If you’re one of those students who is a complete novice starting your studies with an aim to appear for banking exams, then it is very easy to get lost because the syllabus is really huge and the competition is usually really tough. But again, having the right study plan increases your chances of success in your preparation. In this blog, we are going to share with you the basic tips for attempting a bank exam and the sectional tips and strategy for preparing for the IBPS PO, SBI Clerk or any other bank exam.
Understand the Bank Exam Pattern and Syllabus
The first important criterion one has to involve before embarking on the preparation of a candidate for bank exams is to assess the general pattern of the examination and the course content. Most bank exams, like IBPS PO and SBI Clerk, have three main sections:
- Quantitative Aptitude
- Reasoning Ability
- English Language
Some exams also consist of General Awareness sections and/or Computer Knowledge sections.
Create a Realistic Study Plan
Start Early: It will be beneficial to start preparing at least four to six months before the examination date. This will afford you time to check all topics and practice sufficiently for the exams sessions that are set to commence.
Divide Your Time: The recommended study time is 2-3 hours per day to Quantitative Aptitude, 2 hours per day to Reasoning and 1-2 hours to English. If General Awareness forms part of the exam, then set aside some time for General Awareness.
Revise Regularly: Watch time in your weekly planner and make some of it to be used in revising your schedule. That way, you will be able to review most of the topics you studied and retain the knowledge within them.
Mock Tests and Practice Papers: Integrate bank exam mock tests and previous year’s question papers into your schedule. This will make you feel the kind of exam you are preparing for and tell you how much you have prepared for the exam.
Section-Wise Preparation Tips for Bank Exams
Quantitative Aptitude Preparation Tips
- Focus on Basics: They should begin with the simplest ideas in Mathematics beginning with Number System, Percentages, Ratios, Proportion, Time and Distance, Profit, and Loss. Practical topics here tend to attract the highest weightage.
- Learn Shortcuts and Tricks: To pay less time on questions, understand and learn mathematical formulas and basic ways of solving arithmetic questions.
- Practice Daily: Some of the revisions are to practice in many questions from different questions types, from past bank exams.
Reasoning Ability Preparation Tips
- Work on Key Areas: Some of the important topics to concentrate in this section include Puzzles, Seeking Arrangement, Blood Relations, Syllogism, Coding Decoding, as well as inequalities.
- Develop a Problem-Solving Approach: Solve puzzles, and questions based on logical reasoning using this method of attacking puzzle solving skills.
- Practice Mock Tests: Solving reasoning based mock tests will help one develop the skills needed to reason under pressure and within set time confines.
English Language Preparation Tips
- Strengthen Your Grammar: Go through the grammar such as tenses, subjects and verbs agreement, prepositions and articles.
- Read Daily: Several newspapers, articles and editorials should be read daily to help enhance the level of skill in reading comprehension.
- Expand Your Vocabulary: It is helpful to read books and make new words on a daily basis and revise after a few days. It is apparent that when one has a handle on the words used in a passage important in overall assessment.
General Awareness Preparation Tips
- Stay Updated with Current Affairs: Read newspapers every day and use the sites that offer current affairs updates on a daily basis. Include significant events that would occur, policies that will be launched by government and financial events in banking.
- Revise Static GK: This section also contains topics such as history, geography, significant events, so make sure you have refreshed your memory on all of them.
Time Management and Accuracy
There are also some limitations such as, though you need to solve the questions quickly, wrong answers will be penalized. Here’s how to manage your time during the exam:
Prioritize Easy Questions: Begin with the parts you feel most comfortable with addressing in order to build confidence when writing the paper. This will assist you in creating some steam and reduce time for other questions which may be a bit lengthy.
Skip Difficult Questions: If you come across any question that is tricky or would need lengthy time to be solved, you just leave it and proceed to the next. If you have time at the end, you can go back to it.
Keep an Eye on the Clock: By balancing the time utilization among the different sections it will not take a very long span of time to complete the work of the respective sections.
In Summary
For instance, banking examinations for freshers may be tiring to practice but if you know the proper way to prepare for the banking examination and the tips to prepare each section you will be more likely to achieve it. It is advised that you thus begin preparing early, simulate tests frequently and get the results checked. In a similar vein, proper time management and distribution of time spent on each of the areas that the tests often consist of; namely, Arithmetic section, Logical reasoning section, English language, and General Awareness should provide a good basis for preparing for bank tests such as IBPS PO, SBI Clerk, etc.
All the best for your preparation!
