IBPS SO 2020-21: Exam Dates, Notification, Syllabus, Pattern And Vacancies

Every year Institute of Banking Personal Selection conducts IBPS SO exam for various Public Sector Banks listed under IBPS. Common Written Examination (CWE) was started by IBPS in the year 2011 to recruit Specialist Officers (SO), Probationary Officers (PO) and Clerks in Nationalized banks. The registration for IBPS SO is done in online mode by visiting the official website of IBPS.

It is held at various locations throughout India. The mode of examination is online. IBPS SO Pre-Exam was held on 26th & 27th December 2020.  IBPS SO Main Examination will be held on 24th January 2021. IBPS SO Exam is conducted for recruiting candidates for various posts like:

• IT Officer
• Agricultural Field Officer
• Rajbhasha Adhikari
• Law Officer 
• HR/ Personnel Officer
• Marketing Officer 

The exam is conducted through 3 stages - Prelims, Main Exam and Interview round.

IBPS SO Vacancies 2020-21

IBPS SO 2020 Exam Dates

IBPS SO Preliminary exam 2020 was scheduled on 26th & 27th December 2020. The Mains examination will be conducted on 24th January 2021.

The IBPS SO exam (CWE) is held online at various centers all over India and the candidates can mention their options at the time of filling in the online application. Though there is non-availability of seats at preferred venues yet IBPS allots an exam center other than the choices made by a candidate. 

IBPS is the only authority to add or remove an exam center The candidates can’t make any request for the change of the exam center. Any indecent behaviour at the examination center can lead to the cancellation of the application.

IBPS SO 2020 Exam Centre

The IBPS SO EXAM (CWE) is conducted online at number of centers throughout India. The candidate can mention their zone or region to take the examination while filling in the application form for IBPS SO EXAM 2020-21. Even if the seats are not available at the desired exam center still the same is made available to the candidates to take the exam.

IBPS reserves the right to add or remove the exam center. Candidates cannot ask for any chance of exam centre once allotted by IBPS. Any offensive behaviour at the examination center can show the way to the termination of the application.

Selection Procedure

The selection process of IBPS SO consists of 3 phases (preliminary, mains and interview).  The candidates must qualify each of them to go on to the next phase. 

The important steps of the IBPS SO Recruitment Procedure are as follows:

Online Preliminary Examination:

A sufficient number of candidates in each category are shortlisted by IBPS depending upon the requirements for Online Main Examination.

Online Mains Examination:

Candidates need to qualify the Professional Knowledge Test in the main exam to be eligible for an interview.

Interview:

The Participating Organizations will hold an Interview which will also be coordinated by the Nodal Bank in each State/ UT with the help of IBPS

Final Result:

The Final result is declared on the basis of a candidate’s overall performance in IBPS SO Mains and Interview Rounds.

Provisional Allotment:

The provisional allotment of the eligible candidate is released on the official website. The IBPS allots Banks to the candidates on the basis of the preferences they have made at the time of the online registration.
IBPS plays a role in the selection process until the provisional selection of different banks. Further, the responsibility to inform the qualified candidates about their joining dates and procedures lies with the respective banks.

IBPS SO 2020 Salary

In the majority of the public sector banks, Salary of Clerk is more or less the same. The latest revision of Bank SO salary as per 10th Bipartite settlement took place on Nov 2012; nonetheless, the final agreement was signed in May 2015.

The revised basic pay of SO thus becomes –

Here Rs. 21990 is the revised basic pay of Bank SO as applicable on 1st January 2016. Thus the new entrant in a Bank as SO is liable to get Rs. 21,990 as basic pay and salary in hand 19590.

IBPS SO 2020 Eligibility Criteria

Educational Qualification (as on 23.11.2020):

Candidates should have a valid Mark-sheet / Degree: 

Candidates should posses the certificate in support of the essential qualification at the time of registration. They should mention the marks obtained or the percentage of the marks obtained in the application form of IBPS BANK SO EXAM 2020-21.

Computer Literacy: Knowledge of computer operation is a must as IBPS SO exam is conducted online.

Nationality / Citizenship of Applicants:

Candidates applying for IBPS SO Examination should be one of the following:

1. Citizen of India

2. The subject of Nepal or Bhutan

3. Tibetan Refugee who came to India before 1st January 1962 with the intention of permanent settlement

4. Person of Indian Origin (PIO) who has migrated from Burma, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam or East African countries of Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia, Malawi, with the intention of permanent settlement in India.

5. Candidates belonging to the category 2, 3, 4 must have a certificate of eligibility issued by the Govt of India in their favour.

Age Eligibility of candidates applying for IBPS SO Examination:

Age (As on 01.11.2020):

Minimum: 20 years
Maximum: 30 years

A candidate must have been born not earlier than 02.11.1989 and not later than 01.11.1999(both dates inclusive).

Besides this, there is age relaxation relevant to category wise candidates as per the government rules:

This year the exam will be in two parts: Tier -1 or IBPS Preliminary Exam and Tier 2 or IBPS Mains Exam. This year IBPS change the pattern of IBPS SO Exam. The previous year there used to be only 1 examination then taken the interview but this year there will be a two-tier examination. The preliminary exam will be qualify phase to appear in Mains Exam. This examination is followed by an interview For the Post of Law Officer, IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer Professional Knowledge Test.

IBPS SO Prelims Exam Pattern

The IBPS SO preliminary examination is of two-hour duration and is conducted online. It has 3 sections with having 150 questions in total with a maximum score of 125 marks. There is a negative marking in IBPS SO pre-exam as one-fourth marks are deducted for every wrong answer.

For the Post of Law Officer and Rajsabha Adhikari Scale-I officer

For the Post of Agriculture Field Officer, Marketing Officer (Scale I), HR/Personnel Officer, IT Officer Scale I

IBPS SO Mains Exam Pattern

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

For the Post of Rajbhasha Adhikari

The Mains Examination will contain questions only from Professional Knowledge Subjects.

For the Post of Law Officer, IT Officer, Agriculture  Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer and Marketing Officer it has Professional Knowledge Test there is 1 section having a total score of 60 marks of 45 minutes duration.

For the Post of Rajbhasha Adhikari, there are 2 sections having a total score of 60 marks of 60 minutes duration the total time duration is 30 minutes for objective and 30 minutes for descriptive.
 

Best Recommended Study Material to Ensure Success in IBPS SO Exam

Looking to crack IBPS SO 2020? Start preparation with IBT's IBPS SO Study material now!

IBPS exam syllabus is similar to other bank exams except that IBPS issues only the broad subjects, they can be further bifurcated into individual topics, based on the questions that have appeared in the exams over the past few years. The IBPS syllabus is divided into two parts.

IBPS SO Syllabus 2020

IBPS SO Prelims Exam Syllabus 2020

IBPS SO Mains Exam Syllabus 2020

Apart from these subjects, candidates are required to have Professional Knowledge in his/her area of expertise as well. The detailed syllabus is discussed below:

The Nationalized Banks or the Participating Organizations may conduct pre-examination training for SC/ST/Religious Minority Community candidates at selected centres according to the protocols announced by the Government of India. This training session acquaints the aspirants with the type of questions, common mistakes and time management tips, tricks and approaches from the subject experts. The main aim of this training is to provide assistance to the students from weaker sections who are not able to take coaching due to financial constraints. Hence this drive makes them aware of all the realms of the exam without paying any money.

Candidates with reserved categories can only avail of this training. They need to mention the same at the time of registration in the given column. The pre-exam training is provided free of cost with other expenses such as travel, food and lodging expenses need to be spent by the candidate. Generally, it is undertaken for five days before the exam and the dates are announced on the official website. Please find below an suggestive list of training centres:

IBPS may add or remove some training centers depending upon the requirement and the number of candidates applying for the same. The candidates opted for pre-examination training need to download their respective call letter for the training by mentioning their registration number and password or date of birth. The call letter for the pre-exam training will not be provided by post to the candidates they need to download it from the website.

IBPS SO Online Application

The registration for IBPS SO Exam 2020 was done online. In order to avoid any technical errors please make sure that the web-browser used to fill up the IBPS SO 2020 Application form is one of the following:

• Internet Explorer 8 and above

• Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and above

• Google Chrome 3.0 and above

• Candidates applying online must have the following pre-requisites:

• A valid Email Id

• Photograph and Signature scanned in the prescribed size

• Application Fee must be paid online so all document required for online transaction

• The IBPS SO 2020 application form can only be filled on the official website.

• Before proceeding with the registration and application process, all candidates are requested to go through the complete guide for IBPS PO Online Application

IBPS SO Interview

CANDIDATE NEED TO QUALIFY BOTH ONLINE CWE (Preliminary and Mains examination) to be called for an Interview. The shortlisted candidates for interview would be those who have sufficiently acquired high score in the merit list prepared by IBPS. The details of the same will be updated at the official website of IBPS.

Candidates who have been shortlisted in the Main examination for CRP SPL-VII will subsequently be called for an Interview to be conducted by the Participating Organisations and coordinated by the Nodal Banks in each State/ UT with the help of IBPS. Interviews will be conducted at select centres. The centre, address of the venue, time & date of Interview will be informed to the shortlisted candidates in the call letter. Candidates are required to download their interview call letters from authorized IBPS website www.ibps.in. Please note that any request regarding change in date, centre, etc. of the interview will not be entertained. However, the conducting agencies reserve the right to change the date/ venue/ time/ centre, etc. of interview or hold supplementary process for particular date/session/venue/center/set of candidates at its discretion, under unforeseen circumstances, if any.

The maximum marks allotted for the interview session is 100. The minimum qualifying marks for the interview session is 40 per cent for general category and 35 per cent for the reserved categories such as SC/ST/OBC/PWD candidates. The weightage for the final merit for the exam will be from online CWE (mains exam) and interview score as 80:20 respectively.  The final score will be calculated on the basis of total scores obtained in online mains exam of CWE SPL-VII and the interview. The candidates failing to score the required ration will be disqualified.

Penalty for Wrong Answers:
There will be a penalty for every wrong answer marked by the candidates in the objective tests of both preliminary and mains examination. The deduction will be as much as 0.25 marks but there will be no deduction of marks for the questions left blank by them.

Final Score Calculation for IBPS SO Exam:
There are certain important points on the basis of which the final score for the IBPS SO exam is calculated:

• Marks scored in the Preliminary Exam (Tier-1) will not be considered in the final score. These are only taken into account to qualify Mains Exam (Tier-2).
• Candidates need to qualify Phase-2 and Interview individually to be eligible for the final worth.
• The ratio of marks between the CWE Main exam and interview for the final merit list will be 80:20 respectively.
• The aggregate of 100 marks is used for the final merit list for each category. Candidates with high merit rank in each category are finally selected.

IBPS SO 2020 Application Fee

The application for the diverse categories for IBPS SO is mentioned below. Kindly note that the fees once paid will not be refunded hence pay cautiously after checking the fee table. For more details, kindly visit the IBPS website or check the official notification of IBPS SO exam.

IBPS SO 2020 Admit Card & Other Info.

IBPS SO 2020-21 exam notification was released, according to that the preliminary exam was conducted on 26th December and 27th December 2020. The admit cards have already been released on 10th December 2020.

IBPS SO 2020 Result

IBPS SO 2020 Final Result Out

The results of IBPS SO exam will be declared after the successful completion of all the phases of the selection process. The Final Merit state wise and category wise list shall be organized in downward order of the marks obtained by the candidates in the Online Main Examination. Candidates who are shortlisted within the number of vacancies according to the merit list shall be measured for appointment for the post of SO in Banks. All candidates can check IBPS SO 2020 Preliminary examination result by clicking on the link provided above.

Check IBPS SO Prelims Score Card

IBPS SO Preparation

Candidates should prepare in a methodical manner for IBPS SO exam. The candidates must be aware of the latest syllabus and exam pattern. The syllabus covers a variety of topics, it is significant to choose the perfect study material so that you can comprehend the concepts and practices a wide multiplicity of questions as well.

New pattern questions are basically the application of concepts in a new form. Aspirants need to practice a lot so that you don't face issues in IBPS SO 2020.

Candidates should go through previous year IBPS questions so that they have an initiative of what to anticipate in IBPS SO 2020.

We are providing comprehensive study notes, quizzes and Video lectures for IBPS SO Exam 2020 with the latest Pattern. It is worthwhile to Follow Make My Exam to get all Study Material in New Pattern apart from self-study you can join any Coaching and Online Test Series for better exam preparation.

IBPS SO Exam Analysis 2020

To recognize the latest exam pattern approved by IBPS for IBPS SO Exam, lets us discuss the exam analysis of the December 2020 Exam to make the exam preparation simple and effortless to ace the exam.

Exam Analysis of IBPS SO 2020 Exam held on 26^th December 2020

IBPS SO preliminary exam was conducted online with 150 questions to be attempted in 120 minutes.

Overall exam analysis of IBPS SO 2020 Exam

(For IT officer, HR/Personnel Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, Marketing Officer, Law Officer, and Rajbahsha Adhikari)

Section-wise exam analysis

English Language

English section was at moderate level.There were two sets of Reading Comprehension. Following are the details of the questions asked in shift-1:

Topic-wise English section bifurcation:

Numerical Ability

This section had questions from easy to moderate level.

Topic-wise Numerical Ability section bifurcation:

Reasoning Ability

This section had from easy to moderate questions.

IBPS SO Cut off

IBPS SO 2019 Cut-Off

IBPS SO 2018 Cut-Off

IBPS SO Cut Off 2016 – Provisional Allotment List

Reserve List – IBPS SO Cut Off 2016

Minimum & Maximum Cut Off (Category-Wise & Post-Wise):

IBPS SO exam is one of the most sought after bank exams today and a huge number of candidates appear for this exam every year. IBPS SO exam is conducted by IBPS to recruit candidates for SO cadre in different Banks across the country. As we know that IBPS SO notification has been Released. We hope that you are rigorously preparing for it. We are providing you the frequently asked questions of IBPS SO as follows:

Q1. What are the posts available under IBPS SO Recruitment 2020?

• I.T. Officer (Scale-I)
• Agricultural Field Officer (Scale I)
• HR/Personnel Officer (Scale I)
• Marketing Officer (Scale I)
• Law Officer (Scale I)
• Rajbhasha Adhikari (Scale I)

Q2. How many phases are there in IBPS SO recruitment 2020?

• Preliminary Exam
• Mains Exam
• Interview Round

Q3. What are the educational eligibility criteria to be eligible for all posts under IBPS SO recruitment 2020?

• 4 year Engineering/ Technology Degree in Computer Science/ Computer Applications/ Information Technology/ Electronics/ Electronics   & Telecommunications/ Electronics & Communication/ Electronics & Instrumentation.

• Post Graduate Degree in Electronics/ Electronics & Tele Communication/ Electronics & Communication/ Electronics & Instrumentation/ Computer Science/ Information Technology/ Computer Applications.

• Graduate having passed DOEACC ‘B’ level.

• 4 year Degree (graduation) in Agriculture/ Horticulture/Animal Husbandry/ Veterinary Science/ Dairy Science/ Fishery Science/ Pisciculture/ Agri. Marketing & Cooperation/ Co-operation & Banking/ Agro- Forestry/Forestry/ Agricultural Biotechnology/ Food Science/ Agriculture Business Management/ Food Technology/ Dairy Technology/ Agricultural Engineering

• Post Graduate Degree in Hindi with English as a subject at the degree (graduation) level

• Postgraduate degree in Sanskrit with English and Hindi as subjects at the degree (graduation) level.

• Bachelor Degree in Law (LLB) and enrolled as an advocate with Bar Council

• Graduate and Two Years Full-time Post Graduate degree or Two Years Full-time Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management / Industrial Relations/ HR / HRD/ Social Work / Labour Law.

• Graduate and Two Years Full-time MMS (Marketing)/ Two Years Full-time MBA (Marketing)/ Two Years Full-time PGDBA / PGDBM/ PGPM/ PGDM with specialization in Marketing.

Q4. Is there any percentage criterion in IBPS SO recruitment?

Q5. What is the age eligibility criterion to apply for IBPS SO recruitment?

Q6. Is a final year student eligible for IBPS SO exam?

Q7. What is the Application fee for IBPS SO recruitment?

Q8. How many times can I appear for this IBPS SO Exam?

Q9. What is the structure of Prelims Examination in IBPS SO Recruitment?

Q10. What are the criteria for negative marking in IBPS SO Recruitment 2020?

Q11. IBPS SO Examination will be held in which mode?

Q12. What is the Exam Pattern followed for IBPS SO exam?

Q13. Can students of any stream apply for the exam?

Q14. If I am applying for the IT Officer Post, can I apply for other Specialist officers’ post?

Q15. Is the IBPS SO exam bilingual?