Bank Clerk to Officer Promotion Exam: Pattern and Syllabus by Bank

There is no common syllabus or pattern for the clerk to officer promotion test. Bank of Baroda tests candidates on 60 marks in two subjects; Union Bank runs one 100-mark paper for one channel and four 100-mark papers for the other; PNB sets two 100-mark papers with 30% or 40% needed in each; Bank of India sets 130 questions worth 65 marks in 130 minutes; Bank of Maharashtra sets 160 marks of banking and IT plus a qualifying English paper. Preparing from a generic bank-exam syllabus therefore wastes time. This guide lists what each bank printed and where our five quiz topics sit inside it.

Two limits first. Only Bank of India states the duration and the absence of negative marking in the circular we read; the others are silent, so we state nothing for them. And only Union Bank and PNB print syllabus text. Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra print the subject names and leave the content to "banking" and "your bank’s own guidelines". The bank circulars quoted here are the banks’ own staff documents. None of them is on a bank’s public careers page, so we read them in copies hosted by exam-preparation sites and name the host in the source list. Check the current circular on your own bank’s HR portal before you act.

Union Bank prints the longest syllabus (Annexure II to its circular). It is also visibly old: its IT section lists Windows 98, 2000 and XP and its accountancy section refers to Schedule VI of the Companies Act, 1956, so treat it as a list of topics, not a description of today’s paper. PNB prints a one-line description of each paper. The other three banks print subject names only.

Our five practice quizzes were written from the subject matter banks name in this exam: banking law and practice, RBI guidelines, priority sector lending, KYC and anti-money-laundering norms, and deposits and advances. Here is how that maps onto what the five circulars actually print.

Read the KYC row carefully: none of the five circulars names KYC or anti-money-laundering. It is a standard part of banking operations and law, and a branch clerk meets it daily, but no circular lists it, so we cannot tell you any bank tests it in a given year. Our NI Act quiz and Union Bank’s list overlap fully on section numbers: every section the quiz names (6, 85, 87, 124, 130, 131, 138 and 142) sits inside Union Bank’s list (our comparison).

Only Bank of India publishes the clock: 130 questions in 130 minutes, one minute a question (our arithmetic). With no negative marking printed, leaving a question blank can only cost marks at Bank of India, so a first pass that answers everything is the sensible plan there. At Bank of Maharashtra the policy prints 130 banking and 30 IT questions plus 40 in English, 200 questions in all, but no duration; a candidate preparing for that test has to rely on the bank’s own information handout.

The qualifying marks matter as much as the ranking marks. At Bank of Baroda a candidate who scores well in banking but under 8 of 20 in digital banking fails the All India channel regardless of the total. At Bank of Maharashtra a candidate needs 15 of 30 in IT even with 80 or more of 160 overall. At PNB each paper has its own bar. Check the sectional bars first, then the total.

Next in this series: how selection works between merit and seniority and a preparation plan built on banking law. For eligibility by bank see the eligibility guide.