Descriptive — Email, Situation Analysis & Report/Precis — SBI PO
SBI PO's descriptive test is 30 marks in 30 minutes, split across three shorter tasks — Email Writing (10 marks), Situation Analysis (10 marks), and a choice of Report Writing OR Precis Writing (10 marks) — a genuinely different format from IBPS PO's two-task Essay + Comprehension.
All three tasks are marked on content, structure, grammar and adherence to the word limit, and reward clean, formal, well-organised writing over literary flair. These 30 marks feed directly into the same 230-mark Mains total that converts to 75 of the final 100 points, and are consistently under-prepared relative to that weight.
1. The three tasks and the time budget
With only 30 minutes for three tasks, a fixed time budget prevents any single task from eating into the others. A workable split is roughly 9 minutes for the email, 9 minutes for the situation analysis, 10 minutes for the report/precis, and 2 minutes for a final proofread — adjusted slightly once a candidate knows their own relative speed at each task type.
2. Email Writing (10 marks)
A formal email on a given banking or workplace scenario is evaluated on the same structural elements as a formal letter: a clear subject line, an appropriate salutation, a body organised into short paragraphs, and a formal sign-off. The body typically needs three parts — stating the purpose in the opening line, providing the necessary detail or request in the middle, and closing with a clear next step or expectation.
Common scenarios include requesting information, raising a complaint, proposing a solution, or informing a colleague/branch/customer of a decision — each following the identical purpose-detail-closing structure regardless of the specific subject.
3. Situation Analysis (10 marks)
A situation-analysis task presents a short workplace or banking scenario — a customer complaint, a process delay, a team conflict — and asks the candidate to analyse it and propose a structured response. The reliable structure is: identify the core issue in one or two sentences, list the relevant factors or stakeholders affected, and propose a specific, actionable resolution rather than a vague general comment.
A response that names a concrete action ("escalate to the branch manager within 24 hours" rather than "the issue should be resolved soon") scores higher, since specificity is what evaluators use to distinguish genuine analysis from generic filler.
4. Report Writing (one of the two Task 3 options)
A report has a fixed skeleton regardless of topic: a title, a brief statement of objective/scope, the main findings or observations organised under short sub-headings or numbered points, and a closing set of recommendations. Unlike an essay, a report favours structured, scannable formatting — short bulleted or numbered points — over flowing paragraphs, since its purpose is quick reference, not persuasive narrative.
5. Precis Writing (the alternative Task 3 option)
A precis condenses a longer passage into roughly one-third of its original length, in a single paragraph, using the candidate's own words rather than copied sentences, and without adding any personal opinion not present in the original.
The core skill is identifying the passage's main argument and its two or three key supporting points, then compressing them into one coherent paragraph — exactly the same "find the specific argument" skill tested by Reading Comprehension's main-idea question, applied here to writing rather than answer selection.
A precis that is too long has failed the compression requirement regardless of how well-written it is; a precis that omits the passage's central argument has failed regardless of its length — both are more serious errors than minor grammar slips, since they miss the task's actual point.
6. Formal, clean, simple English across all three tasks
Every task rewards correctness and clarity over vocabulary display: short sentences, one idea per sentence, no contractions, no slang, and a formal register throughout. Facts and specifics add weight to a response, but inventing a precise-sounding statistic that is not actually known is worse than a correct general statement, since evaluators can distinguish genuine detail from fabricated specificity.
7. Common penalties to avoid
| Penalty | Why it costs marks |
|---|---|
| Exceeding or badly undershooting the word limit | Word limit adherence is explicitly graded, not a soft guideline |
| One unbroken block of text | Structure (paragraphs, headings, numbered points) is graded separately from content |
| Informal tone (contractions, slang) | Formal register is an explicit evaluation criterion across all three tasks |
| Vague, non-actionable proposals in Situation Analysis | Specificity is how evaluators distinguish real analysis from filler |
| Adding personal opinion to a precis | A precis must stay strictly within the original passage's content |
Worked Examples
Example 1 — Email Writing skeleton. Task: Write a formal email to your branch manager requesting approval for a customer's delayed loan documentation.
Subject line: "Request for Extension — Loan Documentation, [Customer Reference]." Opening: state the purpose directly — the customer has requested a 5-day extension to submit remaining documents. Middle: give the specific reason (a delay in obtaining an employer certificate) and the proposed new deadline. Closing: request approval and state you will confirm once documents are received.
This skeleton stays purpose-detail-closing regardless of the specific request — only the content inside each part changes.
Example 2 — Situation Analysis skeleton. Task: A customer complains that a fund transfer failed twice despite sufficient balance, and threatens to close their account.
Core issue: a technical transfer failure is causing customer dissatisfaction and a retention risk. Relevant factors: the technical cause needs verification, the customer's trust needs addressing separately from the technical fix, and a delay in response worsens both. Proposed resolution: escalate the technical issue to the payments team within 24 hours, personally update the customer on the investigation's status, and offer a documented apology with a clear resolution timeline.
Naming a specific escalation path and timeline, rather than saying "the issue will be looked into," is what separates a scoring response from a generic one.
Example 3 — Report skeleton. Task: Write a short report on declining footfall at a bank branch over the past quarter.
Title: "Report on Declining Branch Footfall — Q[X] [Year]." Objective: to identify causes of reduced in-branch customer visits and recommend corrective measures. Findings (numbered): (1) increased adoption of mobile banking among existing customers, (2) reduced walk-in queries due to a new online appointment system, (3) no significant complaint-driven attrition identified. Recommendations: promote in-branch services that mobile banking cannot replace, and review whether the appointment system is unintentionally discouraging walk-ins.
Notice the structure uses numbered findings and recommendations rather than flowing paragraphs — this scannable format is specifically what a report task rewards over an essay-style response.
Example 4 — Precis skeleton. Original passage (illustrative, ~150 words): a passage arguing that a city's traffic congestion stems primarily from a lack of last-mile public transport connectivity, not merely from too many private vehicles, and that adding more roads without addressing this connectivity gap will not meaningfully reduce congestion.
Precis (~50 words, one-third length, one paragraph, no added opinion): "The passage argues that a city's traffic congestion results mainly from inadequate last-mile public transport connectivity rather than an excess of private vehicles. It contends that expanding road infrastructure alone, without addressing this connectivity gap, would not meaningfully reduce congestion."
This precis captures the passage's central argument (connectivity, not vehicle count, is the real cause) and its key qualifying claim (more roads alone won't help) in roughly one-third the original length, entirely in the writer's own words.
Summary
SBI PO's descriptive test is 30 marks across three shorter tasks — Email Writing, Situation Analysis, and a choice of Report or Precis Writing — a different structure from IBPS PO's two-task Essay + Comprehension format.
A formal email follows a purpose-detail-closing structure; situation analysis rewards a specific, actionable proposed resolution over a vague general comment; a report uses scannable numbered findings and recommendations rather than flowing paragraphs; a precis compresses a passage to roughly one-third its length in the writer's own words, with no added opinion.
Every task is marked on content, structure, grammar and word-limit adherence, and rewards short, formal, clearly organised writing over vocabulary display or literary flair — the same discipline across all three tasks, just applied to different structures.
With only 30 minutes for three tasks, a fixed time budget (roughly 9-9-10-2 minutes) prevents any single task from crowding out the others, and these 30 marks feed the same Mains total that converts to 75 of the final 100 points — worth genuine preparation, not an afterthought.
