IBPS PO exam is fast approaching. Here are the tips to clear the cut off in the prelims along with the IBPS PO exam pattern.
In the prelims, there will be 100 questions – 30 from English, 35 from Quant and 35 from Reasoning in a total time of 1 hour. Even the best of the students will not be able to answer all the questions correctly in 1 hour. Wrong answers carry negative marks of -0.25. So, the best way to proceed is to judiciously pick the questions that you want to attempt. In exams like these with time constraint, it’s important to eliminate some improbable options and then choose the answer. Questions in IBPS PO have 5 options. Historically, the reasoning section has always been the most difficult part of IBPS PO.
The best candidates have a higher accuracy in the questions that they choose to attempt. If you attempt all the 100 questions with 60% accuracy, your score will be 60 – 10 = 50. If you instead attempt 80 questions and use the time to improve your accuracy, and let’s say you have 80% accuracy, your score will be 64 – 4 = 60. 10 marks can mean the difference between qualifying and disqualifying in competitive exams like IBPS. So, clearly it’s important not to blind-guess the answers. IBPS PO exam pattern is subject to change every year. There is an element of repetition and predictability in every exam as well as an element of surprise. Candidates should be able to prepare well for both these situations. Cracku is offering FREE previous years’ IBPS papers with detailed solutions to help candidates prepare for the exam and predict the pattern changes in IBPS PO.
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The English section is likely going to be the easiest of the 3 and hence it may be attempted first in the order, followed by quant and finally, reasoning.
Compared the overall cutoff, the sectional cut offs are significantly low. So, it is a good idea to attempt questions from all the sections but focus more on the sections that you are good at. The expected number of question from each topic are as follows:
Tips for English section in IBPS PO: The breakdown of English paper will be as follows:
Attempt the questions in the order shown in the table. The paper is expected to be on the easier side based on last year’s paper. It’s important to spend time judiciously for Reading Comprehension. Para jumbles and sentence correction will be the most challenging sections in English paper. Don’t spend more than 10 minutes on Reading Comprehension. It’s a good idea to read the questions before reading the passage. Questions like cloze test and fill in the blanks should be completed in as little time as possible to accommodate sections like reading comprehension which can consume a lot of time.
Tips for Quant section in IBPS PO:
*Miscellaneous questions include questions on dad and son ages, Profit loss and discount, averages, ratio and proportion, Speed, distance and time, Unitary method (work by men and women), etc
In the quant paper, start with DI. As many as 10 questions are expected on DI in the exam. Be careful not to spend more than 10 minutes on DI in any case. The questions on series can be fairly challenging in the actual exam, though thorough practice can increase the speed as well of accuracy of any candidate. Attempt as many mock IBPS papers as you can in exam interface to get a feel of the exam. The biggest bottleneck in the exam is the time constraint. You have to optimize your performance within the limited time.
Daily practice can go a long way in excelling in the exam. Cracku is offering FREE daily tests for IBPS PO.
Tips for reasoning section in IBPS PO:
**Miscellaneous questions include: position in a queue, analogies, blood relations, etc.
Seating arrangement and Einstein’s puzzle are likely to be on the tougher side. Since the paper is going to be tough, it’s a good idea to spend more time for this section. Questions on seating arrangement and Einstein’s puzzle can be both tough as well as time consuming. Syllogisms are probably going to be easy and they can give the candidate a morale boost before they attempt tougher questions like seating arrangement and Einstein’s puzzle. Practice from Cracku’s IBPS study room with 500 FREE questions.
This concludes the IBPS PO exam pattern discussion. IBPS PO exam pattern is very straightforward as we can see in the tables. All the best for the exam!
