Bank PO is currently one of the most sought after jobs in India. It offers good pay, good job security as well as great work life balance. Cracking the Bank PO exams will set you on the right track for a promising career in the banking industry. But clearing the exam is not an easy task as each year more than twenty lakh candidates appear for Bank PO exams with only a few thousand making the final cut. Thus, having a proper well-rounded strategy from the start of your preparation is crucial for staying ahead of the competition. The points listed below will give you a good idea about how to approach Bank PO exam preparation in general.
1. Understand what the examination entails
For any exam, the first step is to understand what the exam is about. Read the notification thoroughly, go through the syllabus of the exam in depth, understand the format of the exam, get an idea about the approximate candidate to selection ratio etc. This groundwork is very important to set the ball rolling as far as preparation is concerned.
All information related to SBI PO exam is available at SBI PO Exam information
All information related to IBPS PO exam is available at IBPS PO Exam information
2. Make a list of all the topics and analyze them
The next step is to go through the syllabus of the exam in detail. Make a list of all the sections, all the topics in each section and all the different concepts in each topic. Go through a few previous years’ papers to get a hang of the type of questions asked in each topic, the difficulty level of the questions etc. Categorize all these topics under two headings – strengths and weaknesses. During your preparation, you have to improve in areas of weaknesses and do better in areas of your strengths.
3. Go through the basics of each topic
Irrespective of your strengths and weaknesses, select a good source and go through the basic concepts of all the topics. While categorizing the topics as strengths and weaknesses, you probably have only a vague idea of what the topics consist of. Going through all the basic concepts will help you actually understand the different concepts, their complexity and help you make a better list of strengths and weaknesses.
4. Solve basic level exercises on each topic
This is one of the most important steps during your preparation for any exam, especially for competitive exams like Bank PO exams. Most of the questions asked in these exams are based on basic concepts and their applications. So, being thorough with basics is of utmost importance. The first step to achieving this is going through all the concepts and the second step is solving basic level exercises on all these topics.
5. Take sectional tests
After solving basic level exercises on all topics, the next step is to solve sectional tests on each topic. Sectional tests contain a greater variety of questions on each topic, with varying levels of difficulty. Solving these tests is the first step to mastering the basic concepts. The additional advantage with sectional tests is that, since the candidate is exposed to different varieties of questions, he/she will be less surprised if a new variety of question is asked in the actual exam and will have a better chance of solving it correctly.
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6. Take mock tests regularly
One of the most important steps while preparing for competitive exams is to take as many mock tests as possible. Many mock tests are conducted at the national level and aspirants, especially the serious ones, from across the country take these tests. So, these mocks will help a candidate understand the competition and where he/she stands with respect to the other candidates. A serious aspirant should try to improve his/her rank/percentile with each passing mock.
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7. Analyze the mocks
Besides helping a candidate understand the competition, one of the biggest advantages of mocks is that they are a rich source of good questions. There is a good chance that the questions that appear in the actual exam are quite close to the questions asked in mocks. Every mock should be treated as the actual exam and a serious aspirant should give his/her 100% in every mock test. These mock tests should be taken in an exam-like environment, with the clock running. There should be as few distractions as possible. After finishing the mock, a candidate should spend sufficient time to analyze it. Go through all the questions and check the solutions, even if you have got the question correct. Analysis will help you understand why you were not able to solve a particular question. It could be because of various reasons like not being thorough with a particular concept, making a calculation error etc. If it is because of lack of understanding of a particular concept, go back and study the concepts and solve basic level exercises till you are thorough with the concept.
Calculation errors are something that should be avoided at all costs. Not only do you lose marks for that question, but you also lose time in which you could have solved some other question correctly. Make a very conscious effort right from the start of your preparation to avoid calculation mistakes because that is something that cannot be achieved overnight.
Going through the solutions of questions that you solved correctly is also very important because the solution might contain some new method or trick that you did not know before. Make a note of such tricks in a notebook. Revise them from time to time and try to implement them the next time you come across a similar question. These will come in handy during the actual exam and help you get the much-needed edge over other candidates.
These are a few points that have to be kept in mind while preparing for banking exams. But all the tips and advice in the world would not be of much help in clearing the exams if the candidate does not play his/her part well i.e. put in good effort. Only with smart and consistent practice, can you ace the Bank PO exams. So prepare hard and crack the Bank PO exams 2016!
Check out Cracku’s Previous years solved papers of SBI PO
All the best for your upcoming Banking Exams!
