The IBPS RRB 2021 Mains examination was held on September 25, 2021. In this article, we will make a complete analysis of the exam that will help us to cognize the kind of questions asked and how aspirants who wish to take this exam in the future should approach it.
We will begin by looking at each section of the paper individually. This will be followed by an assessment of the overall standard of assessment to look at the bigger picture.
If you want to take this exam in the next recruitment cycle, take a look at the complete IBPS RRB PO Exam Pattern.
IBPS RRB PO Mains Exam Analysis 2021
Essentially, there are 5 sections/subjects in the examination. Namely;
- Numerical Ability
- Reasoning
- Language (Hindi/English)
- General Awareness
- Computer Awareness
Let us look at each section one by one now.
Numerical Ability
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Missing number series | 5 |
| DI Table Percentage Based(Cumulative Percentage was given) | 5 |
| DI Line Graph | 5 |
| DI Caselet (Company + Post) | 5 |
| Arithmetic Questions | 15 |
| Quantity Comparison(Equation Based)(Train) | 5 |
As we can see from the table above, the questions were fairly divided among all the topics with 5 questions from each type. Data Interpretation questions were asked from tables as well as line graphs.
There were 15 questions from Arithmetic Word Problems such as Percentage, Age, Time & Work and such. If you have practiced these well, you will be in a good position with this section. Overall, the level of assessment was moderate to difficult.
Reasoning
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Puzzle | 5 |
| Puzzle | 5 |
| Seating Arrangement | 5 |
| Puzzle – Month Based + Events | 5 |
| Syllogism | 3 |
| Direction | 3 |
| Blood Relation | 3 |
| Data Sufficiency | 3 |
| Word Formation | 1 |
| Logical | 5 |
| Misc. | 2 |
We always advise our students to solve Puzzle and Seating Arrangement questions every day and for good reason! As you can see, a total of 20 questions were asked from both these topics. 4 floor-based and 2 flat-based puzzles were asked. The Direction-based questions were quite lengthy.
There were also other questions on Syllogism, Blood Relation, and Data Sufficiency. There were 5 questions from Logical Verbal Reasoning as well. The standard of assessment was easy to moderate.
Hindi
In Hindi, the Reading Comprehension was accompanied by 10 questions based on Television and the Youth. The difficulty level of the passage was easy to moderate. Take a look at the table to check how many questions were asked for each part of the prescribed syllabus.
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| RC | 10 |
| Error finding | 5 |
| Word swap | 3 |
| Cloze test | 5 |
| Vocab Based | 5 |
| Fillers | 5 |
| Sentence Rearrangement | 5 |
| Misc. | 2 |
English
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| RC | 8 |
| Word Swap | 5 |
| Para Jumble | 5 |
| Double fillers | 5 |
| Match the columns | 5 |
| Error Detection | 5 |
| Word Usage | 5 |
| Misc. | 2 |
In English, the reading comprehension was based on Electricity Bill & Consumption. The comprehension passage was fairly simple. There were 7 statements for Para Jumbles.
As you can see for both Hindi and English, the questions have been fairly divided between the comprehension, vocabulary and grammar questions. Overall, the language assessment was easy to moderate.
General Awareness
For this section, the standard of questions was moderate to difficult. Some topics on which questions were asked are given below:
- ‘R’ in “RAFTAAR
- Percentage spent on Health of GDP
- Country with Denmark topped in Corruption index
- Salute Doctors
- Tenant and Landlord related act
- Number of Small finance banks
- Shopsy
- BPCL CHAIRMAN
- MD OF LIC
- Hat trick in Word archery
- Doctors day in the memory of
- Second rank in India Justice report
- Validity of NRA CET scorecard
- Govt to sell % in IDBI
- Last meeting of Monetary policy 2021-22
- India’s rank in Competitiveness index in BRICS
- Which football team is also called Azzurri
- Fortune magazine’s Global Leaders list
- Members of NATO
- Cochin Airport related
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Computer Awareness
The overall level of questions was moderate. If you had prepared for this section properly, your good attempts should be around 20. Some topics on which questions were tested are:
- Shortcut of Slide Show
- Slide sorter related
- SMPL related
- Application Layer related
- Magnetic tape related
- Window switching shortcut
- Web browsers related
- Antivirus related
- Google spreadsheet
- File Transfer Protocol
Overall Analysis
Now that we have studied each section of the paper separately, it is time to take a look at the overall standard of assessment. All in all, the level of examination was moderate to difficult.
The total number of good attempts were around 110 out of 200.
We always advise our students to practice questions on Puzzles, DI, Seating Arrangement and Arithmetic Word Problems religiously. As you have seen from this analysis, a good number of questions were asked from these topics.
Similarly, we also urge our students to be prepared with 6 months’ worth of current affairs from the exam date itself. This time, the General Awareness questions were not all that easy and if you take this section lightly, you will have to pay dearly in the exam.
Take a look at the table below.
| Section | Level |
| Numerical Ability | Moderate to Difficult |
| Reasoning | Easy to Moderate |
| Hindi Language | Moderate |
| English Language | Easy to Moderate |
| General Awareness | Difficult |
| Computer Awareness | Moderate |
| Overall | Moderate to Difficult |
Now that Phase 2 of the examination is out of the way, you can begin preparing for the Interview now. We strongly urge you not to take this Interview lightly as day in and day out we see aspirants lose out on their dream job because they felt they could just glide over the interview.
Please remember, you will face an esteemed panel of individuals who are quite adept at gauging candidates inside out based on their Interview performance.
Our intention is not to overwhelm you, rather to lay the cards bare before you so that you know what you will be facing and you can prepare accordingly. For any assistance, ixamBee’s Bank PO Interview Course is at your disposal. Aside from preparation tips and guidance, we also conduct mock interviews and candidates are given personalized feedback based on their performance.
We wish you the very best!
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