IBPS Clerk 2017 : Previous Year’s Cutoffs, Important Topics and Preparation Tips

With the IBPS Clerk exam just about two months away, we are sure that your preparation levels are on an all time high.

While it is necessary to work hard and prepare diligently, it is also important to prepare smartly. One should keep in mind that exams such as IBPS Clerk do not require a person to score 100% marks to succeed. In fact, all that one needs to do is to clear the cutoffs and maximize their scores.

In this post, we bring to you an analysis of previous year’s cutoffs of the IBPS Clerk examination in order to help you prepare more efficiently.

IBPS Clerk Cutoffs : 2016 Prelims & Mains

Also, it should be noted that these cutoffs will be applied in two stages:

(i) Sectional Cutoffs : This is the score that a candidate needs to score in each section in order to qualify.

(ii) Overall Cutoffs : The Overall or category-wise cutoffs are the qualifying marks a candidate has to score in order to be eligible for the subsequent stage.The overall cutoffs are different for each category (General, SC , ST, OBC, PWD etc.)

Apart from these, the IBPS also releases state-wise cutoff marks. These vary as per the state a candidate has applied from. The State-wise cutoff is different for each state and can be higher or lower than the overall cutoff range.

IBPS Clerk – 2016 : Sectional Cutoff Marks for the Prelims

Sr. No	Name of the section	Gen	OBC	SC	ST
1	Numerical Ability	10.75	6.75	6.75	6.75
2	Reasoning Ability	10.25	5.75	5.75	5.75
3	English Language	7.75	4.25	4.25	4.25

*Note that these may vary from state to state.

State-wise Overall Cutoffs for IBPS Clerk Prelims 2016 

State	UR (GEN)	OBC	SC	ST
Andhra Pradesh	73	73
Bihar	67.5	67.5
Chandigarh	61.5
Chhattisgarh	63.75
Delhi	67.25	61.75
Gujarat	58.75
Haryana	68	61.5
Himachal Pradesh	66.5
J&K	68.75
Jharkhand	70.75
Karnataka	58.25		53.75
Kerala	71
Madhya Pradesh	65.75	67.5		41.5
Maharashtra	59.25	59.25
Meghalaya	65.75
Orissa	70.75
Punjab	66.5
Rajasthan	66.75
Tamil Nadu	58	58
Telangana	65
Uttar Pradesh	67.75	63.75
Uttarakhand	71.25
West Bengal	70.5

IBPS Clerk – 2016 : Cutoff Marks for the Mains

• The number of candidates shortlisted for the Mains exam are 20 times the numbers of vacancies.
• Sectional cutoffs for IBPS Clerk Mains lies somewhere around 30% of the marks allotted to that particular section. 

• The following cutoffs are out of 100.

States	SC	ST	OBC	UR (GEN)	HI	OC	VI	EXS	DXS/DISXS
Andaman & Nicobar	NA	20.03	31.22	36.97	NA	NA	NA	20.69	NA
Andhra Pradesh	31.28	25.35	38.66	39.16	17	37.03	37.53	26.22	20.57
Arunchal Pradesh	31.47	27.32	35.16	29.82	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Assam	32.82	29.41	32.16	37.32	20.57	23.13	20.22	15.69	NA
Bihar	28.69	25.94	36.57	38.41	16.66	28.57	26.47	21.88	20.82
Chandigarh	28.28	NA	30.07	37.97	NA	NA	NA	16.63	NA
Chhattisgarh	28.35	19.5	37.41	38.72	NA	26.19	27.85	14.6	NA
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	NA	NA	NA	33.94	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Daman& Diu	NA	NA	NA	30.6	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Delhi	33.69	27.03	35.75	42.41	20.53	32.19	45.94	27.44	19.38
Goa	NA	11.82	25.22	23.94	NA	NA	NA	24.97	NA
Gujarat	34.22	19.66	33.32	35.94	16.91	25.22	32.97	16.44	21.22
Haryana	25.72	17.88	34.72	40.97	14.53	30.6	37.1	25.57	18.88
Himachal Pradesh	30.47	29.32	34	40.47	NA	27.38	14.75	20.19	NA
Jammu & Kashmir	35.41	27.07	29.16	40.28	16.07	31.25	33.19	17.72	22.22
Jharkhand	23.28	17.25	34.6	37.1	18.75	24.19	18.97	13.13	NA
Karnataka	28.5	24.5	34.53	36.1	19.19	29.6	28.5	13.1	24.5
Kerala	29.78	20.69	40.03	42.03	16.75	27.85	23.82	27.13	22.16
Lakshdweep	NA	NA	NA	27.85	NA	NA	NAN	NA	NA
Madhya Pradesh	29.25	21.1	33.94	38.35	16.19	27.53	27.94	14.32	NA
Maharashtra	33.94	19.32	33.72	35.47	17.32	27.97	43.1	12.69	21.78
Manipur	NA	29.63	38.63	33.44	NA	NA	NA	25.16	NA
Meghalaya	NA	28.28		37.25	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Mizoram	NA	31.44		25.66	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nagaland	NA	27.57		35.69	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Odisha	28.75	20.41	37.66	38.78	17.22	30.16	33.97	27.41	18.97
Pudducherry	28.03	NA	36.66	37.38	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Punjab	26.72	23.88	32.63	40.28	25.38	23.38	20.63	11.85	16.5
Rajasthan	27.53	22.53	37.69	39.69	17.57	24.32	29.53	22.35	NA
Sikkim	NA	29.72	31.5	35.19	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Tamil Nadu	32.5	30.69	39.82	39.88	15.07	26.69	34.53	12.5	42.22
Telangana	31.28	26.47	383.1	38.13	16.97	33.18	42.03	24.13	17.25
Tripura	31.94	24.63	NA	38.78	NA	NA	NA	NA	21.94
Uttar Pradesh	27.75	21.53	34.22	39.28	16.1	26.5	24.85	23.03	19.47
Uttarakhand	27.94	26.35	33.1	40.5	NA	28.6	35.1	23.19	16.47
West Bengal	30.41	24	33.03	40.47	17.91	27.32	21.25	23.13	NA

*Note that all numbers are based on our analysis of the data available and may differ across sources.

IBPS Clerk Exam 2017 : Section-wise Important Topics

IBPS Clerk Prelims English Language : Important Question Types

Go through the following important topics to crack IBPS Clerk Prelims 2017 with a good score:

Reading Comprehension

Expect about 10 questions of the RC type. In IBPS clerk the RC would mostly be story based. It is advisable to practice different levels of reading comprehension regularly to master this question type. You can read the following articles on how to increase your scores in reading comprehension in IBPS exams.

IBPS Exams 2017 : How To Increase RC Scores (Part-1)

IBPS Exams 2017 : How To Increase RC Scores (Part-2)

Cloze Test

Here, a scenario or story may be given as a passage which would have blanks in between. The one thing you have to take care of is that all words you fill the given blanks with, must fit in with the context of the passage.

Error Spotting

One can expect 5-10 questions from this topic. Articles, conditional sentences, tenses, singular, plurals, subject-verb agreement are some of the most important concepts for error spotting questions.

Para-jumbles

Expect about 5 questions of this type in clerk prelims. Try to identify the first and last line of the jumbled paragraph first, as they’re comparatively easy to single out..

Odd One Out

This is another important question type. Try finding the common theme among the given sentences and then it would be easy to pick the one that does not talk about the same thing.

Para Completion

It is a rather new but an extremely  important topic in clerk prelims. A passage would be given with a blank. The idea is to find the sentence the aptly fits in the passage and completes it.

IBPS Clerk Prelims Reasoning Ability : Important Question Types

Topic v/s Questions
Coding Decoding	4
Inequalities	5
Syllogism	5
Blood Relation	2
Direction Sense	2
Seating Arrangement	6
Puzzles	6
Miscellaneous	5
Total	35

*Note that this topic -wise break-up of questions is approximate & is based on previous years’ trends. This is not definitive.

IBPS Clerk Prelims Numerical Ability : Important Question Types

Consider the following distribution of questions ( this is based on our analysis of previous year’s papers and is not definitive ).

Arithmetic	8-10
Series	5
Quadratic Equations	5
Simplification	5
Probability	0-2
DI [Pie Chart, Bar Graph ,Tables etc. ]	10 (2 sets of 5 questions each)

 Arithmetic includes the following topics : Percentage, Profit and Loss, Ration and Proportion, SI & CI, Time and work, TSD, SI &CI, Mixture and alligations, Averages, Problems on Ages.

Preparation Tips for IBPS Clerk Exam

While the above tables indicate that sectional cut offs are far below the maximum marks that can be obtained, one should not become complacent.

We have come up with a few tips to help you strategize your preparation for the exam:

Have a target.

 Set a target to complete and set sub-targets to help you achieve that target. Assign a particular time of your day for each task and reward yourself after achieving each one. Rewarding yourself helps you keep yourself motivated and achieve more.

Set a schedule.

 List down the subjects you need to prepare. Divide the time available to you for preparation and assign particular days for each subject in the order of your preference/based on your priority. This will help you de-clutter the vast syllabus and help you focus on one subject at a time without feeling overworked.

If you are having difficulty scheduling or creating a study plan, let Oliveboard do it for you.

Gather study material.

 Do not refer to too many resources while studying. Stick to the best and error free study material. Oliveboard provides comprehensive study material required for IBPS Clerk 2016, all in one place.

Sign up and access Oliveboard’s study material here

Practice.

 We cannot emphasize this point enough. To master anything you read or practice and to retain it in the memory you need to practice regularly and be consistent at it. Read newspapers/magazines every day for English and practice solving as many math and logical reasoning problems as possible for Quant and Reasoning.

Take IBPS Clerk practice tests here.

Revise.

Make a note of all the important points while preparing. This will not only help you remember better but also help you during revision.

All the best!