SBI PO 2016 : New Exam pattern for selection process
Dear Sehpaathians,
State Bank of India is one of the major recruiters of the country which rolls out vacancies for fresh applicants every year to complement its official requirements to the posts of the Probationary Officers (PO) and the Clerical Jobs.This examination sees participation of lakhs of candidates. If we go by date, around 15 lakhs candidates participated in the SBI PO exam and around 20 lakhs candidates participated in the Clerk examination in year 2015. This exponential increase in the number of participation has forced the SBI to bring changes to the SBI PO exam pattern and thus it changed the pattern from last year.
Stages under the SBI PO Exam Pattern 2016
SBI has decided to expand the recruitment process by including comprehensive entrance examination systems which has been divided into phases of examination which has been explained below:
- Phase 1: Preliminary Examination
- Phase 2: Main Examination
- Phase 3: Descriptive Test and Personal Interview
PHASE I: Preliminary Examination
Preliminary Examination consisting of Objective Tests for 100 marks will be conducted online. This test would be of 1 hour duration consisting of 3 Sections as follows:
| S.No. | Name of test | No. of questions | Duration |
| 1 | English Language | 30 | |
| 2 | Quantitative Aptitude | 35 | |
| 3 | Reasoning Ability | 35 | |
| TOTAL | 100 | Composite time of 1 hour |
All candidates have to qualify in each of the three sections individually by securing passing marks to be decided by the Bank. Adequate number of candidates in each category as decided by the Bank (approximately 20 times the numbers of vacancies subject to availability) will be short listed for the Main Examination.
PHASE II: Mains Examination
Main Examination will consist of Objective Tests for 200 marks and Descriptive Test for 25 marks. Both the Objective and Descriptive Tests will be online. Candidates will have to answer Descriptive test by typing on the computer. Immediately after completion of Objective Test, Descriptive Test will be administered.
| S.No. | Name of test | No. of questions | Maximum Marks | Duration (minutes) |
| 1 | English Language | 35 | 40 | 40 |
| 2 | Reasoning and Computer Aptitude | 45 | 60 | 60 |
| 3 | Data analysis and interpretation | 35 | 60 | 45 |
| 4 | General awareness about economy/banking | 40 | 40 | 35 |
| TOTAL | 155 | 200 | 3 hours |
- Objective Test: The objective test of 3 hours duration consist of 4 Sections for total 200 marks. The objective test will have separate timing for every section. The candidates are required to qualify in each of the Tests by securing passing marks, to be decided by the Bank.
- Descriptive Test: The Descriptive Test of 30 minutes duration with 25 marks will be a Test of English Language (Letter Writing & Essay). The candidates are required to qualify in the Descriptive Test by securing passing marks, to be decided by the Bank
- Descriptive Test paper of only those candidates will be evaluated who have scored qualifying marks in the Objective Tests and are placed adequately high as per total marks in objective test.
- Penalty for Wrong Answers (Applicable to both – Preliminary and Main examination): There will be penalty for wrong answers marked in the Objective Tests. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate one fourth of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty to arrive at corrected score. If a question is left blank, i.e. no answer is marked by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.
PHASE III: Group Discussion and Interview:
The aggregate marks of an individual qualifying in both the Objective Tests and Descriptive Test will be arranged in descending order in each category. Adequate number of candidates in each category, as decided by the Bank will be called for Group Discussion and Interview. The qualifying marks in Group Discussion &Interview will be as decided by the Bank.
| S.No. | Name of test | Max Marks |
| 1 | Group Discussion | 20 |
| 2 | Interview | 30 |
| Total | 50 |
Final Selection:
The marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination (Phase-I) will not be added for the selection and only the marks obtained in Main Examination (Phase-II), both in Objective Test and Descriptive Test, will be added to the marks obtained in GD & Interview (Phase-III) for preparation of the final merit list.
The candidates will have to qualify both in Phase-II and Phase-III separately.
| S.No. | Name of test | Max Marks | Normalized to |
| 1 | Main Examination | 225 | 75 |
| 2 | GD and Interview | 50 | 25 |
| Total | 275 | 100 |
Marks secured by the candidates in the Written Test (out of 225 marks) are converted to out of 75 and marks secured in Group Discussion & Interview (out of 50 marks) are converted to out of 25. The final merit list is arrived at after aggregating converted marks of Written Test and Group Discussion &Interview out of 100 for each category. The selection will be made from the top merit ranked candidates in each category.
OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION
