SBI Exam Guide for Probationary Officers (PO) Vacancy
State Bank of India has invited online applications for filling the posts of Probationary Officers. Selection will be made on the basis of online preliminary examination and main exam. Here is complete syllabus, exam pattern and previous year sample question papers for cracking PO test.
State Bank of India is making recruitment of Probationary Officers in it. Candidates between the age of 21 to 30 years and with graduation in any discipline from a recognized university or any equivalent qualification can apply for this opening. Infact, students in the final year or semester of their graduation can also apply subject to the condition that they will have to show proof of having passed their graduation on or before 31.08.2016. Selection Procedure
Selection will be made on the basis of following procedure:
Phase I: Preliminary Examination
Phase II: Main Examination
Phase III: Group Discussion (GD) and Interview
Syllabus and Exam Pattern of Preliminary Exam
This test will be of 100 marks consisting of objective type questions from following syllabus-
English Language- 30 questions of 30 marks
Quantitative Aptitude- 35 questions of 35 marks
Reasoning Ability- 35 questions of 35 marks
Total time duration will be of one hour. Candidates who will clear each test of this stage will only qualify for main exam. 
Syllabus and Exam Pattern of Online Main Exam
Shortlisted candidates will be eligible for main examination. This test will be of objective type questions (200 marks) immediately followed by descriptive type questions (50 marks). Both tests will be conducted online only and candidates have to answer them by typing on the computer. Descriptive Test of only those candidates will be evaluated who will qualify and placed adequately high as per total marks in objective test.
Negative marking- Objective test also carries negative marking at the rate of one-fourth of the marks assigned to that question for each wrong answer. However, no marks will be deducted if no answer is written or question is left blank.
Syllabus of Objective Test will consist of following:
Reasoning & Computer Aptitude- 45 questions of 60 marks with time duration of 1 hour
Data Analysis & Interpretation- 35 questions of 60 marks with time duration of 45 minutes
General/Economy/ Banking Awareness- 40 questions of 40 marks with time duration of 35 minutes
English Language- 35 questions of 40 marks with time duration of 40 minutes
Total time duration will be of 3 hours.
Syllabus of Descriptive Test will consist of English Language (Letter Writing & Essay) of 50 marks with time duration of 30 minutes. How to prepare for GD and Interview
Candidates qualified in phase II will be called for Group Discussion and Interview carrying 50 marks. Final merit list will be prepared on the basis of marks obtained in Phase II and Phase III. For this purpose, marks secured in main exam will be converted out of 75 and marks obtained in GD and interview will be converted out of 25. Thus final merit list will be prepared out of 100 for each category.
Since the main motive of conducting GD and interview if to check out the confidence and personality of an individual, it is advised to stay calm and express your views confidently but with full senses. Start speaking only when another person stops expressing his views. Don't remain silent but don't speak unnecessarily. Provide your opinions throughout the session at regular intervals.
Sample Papers
Find here previous year question papers for SBI PO Exam.Contact Details
Email ID- sbirect@ibpsorg.org
Phone number- 022-22820427 (between 11:00 AM to 06:00 PM on working days)
Feel free to post your problems or queries below. We shall try our best to help you.
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A really informative article and I have read this article with interest. Long back during the early nineties, I cleared the said exam. At that time, written test consisted 225 questions (50 Eng., 50 Maths., 50 General Awareness and 75 Reasoning, including non-verbal Reasoning) to be completed in 3 hours. At that time, no GD was held-there was only interview. Now the format has been changed a lot.
I thank the author for uploading an article which would be useful for many young men and women.