The IBPS PO exam is conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) for recruitment to the post of Probationary Officers/Management Trainee (PO/MT) in any of the 17 participating banks in India. Candidates are selected on the basis of a preliminary exam, a mains exam and an interview.
Salary of IBPS PO: Across the majority of public sector banks, the salary of PO is more or less the same and is dictated by the latest revision as per the 10th Bipartite settlement.
The revised pay scale which has been in effect since January 2016 is-
23700 - (980 x 7) - 30560 - (1145 x 2) - 32850 - (1310 x 7) – 42020.
The revised basic pay of Bank PO is Rs 23,700 and a Bank PO will get Rs. 980 as annual increment for a period of 7 years.
The IBPS exam pattern is conducted in three stages: the preliminary exam, mains exam, and interview. The exam pattern is different for different stages of selection. Candidates need to qualify the previous stage to be eligible for the next stage, that is, only candidates who qualify the preliminary exam can appear in the mains exam and candidates are called for the interview based on marks scored in mains exam. The final selection of candidates is performed based on their performance in the mains exam and interview.
Both the Prelims and Mains exams are conducted online, and can be attempted in either English or Hindi languages.
In the third stage of selection, an interview is conducted to assess the intellectual capability, overall personality, and general knowledge of candidates who qualify the mains exam. The total marks allotted to the interview is 100. The minimum qualifying marks in the interview is 40% and 35% for SC/ST/OBC/PWBD candidates.
The IBPS PO 2019 Mains examination was held on 30th November 2019 in two shifts- 9 AM to 12:30 PM and 2 PM to 5:30 PM. The overall analysis of the Mains exam is given below:
The overall difficulty level of the exam was tagged as moderate to difficult by test-takers. Candidates shared that they felt that the mains exam was more difficult this year compared to last year.
At a section level, Data Analysis & Interpretation was said to be the most difficult while the General Awareness sections was relatively easier. This year, the IBPS PO Mains question paper did not have any questions on Computer Aptitude. The descriptive section was easy as well. The section-wise difficulty level has been tabulated below:
The detailed IBPS PO Mains exam analysis for each section is given below to help candidates understand the relative importance of topics for their preparation.
English Language: This is considered the most scoring section of the IBPS PO mains exam since it requires no calculation but the difficulty level of this section is by virtue of the diversity in the type of questions asked. The question paper had 3 sets of reading comprehensions on the topics: Quality of education in US, Economy Based RC on a comparison of GDP and Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, Comparison between men and women’s soccer team. The distribution of questions belonging to various topics has been provided below:
General/Banking Awareness: This section has questions on Banking, Economic and General Awareness. Candidates need to be aware of important updates across the world as well as General Knowledge to score well in this section. The IBPS PO mains exam analysis for the general awareness section suggests that current affairs between the month of July and November were asked, only a few questions were asked from static GK and there were some questions related to banking awareness. Topics from where questions were asked are:
Data Analysis and Interpretation: This was the toughest section of the IBPS PO Mains 2019. The section was lengthy and had difficult questions. Topics from where questions were asked are:
Following types of DIs were asked in the exam:
Reasoning and Computer Awareness: This section was difficult and time-consuming since the questions are complex and lengthy. The distribution of questions belonging to various topics has been provided below:
Types of questions asked from Seat Arrangement and Puzzles are:
Descriptive Paper: The descriptive paper of the IBPS PO mains exam is a 25 marks section with two questions: one letter writing and one essay. Candidates are supposed to write one essay and one letter from the given options. Given below are the essay writing topics for IBPS PO mains descriptive exam 2019:
Following are the topics that were given for letter writing in the mains exam:
The IBPS PO 2019 Prelims examination was held on 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th October 2019 in four shifts on each day- 9 AM to 10 AM, 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, 2 PM to 3 PM and 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM. The overall analysis of the Prelims exam is given below:
The Prelims exam had a moderate difficulty level and had a pattern similar to that in previous years. The difficulty level and good attempt for each shift has been tabulated below:
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis – October 12, 2019
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis – October 13, 2019
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis – October 19, 2019
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis – October 20, 2019
Candidates need to score the minimum qualifying marks in each section, in addition to qualifying the overall cut-off, to clear the IBPS PO exam. Given below is the section-wise number of attempts which can be counted as good attempts for each shift.
IBPS PO Section-wise Exam Analysis – October 12, 2019
IBPS PO Section-wise Exam Analysis – October 13, 2019
IBPS PO Section-wise Exam Analysis – October 19, 2019
IBPS PO Section-wise Exam Analysis – October 20, 2019
Section-Wise Important Topics- The three sections had varied levels of difficulty and the important topics in each section are provided below.
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis for the English Language-The English language section had a moderate difficulty level and the common topics from which questions were included in the IBPS PO prelims exam across all shifts are given below:
The reading comprehension passage was related to the history of the printing press and newspapers. The rest of the questions were shared equally between the cloze test and sentence improvement.
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis for Reasoning Ability- The section had high variety in the type of questions. Out of a total of 35 questions, 16 questions were divided between puzzles, seating arrangement and alphabet series. The common topics on which the questions were asked in the IBPS PO Prelims exam 2019 are mentioned below:
The rest of the questions were divided between direction and displacement type questions, inequality and comparison along with a few miscellaneous questions. Overall, the reasoning section had a moderately difficulty level.
IBPS PO Prelims Exam Analysis for Quantitative Aptitude- This section had a moderate difficulty level and the majority of questions were based on data interpretation from lines, graphs and number series. The common topics for this section in the IBPS PO Prelims 2019 includes:
The rest of the section were from the topics: profit and loss, age-related, simple and compound interest etc.
Candidate should be a citizen of India or subject of Nepal/ Bhutan. Candidates who are Tibetan Refugees and came to India before January 1, 1962 are also eligible
Candidates must be between 20 to 30 years. Age relaxation of 5, 3 and 10 years is given to SC/ ST, OBC (non-creamy layer), and PwD candidates, respectively
Candidates should be graduates to be eligible to apply for IBPS PO exam
The results for IBPS PO Prelim 2020 will be announced tentatively in the October 2020 while the result for Mains will be announced in December 2020.The final result for IBPS PO 2019 has been announced on May 20 and candidates can access the result from the official website by logging with registration number or roll number and date of birth or password. The final result can be downloaded till June 30. Along with the result, IBPS PO cut off 2019-20 for provisional allotment has also been released.
Since the sectional and overall difficulty of topics varies in each slot of the exam, IBPS normalises the marks obtained by candidates using the equi-percentile method.
Tie-breaking Policy: In case two or more candidates have the same score, the merit is decided based on the date of birth and the older candidate will be placed above those younger in age.
The cut off marks specify the minimum score that candidates need to secure at sectional and overall levels to qualify the exam and become eligible for the next level of selection. The provisional allotment cut off is decided based on the mains exam and interview, and performed on merit-cum-preference basis. The weightage given to the mains exam and interview is 80:20.
Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) had released IBPS PO mains cut off 2019 on January 9, 2020. The cut off is released category-wise and section-wise. Candidates who have secured IBPS PO cut off 2019 in the mains exam are called for the interview.
The IBPS PO cut off marks are determined by multiple factors like –
The cutoff trends of the last three years for IBPS PO are given below
IBPS PO Final Cut off 2019
IBPS PO FInal Cut off 2018
IBPS PO Final Cut off 2017
The cutoff trends of the last three years for IBPS PO Mains are given below
IBPS PO Mains Cut off 2019 - Section-wise
IBPS PO Mains Cut off 2019 - Overall
IBPS PO Mains Cut off 2018 - Section-wise
IBPS PO Mains Cut off 2018 - Overall
IBPS PO Mains Cut off 2017 - Section-wise
IBPS PO Mains Cut off 2017 - Overall
The cutoff trends of the last three years for IBPS PO Prelims are given below
IBPS PO Prelims Cut off 2019 - Section-wise
IBPS PO Prelims Cut off 2019 - Overall
IBPS PO Prelims Cut off 2018 - Section-wise
IBPS PO Prelims Cut off 2018 - Overall
IBPS PO Prelims Cut off 2017 - Section-wise
IBPS PO Prelims Cut off 2017 - Overall
The 17 participating banks to which shortlisted candidates will be allotted through the IBPS PO exam are:
Ques: Can a candidate appearing in the final year of graduation apply for IBPS PO exam?
Ans: No, only the candidates who completed their graduation can apply for the exam.