IBPS SO Exam Pattern 2021: Prelims & Mains Paper Marks Weightage

The  Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) has released the notification for the post of Specialist Officer (SO) 2021 for 1800+ vacancies for recruitment into the public sector banks of the country. In order to grab a seat as a specialist officer in IBPS candidates have to appear for the online written examination and crack the cut-off as disclosed by the officials of IBPS.

The IBPS SO Exam Pattern comprises of  Reasoning Ability, Quantitative Aptitude, English language, and Professional knowledge. The syllabus of Professional knowledge varies as per the post for which a candidate has applied.

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IBPS SO Exam Pattern 2021

The IBPS SO selection for all the posts is done through an online Preliminary Exam followed by Mains Exam and lastly an interview. The IBPS SO Exam Pattern is indicated here for the following mentioned posts.

• Agriculture Field Officer
• Marketing Officer (Scale I)
• HR/Personnel Officer
• IT Officer Scale I
• Law Officer 
• Rajbhasha Adhikari Scale I

The IBPS SO Exam Pattern for Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari are similar. 

• The IBPS SO Exam will be conducted in online mode only.
• There are a total of three sections for the IBPS SO Exam which are: || Reasoning Ability, English language, and General Awareness with Special Reference to Banking Industry ||
• The duration of the IBPS SO Prelims Exam will be 120 Minutes or 2 Hours.
• 50 Questions will be there in each section making a total of 150 questions in total.
• All the questions will be Bilingual i.e. in Hindi and English except the English Language.

The IBPS SO Exam Pattern for the post of Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari is tabulated below.

The Exam Pattern for IBPS SO IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer is different from the post of Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari.

• The IBPS SO Prelims Exam will be conducted in an online mode.
• The duration of the IBPS SO Prelims Exam will be 120 Minutes or 2 Hours.
• There is a negative marking of one-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question.
• There are three sections for IBPS SO Prelims Exam: || English Language, Reasoning Ability, and Quantitative Aptitude ||
• Each section has 50 questions, thereby having a total of 150 questions.
• Sectional Timing of 40 minutes is allotted to each of the sections. This means that you have to complete that section within 40 minutes.

After successful conduction of the IBPS Prelims Exam, IBPS will release a cutoff as per the category of the candidate. The shortlisted candidates will be issued admit cards to appear for the IBPS SO Mains Exam. The IBPS SO Mains Exam Pattern will comprise of Professional knowledge related to the discipline of the candidates.

We have depicted the exam pattern for all the posts of IBPS SO in the subsequent section for the Prelims, Mains, and Interview.

For the Post of Law Officer, IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer

The Mains Exam for IBPS SO for the post of Law Officer, IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer will have professional knowledge questions related to the post that is selected by the candidates.

• All the questions will be objective multiple-choice questions.
• There is a negative marking of one-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question.
• The duration of the online test for the IBPS SO Mains Exam will be 45 Minutes.
• The IBPS SO Mains Exam will be bilingual i.e. in English and Hindi
• There will be a total of 60 Questions of a total of 60 Marks.

For the Post of Rajbhasha Adhikari

The IBPS SO Mains Exam Pattern for the post of Rajbhasha Adhikari is different as compared to the rest of the posts.

• IBPS SO Rajbhasha Adhikari Question Paper will comprise of Objective and Descriptive Papers.
• There is a negative marking of one-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question.
• The duration for each of the papers will be of 30 minutes each.
• 45 Questions will be there for the Objective Type Questions while 2 Questions will be for the Descriptive Paper.
• The test will be of a total of 60 Marks.

The candidates who will qualify the sectional and overall cutoff marks in the IBPS SO Mains Exam will be shortlisted to appear for the Interview.

• The Interview will be of 100 Marks. 
• The participating organizations will conduct the Interview and it will be coordinated by the Nodal Bank in each State/ UT.

The final selection will be made on the basis of the marks obtained by a candidate in the Mains and the Interview if IBPS SO 2021.

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Best of Luck!