Latest SBI Junior Associate Exam Pattern
Phase I – Preliminary Examination
Phase II -Main Examination
Phase III -Interview
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.
SBI Junior Associate Exam Phase II – Main Exam
The main exam will be more comprehensive than the first stage.
Common Instructions For Phase I & Phase II
Both Phase 1 and Phase 2 will be objective tests and will be conducted online.
All questions, apart from the English sections, will be set in both English and Hindi.
Just for emphasis, I’ll repeat that both the phases require you to clear sectional cut-offs and the total cut-offs
There will be negative marking in both the stages. 1/4th mark will be cut for each wrong answer.
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.
