In this post, we will go through the SBI Junior Associate Exam Pattern And Syllabus.

In the previous two posts, I have already covered:

• SBI Junior Associate Notification which covers important details about the selection procedure.
• And an overview of the job profiles of Junior Associate (Customer Support & Sales) and Junior Agricultural Associates
• Books for the exam have been covered here

The recruitment process will have three steps.

1. Phase I – Preliminary Examination
2. Phase II -Main Examination
3. Phase III -Interview
4. Test of official/local language

Let us go through each of them one by one.

SBI Junior Associate Exam Phase I – Preliminary Exam

The Phase 1 Exam will be a screening exam. So the marks obtained in this step will not be counted for preparing the merit list. In any case, you still have to clear it to move forward 😀

Section	Questions	Marks	Duration
English Language	30	30	Total Time of 1 hour.
Numerical Ability	35	35
Reasoning Ability	35	35
TOTAL	100	100

As explained in the table above, Phase 1 exam will be a single test of three sections. You need to answer 100 questions in 1 hour.

To qualify this test,

1. You need to clear the cut-off for each section.
2. And you need to clear the total combined cut-off.

The total number of candidates who will qualify this stage will approximately be equal to about 20 times the number of vacancies available.

SBI Junior Associate Exam Phase II – Main Exam

Phase 2, or the main exam will be more comprehensive than the first stage. You also have to keep in mind that the marks obtained in this stage will be counted towards the preparation of the merit list.

Section	Questions	Marks	Duration
General/Financial Awareness	50	50	35 minutes
English Language	40	40	35 minutes
Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	45 minutes
Reasoning Ability& Computer Aptitude	50	60	45 minutes
TOTAL	190	200	2 Hours 40 Minutes

As shown in the table above, each section will have its own time limits. As was the case in Phase 1, even here there will be both sectional cut-off and a total cut-off. 

You need to clear both to make it to the interview. 

Common Instructions For Phase 1 & Phase 2

Before we move on to the interview process, let us understand some other important instructions.

1. Both Phase 1 and Phase 2 will be objective tests and will be conducted online.
2. All questions, apart from the English sections, will be set in both English and Hindi.
3. Just for emphasis, I’ll repeat that both the phases require you to clear sectional cut-offs and the total cut-offs
4. There will be negative marking in both the stages. 1/4th mark will be cut for each wrong answer.

Next comes the interview process.

SBI Junior Associate Exam Phase III – Interview

As per the official notification, the total number of candidates who will be called for interview will be equal to three times the number of vacancies available. The interview will also have a cut-off, which you need to clear.

However, there are high chances that interviews may not be conducted due to a recent decision from Government of India. Some of you may be aware for example that SSC CGL has dropped the interview process from this year onwards.

In any case, things will become clear in the coming days. If there is an interview, I will cover the preparation strategy on Competition Digest.

SBI Junior Associate Exam – Test Of Official/Local Language

As SBI has a state focus (in some cases district focus) for this recruitment process, you will also have a test of the official/local language of the state/district you are applying for.

Currently, no instructions are available about how exactly this test will be conducted. All we know is that it would be clubbed with the interview if that takes place, otherwise, SBI will make arrangements to call candidates for this test.

Only those who qualify Phase 2 exam will be called for this test. This would be a pass/fail type of process. Candidates who are not found to be proficient in official and/or local language would be disqualified.

The good news is that if you have studied the official/local language as a subject in your 10th standard, then you will be exempted from this language test. You will have to provide 10th standard mark sheet/certificate to prove this.

SBI Junior Associate Exam – Final Selection

Finally, a merit list will be prepared of all the candidates who clear all the phases (including the language test) using the marks obtained in Phase 2 and the interview (if conducted). This list will be prepared state-wise and category-wise. Job offers will be based on the number of vacancies available.

So to crack SBI Junior Associate Exam you need to get a good rank in your state, and for your particular category.

Final Words

Now that you know how the entire Junior Associate recruitment process will be carried out, it’s time to move on to the syllabus. The problem is that the official notification does not provide any clue about this.

So by analysing recent bank exams conducted by SBI and IBPS, I have collected information on the probable important topics for each section. I will cover that in the next post. Meanwhile, you can check out my list of suggestions for SBI Junior Associate books.