The NIACL has released 300 vacancies for Administrative Officers in 2021. The application window will remain open between September 1 and September 21, 2021. So, if you want to make a career in the Public Sector, you must grab this opportunity without any delay.
The NIACL AO Prelims paper exam analysis has been covered before. Let us now turn our attention toward reviewing the second phase of the selection process.
In this article, we will discuss the NIACL AO Mains paper 2019 to understand the level of assessment, the number of questions asked per topic, and the cut-off marks. This will serve as a good starting point for those who are preparing for NIACL AO Recruitment 2021.
Take a look at the NIACL AO Syllabus and Eligibility Criteria.
NIACL AO Mains Exam Pattern
There are 2 papers in Phase 2 (Mains) of the examination.
Paper 1 comprises 4 subjects, namely:
- Quantitative Aptitude
- English Language
- Reasoning
- General Awareness
A total of 50 questions are asked on each subject
Paper 2 is on Descriptive English
You can study the NIACL AO Exam Pattern in greater detail if you are not completely familiar with it.
NIACL AO Mains Exam Analysis 2019
We will now turn our attention to analysing the last Mains exam held in 2019. We will begin with all the subjects of Paper 1 and then move on to the Descriptive Paper.
Paper 1
Quantitative Aptitude
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Data Interpretation | 20 |
| Missing Series | 5 |
| Quadratic equation | 5 |
| Data Sufficiency | 5 |
| Arithmetic Word Problems | 15 |
| Total | 50 |
The greatest number of questions was asked from Data Interpretation that were based on Tabular Data, Double Pie Chart and Line Graph Data. 15 questions were asked from Arithmetic Word Problems that comprises topics like Speed, Distance and Time, Time and Work and Mensuration among others.
English Language
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Reading Comprehension | 10 |
| Sentence Rearrangement | 6 |
| Word Interchange | 5 |
| Phrase Replacement | 5 |
| Error Detection | 8 |
| Cloze Test | 10 |
| Fillers | 6 |
| Total | 50 |
The Level of assessment for the English Language was easy. As you can see from the table above, 10 questions each were asked from the Comprehension and Cloze Test. All the topics in the syllabus were covered in the exam.
Reasoning Ability
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Seating Arrangement and Puzzles | 22 |
| Coding Decoding | 5 |
| Blood Relations | 3 |
| Input Output | 5 |
| Data Sufficiency | 5 |
| Syllogism | 3 |
| Logical Reasoning | 7 |
| Total | 50 |
Generally, in any competitive exam that you might take, Reasoning Ability is a section that is always assessed. Furthermore, within this subject, a high number of questions is always expected from Seating Arrangement and Puzzles. As you can see from the table above, 22 questions out of 50 were asked on these 2 topics alone. 7 questions were asked from Logical Reasoning.
Tips and Tricks to Solve Input Output Reasoning Questions
General Awareness
| Topic | No. of Questions |
| Current Affairs | 15 |
| Banking/ Financial Awareness | 15-18 |
| Insurance Awareness | 5 |
| Miscellaneous | 10-12 |
| Total | 50 |
The level of assessment for General Awareness was easy. The GA questions were based on the last 3-4 months before the exam.
For your GA section, you can refer to ixamBee’s BeePedia notes that will keep you at the top of your preparation. These notes are as succinct as they are informative and can be read at any time you like. Moreover, these BeePedia capsules are completely free!
Overall, the level of assessment was moderate to easy. Of the 150 questions, the total number of good attempts were between 123 and 136. Additionally, in each section we see that more or less all the topics were covered from the prescribed syllabus. This is why candidates must ensure that they do not leave out any topics. Now that we have ample time in our hands to prepare for the exams, you must leave no stone unturned in your preparation.
Descriptive Test
This section was of 30 marks with a time limit of 30 minutes. Candidates had to choose from given options to write a letter and an essay.
| Type | Marks | Word Limit | Questions |
| Letter-writing | 15 | 150 | Write a letter to the editor expressing your concern about the increasing craze of Pubg games. Write a letter to your friend describing MSME |
| Essay | 15 | 200 | Should mother tongue be given importance in primary education b) Pros and Cons of getting an Insurance Plan online. |
If you think that English is your strong suit, you must try to score as well as you can. In case, English is not your strong front, you can count on our faculty to help you out. For example, take a look at some tips given by Manali ma’am for better essay-writing that will be applicable for all Insurance exams.
Candidates must take note that the Descriptive Paper will only be assessed if candidates obtain sectional cut-off marks for each section.
NIACL AO Mains Cut-offs
Let us now look at the cut-off marks for the last exam. A lower cut-off mark indicates a more difficult standard of assessment whereas a higher mark reflects that the paper was relatively easy. As we can see from the table below, the cut-off range is quite wide. This indicates the general standard of assessment across all streams was easy to moderate.
Category-wise cut-offs (on Total out of 200)
Since, this year only Generalist posts have been released, we will only look at cut-off marks for this post. Just in case you would also like to learn about the cut-off marks for other streams, they have also been presented below.
| Discipline | SC | ST | OBC | UR | HI | OC | VI | ID/MD |
| Company Secretary | – | – | – | 102 | – | – | – | – |
| Legal | 67.25 | 52.75 | 67.75 | 87.75 | – | 45.25 | – | – |
| Finance & Accounts | 81 | 64.75 | 89.25 | 99 | No students Qualified | – | 71.75 | – |
| Generalist | 108 | 95.25 | 118.25 | 126.5 | 82 | 113.75 | 115.25 | 86.5 |
The lowest cut-off mark scored by a qualifying candidate was 82. Whereas the highest cut-off mark across all categories was 126.5 for the Unreserved category.
As already stated above, sectional cut-offs are also important for candidates in the Paper 1 of the Mains paper. Please study the table given below carefully to understand how much you roughly need to score on each section.
Please also note, all the cut-off marks presented below are for the Generalist stream only.
| Test | SC, ST, OBC, PwD | UR |
| Reasoning Ability (50) | 17.75 | 21 |
| English Language (50) | 10.5 | 14.5 |
| General Awareness (50) | 6.5 | 10.5 |
| Quantitative Aptitude (50) | 17.25 | 20.25 |
The highest cut-off mark across all subjects is 21 in Reasoning for the unreserved category. The lowest cut-off mark is 6.5 for General Awareness for the reserved categories.
Minimum Qualifying Marks in Descriptive Paper (out of 30)
| SC | ST | OBC | UR | HI | OC | VI | ID/MD |
| 13.50 | 13.50 | 15 | 15 | 13.50 | 13.50 | 13.50 | 13.50 |
The cut-off mark for unreserved and OBC categories was 15. The cut-off mark for all other groups was 13.50. The high cut-off mark indicates a relatively easy level of assessment of the paper.
If you are preparing for the NIACL AO Exam 2021, take a look at our NIACL AO Online Course. This course is a complete package that will begin with your Prelim preparation right up to the Interview. Our devoted faculty has designed specially curated courses based on the needs of aspirants that cover written notes, study videos and live sessions.
Moreover, you can take help from the NIACL previous year’s paper and free online test series that will help you in your overall preparation.
We wish you all the very best!
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Also read
NIACL AO Notification 2021 [Out] 300 Vacancies Announced
List of Important Insurance Abbreviations -LIC AAO, UIC, NIACL AO