How to crack SBI 2020 – 2021 Prelims – Know the Ways

Dear Aspirants,

Success comes to those who sacrifice the luxuries and SBI comes to those who wish to live with luxuries. This saying is definitely not overrated because SBI is the dream job of the majority of all those students who have the courage to prove that they are far ahead of their lesser mortal counterparts. But SBI comes at a price.

SBI PO is one of the most challenging examinations in India. Since it provides a very rewarding career, students across our country crave to be a part of this premier bank. To be among the top few is certainly not a cakewalk. This means the SBI PO preliminary test and Mains Exam call for extensive practice and a high level of analytical skills. No doubt the question paper of the SBI exam is set by the top-notch Research and Development content team. This is to ensure that the cream skimmed from the lot of the multitudinous majority rule the roost in cracking this hard nut to crack.

The fundamental question, however, is: How to crack SBI 2021 easily and how to devise a foolproof strategy in order to be a member of the team of few good bankers of the largest public undertaking bank of India. 

The simple answer is to formulate a perfect plan to decipher the SBI code.


Before understanding the perfect plan, let us understand the latest pattern of the SBI PO examination.


Exam Pattern of SBI PO Prelims & Mains Exam 2020 

Preliminary Exam Subjects Number of Questions Marks Duration
Quantitative Aptitude 35 35 20 minutes
Reasoning Ability 35 35 20 minutes
English Language 30 30 20 minutes
Mains Examination Data Analysis & Interpretation 35 60 45 minutes
Reasoning Ability 45 60 60 minutes
English Language 35 40 40 minutes
General & Banking Awareness 40 40 35 minutes
English (Descriptive Test) 2 50 30 minutes
Group Discussion 20
Interview 30

Important Dates – SBI PO 2021

Phase-I: Online Preliminary Examination 31st Dec 2020 & 2nd, 4th, 5th Jan 2021
Declaration of Result of Preliminary Examination 3rd week of January 2021
Download of Main Examination Call letter 3rd week of January 2021 onwards
Phase-II: Online Main Examination 29th January 2021
Declaration of Result of Main Examination 3rd/ 4th week of February 2021
Download of Phase-III Call Letter 3rd/ 4th week of February 2021 onwards
Phase-III: Interview (Or Interview & Group Exercises) February/ March 2021
Declaration of Final Result Last week of March 2021
Pre-Examination Training for SC/ ST/ Religious Minority Community candidates
Download of call letters for Pre-Examination Training 2nd week of Dec 2020 onwards
Conduct of Pre- Examination Training 3rd/ 4th week of Dec 2020

Let us discuss each segment in detail.


English – SBI PO Prelims 2021

  • SBI PO has four types of questions asked like Cloze Test, Reading Comprehension, paragraph completion, fill in the blanks: these require a good command over vocabulary.
  • Word power is the key to score well in double fillers, paragraph completion, and to understand the intricate concept of the comprehension passage. 
  • Vocabulary enrichment is not as arduous as it is perceived to be. It requires regular and habitual memorization of words and also their application in sentences.
  • Apart from memorization of words and learning their applications, reading habit development is also a pivotal methodology to ensure good scoring in SBI PO. Many a time even if the candidate doesn’t know the meaning of the word, he can decipher its meaning based on his reading habit.   
  • To score well in common errors/ multiple errors/sentence correction what is required is a lot of practice.
  • The practice of previous year’s question papers, solving umpteen number of questions of the relevant topics, and detailed discussion with a team of experts can help a student gain edge over the ‘error-type questions.
  • Sentence rearrangement or Para jumbles requires the student to have a strong analytical thinking propensity and a great comprehension skill. He should be able to discern the pattern of events and arrange them in a logical and coherent paragraph. 

Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation – SBI PO Prelims 2021

The questions asked in data interpretations in SBI nowadays are based on an amalgamation of basic DI and Logical Reasoning. It means Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude cannot be divorced in the realm of SBI examinations. Simplifications, approximations, and basic calculation techniques are a prerequisite for having a good command of mathematical skills. Chapters like percentage, Profit & Loss, mixture and allegations, and Simple and Compound Interest are the bedrock of high-end questions of data interpretation. 

Thus, the student must focus on fundamentals first and once it is done, he must concentrate on the solution of complex DIs and convoluted concepts of graphs and charts.


Reasoning Ability – SBI PO Prelims 2021

Unlike other exams, SBI demands a brilliant dexterity in understanding and finding a solution to highly intricate problems of puzzles and seating arrangements. The chapters like blood relation, input-output, data sufficiency, coding-decoding, and ranking are some chapters that expect the students to practice a lot and they need not complain that they don’t possess the aptitude.


Based on the feedback from the successful students, it has been identified that cracking SBI can be made very easy. The best strategy will be :

  • Identify your weaker areas or chapters
  • Focus only on those chapters in which you are strong at
  • Trying to improve a newly learned weak chapter is not a good option; rather consolidating an already strong chapter is a better option.
  • For example, if you have been scoring 18.5 / 35 in QA for the last few tests, if you waste much time in learning new chapters the overall score will improve by 2 or 3 marks.
  • If you are scoring 10 / 30 in English, there is a huge scope of improvement in this area. You can score 15 more in the English paper if you manage to lead 50% of the applicants.
  • In English and Current Affairs/ Banking Awareness the catch is to work harder because in these you either know the answer or you don’t know the answer. And the scope to score well in these areas is more.
  • Your weakest subject requires you to clear the bare minimum cut-off, so no need to do a doctorate degree in the subject you are weak at.

And remember one basic rule, there is no short cut to success, especially when we talk about SBI PO. Start reading a lot.


Aspirants can check the Official Notification of the SBI PO 2020 from the official website of SBI PO or from the link that is mentioned below. 


SBI PO 2020 – Official Notification – PDF


Aspirants can download the SBI PO Prelims 2020 – Prelims Admit Card from the link that is provided below. 


SBI PO 2020 – Download Prelims Admit Card


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