IBPS conducts a PO exam each year to recruit probationary officers to manage some of the most prestigious banks in India. IBPS PO is one of the most popular bank exams for its benefits and salary structure. Hence, you need discipline, dedication and a grasp of the subjects of your syllabus before appearing for the exam. You can also include practising previous year papers of ibps po to get familiar with the topics.
Following are some strategies that could help you get started with your preparation.
Strategy for Reasoning Ability
The reasoning is your primary scoring section for both the prelims and mains. Most of the questions in this section are based on coding-decoding, puzzles, syllogism, seating arrangement and inequality.
- First, become familiar with the fundamental principles of reasoning before learning shortcuts and tricks.
- Once you grasp the topics in the reasoning section, start practising in a time-bound manner.
- With practice, try attempting more challenging and complex questions.
- You should learn the basic rules and make notes of the shortcuts and techniques to answer the questions quickly.
Strategy for Quantitative Aptitude
You must pay extra attention to Quant preparation for your prelims and mains round. The majority of questions in this section are about time and work, interest, percentages and Profit and loss.
- For performance improvement, try sectional tests and practice short tricks regularly.
- You should pay attention to your calculating speed to solve a reasonable number of problems on approximation, number systems and quadratic equations.
- Be familiar with multiplication tables up to 30 and squares and cubes of natural numbers.
- Try shortcut tricks while calculating problems involving percentages, cubes and square values.
- Prepare data sufficiency and data interpretation for the main examination.
- Attempt mock tests and solve previous year papers of ibps po.
Strategy for the English language
You should not take the English language section lightly, as once you clear the prelims, you need to prepare for essay and letter writing for the mains round.
- You should read editorials like the TOI, The Indian Express, The Hindu and the New York Times.
- Read journals, magazines and reader’s digest to improve your vocabulary and grammar.
- Since the syllabus for Prelims and Mains is pretty much the same as in IBPS PO, you must study some elementary topics like subject-verb agreement, odd one out, error spotting and sentence arrangement.
- You can reduce grammatical errors and improve sentence construction by frequently writing English comprehension.
- You should also keep learning new idioms, phrasal verbs and words.
Strategy for Descriptive English and General Awareness
The plan for IBPS PO Mains will cover a Descriptive Essay/Letter section and Banking/Economy/General awareness.
- Read books concerning general and financial awareness topics, banking magazines and international newspapers.
- Practice Current Affairs and GK for the last 2-3 years
- For letter writing, practice informal and formal letter writing every 2-3 days.
- Improve the basics of grammar to cover descriptive and argumentative essay topics.
Strategy for computer knowledge
The section on computer knowledge is also included with the reasoning in the Mains section. It tests the basic computer skills of the candidates.
- Gather notes on computer knowledge and prepare for topics like Microsoft Office, Keyboard Shortcuts, Memory, Internet, Computer Fundamentals and Abbreviations, Networking, Operating Systems, Computer software, and hardware.
- You should spend at least one hour on your PC to develop your computer knowledge.
Preparing for IBPS PO doesn’t necessarily have to take most of your day. When you have a weekly schedule designed, your preparation becomes a lot smoother. For your Mondays, dedicate 3 hours to quantitative aptitude and mock tests. On Tuesdays, allocate three hours to Mock tests and reasoning. Have 2 hours of your time on Wednesday for the Mock test and English. On Thursdays, take online tests and assess your weaker areas. On Fridays and Saturdays, invest 2 hours in improving your weaker areas. On Sunday, solve at least three mock tests and revise your entire syllabus.
