Introduction:

IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection) conducts a common written exam or CWE every year for the clerical cadre in multiple banks all over the country. All public sector banks use CWE as a base to fill the vacancies for this post.

IBPS is conducting Clerk exam for the eighth year now and hence named IBPS Clerk CWE VII. The IBPS Clerk CWE exam is conducted on two levels- preliminary exam and mains. Students qualifying in both these exams are thus selected for the post.

IBPS Clerk 2018 Recruitment

The recruitment process of IBPS Clerk CWE occurs in two phases:

• 1. Preliminary Examination
• 2. Main Examination

Students are required to qualify both these exams to get selected for the post of clerical cadre in most of the premier Public Sector Banks. The main thing to note here is that there is no interview process required for the selection of candidate after the mains exam. 100% weightage is given to the result of mains exam result.

Exam Pattern

The IBPS Clerk exam occurs in two stages: Prelims and Mains. Both these papers follow online method of conducting written examination. The structure of the exam is as follow:

IBPS Clerk Preliminary Examination

The preliminary exam of IBPS Clerk CWE is an online exam testing a candidate on the basis of their aptitude, intellect and English. There are three sections in total and the candidate must clear the cut off of each section to proceed to the mains exam round. Candidates are required to solve the question paper in the time frame of 1 hour. The composite mark of the paper is 100 and the passing marks is decided by IBPS that is likely to change every year depending on the level of difficulty of the exam.

SL.	Name of test(Objective>	No. of Questions	Maximum Marks	Duration
1.	English Language	30	30	Composite time of 1 Hour
2.	Numerical Ability	35	35	Composite time of 1 Hour
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	35	Composite time of 1 Hour
	Total	100	100	Composite time of 1 Hour

IBPS Clerk Mains Examination

Major changes have been observed in the Exam Pattern of IBPS Clerk 2017 Exam. The total duration and the number of questions asked in Mains Examination of IBPS Clerk 2017 Exam have been revised. In the latest update by IBPS, IBPS Clerk Mains Exam will now constitute of 190 questions that needs to be completed in a time frame of 160 minutes.

Previously, Computer Aptitude and Reasoning Ability Section used to be conducted separately. But, in the recent update by IBPS, both these sections are amalgamated together and will constitute of 50 questions that needs to be solved in a time duration of 45 minutes. Both Preliminary Exam and Mains Exam will be conducted bilingually, i.e. both in English and in Hindi. Let’s have a look at the Exam Pattern for IBPS Clerk CWE VII.

SL.	Name of test(Objective>	No. of Questions	Maximum Marks	Duration
1.	Reasoning & Computer Aptitude	50	60	45 min
2.	Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	45 min
3.	General/ Financial Awareness	50	50	35 min
4.	English Language	40	40	35 min
	Total	190	200	160 Hrs.

Penalty for Wrong Answers:

There is a penalty for wrong answers marked in both preliminary examination as well as mains examination. A wrong answer to an objective question will lead to a penalty of one-fourth of the total mark assigned to that question. There will be no penalty for the question left blank or unanswered.

Final Score Calculation for IBPS Clerk Exam:

The final score for the IBPS Clerk exam is calculated keeping the following points in mind:

• 1. Marks obtained in the Preliminary Exam (Phase-1) will not be considered for selection.
• 2. Candidates must qualify Phase-2 to be eligible for final merit.
• 3. The aggregate score out of 100 is used for the final merit list for each category.Candidates with top merit rank in each category are finally selected.