How to Increase Attempts Without Losing Accuracy in SBI PO Mock Tests

Most aspirants have this thing in common – attempt more questions and score more. Therefore, they push up their attempts in every mock, race against time, and look at their scores disappointed that they didn’t improve much.

There’s a pretty simple reason behind this problem. The preliminary exam of SBI PO has 0.25 negative marking. Once your attempts become more than your accuracy, you start losing marks through the negative marking. It doesn’t matter how many more questions you attempt after that – the goal is to attempt more of the right questions while keeping your accuracy untouched.

And here is how to do that.

Why More Attempts May Result in Fewer Marks

Consider two aspirants sitting for the mock:

	Aspirant A	Aspirant B
Attempts	78	95
Accuracy	85%	62%
Marks	66 – 3 = 63	59 – 9 = 50

As you can see, Aspirant B attempted 17 questions more and lost 13 marks compared to Aspirant A. There’s your accuracy trap. Any additional attempt will be beneficial only if the accuracy behind them will be sufficient. Otherwise, attempting more questions leads to losing marks.

Step 1: Fix Accuracy Before Starting to Build Up Speed

Any speed without accuracy won’t give you anything but mistakes. Therefore, lock your accuracy first:

Ensure 80–85% accuracy on attempted questions
Identify the concepts that you find the most difficult and lead to the wrong answers in order to fill the knowledge gaps
Don’t attempt any question if you are unable to eliminate at least two out of four options
Always read the last line of every question

Once you get your accuracy locked, you’ll be able to develop your speed based on it.

Step 2: Apply the 10–15 Second Filter

What takes up the most precious seconds? “I’ll take a stab at this one”. Here is your solution:

Attempt only those questions whose method you understand in 10–15 seconds after you start solving the task

It’s okay if you skip some questions as you know that you lose 0.25 mark for the wrong answer but a blank doesn’t cost you anything. Try developing this filter in every SBI PO Mock Test and make the skipping of questions your habit.

Step 3: Add Attempts Gradually, in Small Portions

You need to grow your attempts slowly and steadily:

Note your current number of attempts and the accuracy you have across three tests
Add only 2–4 attempts in the next mock
Verify if your accuracy remained unchanged. If yes, you gained more marks by adding the attempts
Do the same process during the next three mocks and only after verify if you can add more attempts to your arsenal

It’s very important to judge yourself based on the 3-mock average rather than the results of the single test. Only in this way, you will be able to separate genuine speed from the reckless one.

Step 4: Develop Section-Wise Speed Without Hurting Your Accuracy

SBI PO Prelims has 20 minutes per each section. They include: English Language (40 questions), Quantitative Aptitude (30) and Reasoning Ability (30). Here is how you can increase your speed:

English Language

Start with such types of questions as Fill in the Blanks, Error Spotting, Cloze Test
Leave enough time for Reading Comprehension
Skip unknown vocabulary instead of guessing

Quantitative Aptitude

Check Data Interpretation sets first and attempt the easiest one of the two
Most often the problem is in the slow calculations rather than in the lack of understanding. Daily drills on tables, squares and fractions to percentages conversion will save your time
Attempt Bank Simplification and Approximation first

Reasoning Ability

Start with such types of tasks as Inequalities, Syllogisms, Coding-Decoding
Scan the puzzles and seating arrangement and attempt only the easiest set of them
Don’t spend more than 4 minutes on a puzzle if you can easily solve 5 easier questions

Step 5: Analyse More Than You Attempt

Taking the test is one thing, but analysing the answers and identifying your weak points is another one. Here is what you need to do after each 60-minutes long mock of SBI PO prelims:

Check every incorrect answer and classify it (concept gap, misread, carelessness)
Calculate the accuracy topic-wise and set the minimum of accuracy for each topic
Reattempt the questions that you’ve skipped (were they really un-attemptable or just too hard?)
Use the weakest topic for your studying in the next study session

Step 6: Use Previous Year Papers to Determine Realistic Maximum of Attempts

While mocks show you how you progress, SBI PO Previous Year Question Paper tell you how far you need to go. Therefore, solving papers of SBI PO previous years and sample papers is vital for you to identify the level of difficulty and the pace of answering the questions.

They will tell you the truth: how many questions you can attempt in SBI PO at the real level of difficulty while keeping 80%+ of accuracy. This number will be your realistic maximum.

How to Carry the Habit into SBI PO Mains?

All rules concerning the accuracy and skipping of unnecessary questions are equally applicable to Mains where there is also a negative marking. Moreover, Mains introduces Descriptive test (email, letter and essay writing) so the accuracy principle needs to be applied also to your writing. Thus, it is vital to take the test seriously and to develop an essay writing approach beforehand.

Common Mistakes to Be Avoided

Raising your attempts while decreasing your accuracy at the same time
Having 15 mocks taken and not having even one of them analysed – no experience gained
Guessing in the last minutes and losing marks due to the negative marking
Evaluating yourself based on a single mock
Not using previous year papers and determining the unrealistic number of attempts

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many questions should I attempt in SBI PO Prelims?

There’s no fixed number. The general category aspirants usually perform well in the range of 72–80 questions with 85%+ accuracy.

2. Does more attempts always mean more marks?

No. Due to the 0.25 negative marking, additional attempts with low accuracy will decrease your score. Therefore, quality is more important than quantity of the attempts.

3. What accuracy should I maintain?

You should aim at 80–85% or higher.

4. How fast should I increase my attempts?

You should add only 2–4 attempts in each test and after that confirm that you have maintained your accuracy in the following three mocks.

5. How does negative marking work?

Each incorrect answer takes away 0.25 mark, while correct answers give you 1 mark. A blank question doesn’t cost you anything.

6. What is the 10–15 second rule?

You should skip any question if you can’t figure out the solution within 10–15 seconds.

7. Should I have more mocks or analyse them more thoroughly?

Analysis wins over quantity. Several well-analysed mocks will bring you more profit than many unanalysed ones.

8. Do previous year papers help?

Yes. These papers give you the idea of the real difficulty and the recurring patterns. It will help you to determine your attempt limit.

Conclusion

Increasing the number of attempts is not about typing faster. It’s about wasting less. First, fix your accuracy. Then apply the skipping rules (the 10–15 second filter). Finally, add attempts gradually and let analysis do the rest of the job.