Details of Important Changes introduced in SBI Clerk 2018
The most awaited recruitment notification by all banking aspirants has been released with many changes introduced as compared to recruitment drive of 2016. The candidates must be wondering about the new changes and how it will affect their preparation strategy. Through this article, we will be providing you with all vital pieces of information required for this exam.
All changes can be summed up in the following categories:-
- Changes in the name of the posts
- Changes in the number of vacancies
- Changes in the age relaxations
- Changes in the selection process and changes in the exam pattern
We will provide details of all categories one by one in a comparative manner (compared to recruitment drive of SBI Clerk 2016).
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Changes in the number of the posts: – The number of posts has been decreased from two to one.
| SBI Clerk 2016 | SBI Clerk 2018 |
| Junior Associates | Junior Associates in Customer Support and Sales |
| Junior Agriculture Associates | – |
Changes in the number of vacancies: – There is an overall decrease in the number of vacancies as compared to the previous recruitment drive.
| SBI Clerk 2016 | SBI Clerk 2018 |
| 10, 726 vacancies | 7, 200 new vacancies |
| 1101 backlog vacancies | |
| Total no. of vacancies 8,301 |
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following categories:-
- Current Vacancies: 7200 posts:
UR: 3788 posts
SC: 1111 posts
ST: 711 posts
OBC: 1590 posts
- Backlog Vacancies: 1101 posts:
SC: 569 posts
ST: 303 posts
OBC: 229 posts
If we compare state wise vacancies of previous recruitment to current recruitment drive, these are the important changes:-
- There is a sharp decrease in the vacancy of Tamil Nadu from 1420 to 346. There is a similar trend in case of Jharkhand and Bihar.
- For Maharashtra, the number of vacancies is almost double from 300 to 730. There is the similar trend in case of Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab.
- For rest of the state, there are no such big differences, in the number of vacancies.
- Hindi is made an official language for Andhra Pradesh.
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Changes in the age relaxations: – There is a slight change in the reservation rule for age relaxation for Widows, Divorced women, and women judicially separated from their husbands and who are not remarried.
| SBI Clerk 2016 | SBI Clerk 2018 |
| Age relaxation for Widows, Divorced women, and women judicially separated from their husbands and who are not remarried was 9 years (subject to the maximum age limit of 40 years -SC/ST, 38 years -OBC & candidates, 35 years – General) | Age relaxation for Widows, Divorced women, and women judicially separated from their husbands and who are not remarried this year is 7 years (subject to the maximum age limit of 40 years -SC/ST, 38 years -OBC & candidates, 35 years – General) |
Changes in the selection process: – The selection process of SBI clerk has been changed as compared to the previous recruitment drive. The number of tiers has been reduced from four to three.
| SBI Clerk 2016 | SBI Clerk 2018 |
| The selection process in 2016 consisted of four tiers | The selection procedure of SBI Clerk Recruitment 2018 consists of three tiers |
| 1. Preliminary Online Test | 1. Preliminary Exam |
| 2. Main Online Test | 2. Main Exam |
| 3. Interview (subject to Govt. of India approval) | 3. Test of Official and/or Local Language |
| 4. Test of Official and/or Local Language |
Changes in exam pattern of SBI Clerk 2018:- The exam pattern has been changed a lot as compared to the previous recruitment drive. The sectional time in preliminary exam has been introduced and the sectional cut-offs are withdrawn. The exact exam pattern is given below:-
The new and updated preliminary exam pattern is:-
| Name of Section | No. of Questions | Marks | Duration in minutes |
| English Language | 30 | 30 | 20 |
| Numerical Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 |
| Reasoning Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 1Hr |
The main points to be known for the preliminary exam are:-
- This time there is separate time duration for each section. Twenty minutes is allotted for every section. This means that you can attempt next section once time for current section is elapsed.
- There is no section wise minimum qualifying marks as compared to SBI Clerk 2016.
- The Prelims exam is bilingual i.e. available in both English and Hindi, except for the English section.
- There is negative marking of 0.25 marks for each wrong answer.
The new and updated mains exam pattern is: – There will be separate time durations for each section. There are no sectional qualifying marks this time as compared to it was there in SBI Clerk 2016.
| Name Of Section | No. of Questions | Marks | Duration (Min) |
| General Awareness/ Financial Awareness | 50 | 50 | 35 |
| General English | 40 | 40 | 35 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 50 | 50 | 45 |
| Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude | 50 | 60 | 45 |
| Total | 190 | 200 | 2Hr 40 Min |
Main points to be considered for mains exam are:-
- There is no section wise minimum qualifying marks as compared to SBI Clerk 2016.
- The Prelims exam is bilingual i.e. available in both English and Hindi, except for the English section.
- There is negative marking of 0.25 marks for each wrong answer.
The candidates are required to make timely changes in their preparation strategy. In previous recruitment drive, the focus was on clearing sectional cut offs first. Since the sectional time has been introduced, the candidates should focus exam section wise. Every section should be bifurcated in easy, moderate and difficult parts and start attempting easy part first and then move to moderate and difficult parts. The candidates must attempt as many as possible mock tests in the current trend.
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All the best for your exams,