Getting a government job, especially one in financial services is not an easy task. To get these jobs, you need to clear standard recruitment papers, organised either by the organisations or by central authorities. The IBPS RRB Clerk exam or IBPS RRB PO for office assistants is one such selection exercise. Candidates should constantly keep a check on the official IBPS RRB Clerk Exam Notification.

It is held by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection for entry-level positions that allows banks and financial organisations to recruit candidates for rural positions. When we are specifically talking about the IBPS RRB Clerk (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection Regional Rural Banks Clerks) , we refer to the exam for office assistants only.

The IBPS exam shortlists candidates for 52 Gramin banks (regional rural banks). Here, we will guide you through details for this exam - the exam date, eligibility criteria, total vacancies, application process, admit cards, salary structure, selection process, exam syllabus, exam patterns and cut-offs.

IBPS RRB Clerk Exam Overview:

When we refer to the IBPS RRB Clerk Exam 2020, the focus is crystal clear - fill entry-level positions or office assistant positions. They're looking for right-fit employees who know financial basics, can communicate and train on the processes for their day-to-day work. 

The number of vacancies for clerk positions in rural areas are relatively higher than those in urban regions, which means you will have a better chance at getting a job with this exam, provided you clear the cut-offs.

For this set of positions, IBPS is looking for freshers who meet the age criteria, have a bachelor's degree with 50% marks and hold a solid command over the exam subjects and syllabus like reasoning ability, quantitative ability, numerical ability, English, Hindi and Computer awareness. Based on your exam performance, you go through a series of shortlisting steps before you get the positions.

IBPS RRB Clerk Exam Date 2020:

The official IBPS Clerk Exam Notification for 2020-21 is already released on the official portal of IBPS. Below is the detailed official exam dates:

As this is a non-officer position, there is no round for personal interview.

IBPS RRB Clerk 2020 Vacancies and Salary structure:

Typically, vacancies and salary structure for any government job are announced with the public advertisement for it. In the case of IBPS RRB Clerk vacancies, one should check the official site of IBPS to get a clear idea for the number if vacancies available.

We expect that the economic slowdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic may impact the number of 2020-2021 positions. Based on the vacancies for last year, we hope that there would be a need for 4000+ office assistants or clerks.

The IBPS RRB Clerk Salary for a probationary officer in this profile is as follows:

Basic Pay - Rs 7,200 - Rs 19,300

Pay Scale: 7200-(400/3)-8400-(500/3)-9900-(600/4)-12300-(700/7)-17200-(1300/1)-18500-(800/1)-19300

There is a 100% dearness allowance for all office assistants.

Who can apply for IBPS RRB Clerk positions?

The eligibility criteria for recruitment exams is a mix of educational, language, age and professional experience bars. For the position of an office assistant or an IBPS RRB clerk, the eligibility criteria is:

Age criteria:

Office Assistant (multi-purpose) - 18-28 years

So, candidates who were born between July 2, 1989, and July 1, 1999, can apply.

Beyond this, candidates applying for these clerical positions can opt for certain age relaxations, according to their socioeconomic backgrounds. These include:

1. SC/ST candidates get an age relaxation of 5 years.
2. OBC candidates get an age relaxation of 3 years.
3. PWD personnel get an age relaxation of 10 years.
4. Ex-servicemen and disabled ex-servicemen get a relaxation for their active-duty years + 3 years. The maximum age limit in such a clause is for 50 years.
5. Widows, divorced women and legally separated women get an age relaxation for nine years.
6. People affected by the 1984 riots can avail for an age relaxation for five years.

Educational qualifications:

The minimum age qualifications for these positions are a bachelor's degree with 50% aggregate marks. 

Language proficiency:

The clerical positions also require basic language proficiency in the local language for the specific area for these vacancies. These could be Hindi, or Telugu, Gujarati or any other regional language.

IBPS RRB Clerk Exam 2020 Application Process:

Like other IBPS RRB PO exams, you can submit your applications for this paper online. Candidates can register themselves after the official exam notification is released. The application window is open for a month.

To apply, you would need to go to the official website (https://ibps.in), click through to IBPS' CRP for RRBs and choose the link for CRB-RRBs-Office assistant. Next, on the registration page, fill in your details and pay the application fee for this position (Rs 600 for the general category candidates and Rs 100 for SC/ST/OBC candidates). 

Next, you will see a provisional registration number and password on the screen (it will also come via SMS and on email). Record these details for your reference, till you receive your admit card.

The admit card is released after the last date for application, once the organisation has sifted through incomplete and rejected ones. You would generally receive it before the preliminary exam. Candidates who clear the prelims would receive the admit card for the mains examination.

This means that the IBPS RRB Clerk selection process is one which shortlists candidates at each stage on a merit basis. Candidates need to clear these steps to move closer to these jobs -

1. Qualifying standards at the application stage
2. Exam cut-offs for preliminaries
3. Exam cut-offs for mains exams

IBPS RRB Clerk Exam Syllabus, Patterns and Cut-Offs:

The IBPS RRB Clerk exam pattern comprises of two levels - prelims and mains. There are no shortlisting interviews for these non-officer grade postings.

The prelims exam covers two papers - reasoning ability and quantitative aptitude. Similarly, the mains exam includes five papers - reasoning ability, numerical ability, general awareness, Hindi/ English language and computer awareness.

The syllabus for the IBPS RRB Clerk exam is the same as IBPS RRB PO

Candidates who are trying to clear the exam, should know that while cut-offs are a minimum 12-15 marks in 40-mark papers, a good attempt would be to target 28-32 marks in 40-mark evaluations at the prelims and mains exercises.

This was the complete IBPS RRB Clerk Exam Guide that will help you get a good idea of the examination.

Good luck to all the IBPS RRB Clerk Exam aspirants!

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