), Box Based Puzzle (8 Box with variable countries) | 10 |
| Coding Decoding (Chinese Coding) | 1 |
| Inequality | 4 |
| Order Ranking (Height arrangement) | 3 |
| Data Sufficiency | 3 |
| Blood Relation | 3 |
| Direction | 1 |
| Alphabet (Meaningful word) | 1 |
| Misc. | 1 |
| Logical Reasoning | 3 |
| Total | 40 |
As you may have noticed, Puzzles and Seating Arrangement topics were given similar weightage in the Prelims paper as well. This is clearly indicative of the importance of the two topics for this exam. While candidates should not ignore any other topic, they must give due importance to Puzzles and Seating Arrangement Puzzles so that they can solve them quickly and correctly in the examination.
Quantitative Aptitude
The Quantitative Aptitude section of the IBPS RRB Officer Scale 1 exam 2020 was moderate to difficult.
| Topics | No. of Questions |
| Data Interpretation | 15 |
| Caselets | 10 |
| Series (Missing) | 5 |
| Arithmetic Word Problem | 10 |
| Total | 40 |
From the Quantitative Aptitude section, the major focus of the paper was on Data Interpretation. Questions based on Bar Graphs and Pie Charts were assessed. As you can see, the same weightage was given to DI and Arithmetic Word Problems in the Mains exam as it was in the Prelims paper. Needless to say, for this exam, DI and Arithmetic Word Problems were the most important topics from Quant.
General Awareness
| Topic | No. of Questions | Level |
| Banking Awareness | 8 | Moderate |
| Current banking Affairs | 10 | Moderate |
| Current Affairs | 15-17 | Easy |
| Static Affairs | 6-7 | Moderate |
| Total | 40 | Moderate |
As you can derive from the table above, of the 40 questions from this section, a striking majority was dedicated to Current Affairs. Candidates must be up to date with the Current Affairs, particularly, news from the last 6 months before the exam. Since, this is a Banking exam, it is a given that a good number of questions would be dedicated to Banking Awareness and Current Banking Affairs as was the very case. Last but not the least, Static GK is a very scoring topic. Although comparatively fewer questions were asked from this topic, Static GK is easier to prepare. In a highly competitive exam, such as this, every mark matters.
Candidates should be up-to-date with their Current Affairs to ensure they score well in this section.To stay on top of your General Awareness preparation you can find weekly updates on all aspects of general awareness on our BeePedia page. Moreover, these BeePedia updates are comprehensive and free and you can download them from the ixamBee website. BeePedia is also available in Hindi.
IBPS RRB PO Mains Cut-Off
In this section, we will analyze the category and subject-wise cut-off for the Mains paper. Lastly, we will look at the Final Cut-off as announced in accordance with which provisional allotments are made.
| State/UT | SC | ST | OBC | EWS | General |
| Andhra Pradesh | 61.94 | 52 | 76.38 | 76.38 | 76.38 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | NA | 43.44 | 43.44 | NA | NA |
| Assam | 56.06 | 51.56 | 66.88 | 70.31 | 72.44 |
| Bihar | 52.25 | 46.25 | 77.31 | 77.31 | 77.31 |
| Chhattisgarh | 56.56 | 45.69 | 75.50 | 71 | 75.50 |
| Gujarat | 41.94 | 50.94 | 50.94 | 52.19 | 56.75 |
| Haryana | 67.38 | 40.31 | 79.88 | 90.50 | 91.81 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 65.63 | 68.56 | 69.31 | 83.25 | 88.38 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 70.50 | 51.25 | 65.06 | 80.81 | 89.88 |
| Jharkhand | 53.13 | 53.75 | 74.88 | 80.25 | 82.25 |
| Karnataka | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Kerala | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Madhya Pradesh | 58 | 44.31 | 74.44 | 77.13 | 77.13 |
| Maharashtra | 71 | 48.94 | 73.56 | 73.56 | 73.56 |
| Manipur | 65.06 | 63.31 | 65.06 | 65.06 | 65.06 |
| Meghalaya | 46.19 | 58.50 | 58.50 | 58.50 | 58.50 |
| Mizoram | 54.44 | 64.06 | 40.63 | NA | 64.06 |
| Nagaland | NA | 44.75 | NA | NA | NA |
| Odisha | 63.25 | 57.94 | 85.63 | 85.63 | 85.63 |
| Puducherry | 67.69 | NA | 63.56 | NA | NA |
| Punjab | 66.88 | 34 | 73 | 81.81 | 92.38 |
| Rajasthan | 39.13 | 47.63 | 36.75 | 47.63 | 47.63 |
| Tamil Nadu | 72.88 | 33.44 | 81.06 | 57.56 | 81.06 |
| Telangana | 64.31 | 60.88 | 70.81 | 70.81 | 70.81 |
| Tripura | 65.50 | 59.69 | 72.19 | 65 | 80.44 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 52.56 | 29.50 | 64.19 | 70.56 | 70.56 |
| Uttarakhand | 100.38 | 59.63 | 82.75 | 100.38 | 100.38 |
| West Bengal | 62.75 | 47.56 | 63.56 | 69 | 80.94 |
In general, the cut-offs ranged between the 60s and 90s. The high cut-off marks reflect the relatively easy nature of assessment of the Mains paper. The highest cut-off mark was 100.38 for Uttarakhand. It is interesting to note that 100.38 was the cut-off for the General, Scheduled Caste and EWS categories in Uttarakhand. The lowest cut-off mark was 33.44 for candidates hailing from Scheduled Tribes of/in Tamil Nadu.
IBPS RRB PO Subject-wise Maximum Cut-Off
| S.No. | Name of Test | Max. Marks | Qualifying Scores SC/ST/OBC/PWD | Qualifying Scores EWS/General |
| 1 | Reasoning | 40 | 08.75 | 12 |
| 2 | Computer Knowledge | 40 | 05.75 | 08.75 |
| 3 | General Awareness | 40 | 02.25 | 04.50 |
| 4 (a) | English Language | 40 | 03.50 | 07.25 |
| 4 (b) | Hindi Language | 40 | 03.50 | 06.25 |
| 5 | Quantitative Aptitude | 40 | 02.25 | 05.25 |
With all subjects being assessed on a total of 40 marks, the highest cut-off mark for any subject was 12 for the Reasoning section. Once again, the subject-wise cut-offs are further divided category-wise. The lowest cut-off mark was 02.25 for General Awareness for candidates belonging to Reserved categories.
IBPS RRB PO Mains Final Cut-Off
| State/UT | SC | ST | OBC | EWS | General |
| Andhra Pradesh | 50.25 | 53.55 | 56 | 52.20 | 70.10 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | NA | NA | NA | NA | 46.65 |
| Assam | 46.92 | 46.32 | 49.18 | 47.92 | 62.25 |
| Bihar | 52.45 | 47.82 | 62.72 | 52.75 | 64.75 |
| Chhattisgarh | 48.18 | 39.65 | 49.30 | 49.22 | 62.85 |
| Gujarat | 49.08 | 44 | 47.60 | 42.48 | 69.50 |
| Haryana | 57.48 | 37.88 | 58.08 | 58.10 | 72.48 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 48.72 | 48.18 | 57 | 54.68 | 62.80 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 61.48 | 52.05 | 56.08 | 59.12 | 72.82 |
| Jharkhand | 55.72 | 41.12 | 55.28 | 52.50 | 63.25 |
| Karnataka | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Kerala | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Madhya Pradesh | 51.88 | 49.55 | 54.75 | 53.55 | 69.58 |
| Maharashtra | 53.42 | 46.08 | 59.92 | 50.42 | 69.62 |
| Manipur | 41.95 | 40.02 | 48.95 | NA | 54.35 |
| Meghalaya | 33.02 | 39.32 | 43.62 | NA | 45.60 |
| Mizoram | NA | 41.58 | 39.48 | NA | 40.48 |
| Nagaland | Na | 50.30 | NA | NA | NA |
| Odisha | 43.85 | 54.50 | 52.10 | 51.25 | 71.52 |
| Puducherry | 43.42 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Punjab | 52.40 | 39.92 | 61.15 | 58.60 | 70.35 |
| Rajasthan | 56.95 | 55.45 | 53.58 | 55.75 | 75.55 |
| Tamil Nadu | 51 | 45.95 | 66.05 | 52.18 | 64.82 |
| Telangana | 53.80 | 49.28 | 58.22 | 49.60 | 64.32 |
| Tripura | 47.52 | 36.62 | 50.02 | 35 | 53.48 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 52.15 | 46.68 | 52.70 | 51.02 | 72.55 |
| Uttarakhand | NA | 40.12 | NA | NA | 66.12 |
| West Bengal | 53.42 | 56.68 | 50.38 | 49.70 | 64.18 |
The Final Cut-off is calculated by adding the marks scored in the Mains examination and Interview round. This score is calculated out of 100. The range of cut-offs was between 40 and 70. The highest Final Cut-off was 72.82 for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Across all categories, the least cut-off mark scored by a qualifying candidate hailing from a Scheduled Tribe was 39.32 from Meghalaya. The lower cut-off marks for the reserved categories are indicative of the accommodation made for them in the Banking exams.
After analyzing the Mains paper in details, candidates will have a fair idea about the examination. Also, you should evaluate the previous year’s Prelims paper as well as part of your preparation.
Preparing for IBPS RRB Officer Scale 1 Exam and don’t know where to begin? Don’t worry, we have got you covered. At ixamBee you can find all the study material coupled with guidance from subject experts in our online courses. If you are on the edge about whether you should prepare for this exam or not, take a free mock test to evaluate your standing.
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