Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, commonly known as IBPS is an esteemed organization that is responsible for conducting the recruitment process for various posts to be filled in various Public Sector Banks that are covered under it. Every year it releases vacancies for the post of officers and IBPS clerk as well, depending on the number of vacancies in each public sector bank listed under it.
This year also, recruitment notification for IBPS Clerk in various banks all over India has been released. IBPS CLERK is a good job if you land it especially when you are planning to prepare further for competitive exams. IBPS CLERK job gives you a fair chance to give time to yourself along with doing your job, with usually fixed working hours from 10 to 5.
Every year lakhs of students appear for the IBPS CLERK examination which increases competition every year and makes it tougher for an individual to achieve a high rank in order to get his desired bank. This is the reason why one needs to have a well thought-out study plan and strategy to follow on the actual exam day.
STUDY PLAN
Having a plan beside you before starting any kind of preparation, is the first and major step to success. To chalk out a plan you first need to have the required ingredients just as you need them before preparing a dish! To make sure you come out with flying colors and make a delicious end product, you should ensure having all the ingredients in a balanced quantity, not too much and not too less.
You need to mix all the ingredients in a proper way to get a final product which, in this case, will be enjoyed by you the most. In other words, you need to have a recipe for success that has a proper mix of all ingredients, that include good sources of information, proper tips /plan how to start your preparation, how much time to devote to each and every section etc. all in a balanced manner.
To start, you should first be aware with the exam pattern and syllabus for each section, so let’s get started!
IBPS CLERK is conducted in two stages- PRELIMS & MAINS.
IBPS CLERK PRELIMS EXAM PATTERN
| SECTION / SUBJECT | NO.OF QUESTIONS | MAX.MARKS | TIME ALLOTED |
| ENGLISH LANGUAGE | 30 | 30 | 20 minutes |
| REASONING ABILITY | 35 | 35 | 20 minutes |
| QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE | 35 | 35 | 20 minutes |
| TOTAL | 100 | 100 | 60 minutes |
IBPS CLERK MAINS EXAM PATTERN
| SECTION / SUBJECT | NO.OF QUESTIONS | MAX.MARKS | TIME ALLOTED |
| ENGLISH LANGUAGE | 40 | 40 | 35 |
| REASONING AND COMPUTER APTITUDE | 50 | 60 | 45 |
| QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE | 50 | 50 | 45 |
| GENERAL AWARENESS | 50 | 50 | 35 |
| TOTAL | 190 | 200 | 160 |
According to the weightage given to all the sections, it should be clear that one needs to devote equal time to all of them as you need to clear the sectional cut-off for each section along with the total cut-off.
To start with, you need to analyse your weaker and the stronger sections, and allot time in your study plan accordingly.
IBPS CLERK STUDY PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE
- GET THE TERROR OUT OF YOUR MIND!
Until you remove this notion out of your mind, that English is impossible, you will always stay ‘Out of your Mind’!
- GET, SET, READ!
Unless you get this into your habit, just as brushing your teeth, you are not going anywhere! As soon as you see the morning paper-get hold of it and just start reading. Reading the newspaper, is not only going to improve your English language, but also your knowledge of current affairs! So keep going.
- Wherever you spot a completely new word, which you might have seen for the first time, or WORSE CASE-you aren’t able to even pronounce it– get hold of a highlighter and mark it!
(It highlights your weak points, where you really need to work!)
So, you have to work even more now- Note down the list of marked words WITH their respective meanings. When you keep reading, gradually you will catch up and automatically improve on your reading, writing and vocabulary- BUT that requires consistency for a longer time.
- TRY TO PRACTICE EXERCISES.
Last but not the least- Get hold of good books, and start practicing language exercises that will give an edge over everyone. You can also test your learning and improve further.
IBPS CLERK STUDY PLAN FOR QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE
IBPS CLERK Quantitative Aptitude is another important section in most of the competitive exams. Students with a non-mathematics background may face a bit of difficulty in this section, but it is also one scoring section, where you can find a certain number of approachable questions which an average student may also find easy to attempt. Moreover, it covers mostly 10th level syllabus which almost everyone has studied. What is needed is, some practice which gives you an idea about the difficulty level and also the confidence to attempt any kind of question in the actual exam scenario.
- “Practice” is the key to nailing the IBPS CLERK QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE It not only makes you strong in your weaker areas, but also helps you in realizing your strong areas, with the help of which you can ace this section.
- You come to know which type of question you need to attempt / devote your time to and which type of question you DO NOT have to attempt/waste your time on, as in the actual exam scenario, you do not have time to think and then realize later that you were not supposed to attempt that particular question.
- “Knowing the syllabus” is the second most important step towards performing well in any section. IBPS CLERK QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE covers many topics which are mentioned in the syllabus covered by IBPS in most of its exams, consisting of questions from Arithmetic, number system, quadratic equations, simplification, probability, DI etc.
Depending on the exam scenario, you cannot afford to waste even a second there, which means you need to be fully prepared before you enter the exam hall.
- “Segregate” the easier and difficult chapters and accordingly make a plan with the timeline of how much time to be given to each chapter in a day.
The difficulty level of this section also depends majorly on the time taken to solve a particular question. That’s what you can improve by practice and reduce the time consumed to a great extent.
- Learn some short-cut methods which can give you an edge over others, and help you solve certain time-taking questions in less time. Practice those short-cut methods well on a regular basis, as you tend to forget things once you get out of practice.
- Learn all the important formulae from all chapters, by heart.
- Learn all tables, squares, cubes, common percentages and their fractional and decimal equivalents, which will help you well in tackling the calculative questions in as less time as possible.
- Find good and trustworthy online / offline material to study and practice.
- As it is a clerical level examination, the examiner would probably concentrate on testing your calculation skills rather than providing too difficult questions.
IBPS CLERK STUDY PLAN FOR REASONING ABILITY AND COMPUTER APTITUDE
Reasoning ability is comparatively a difficult and time-consuming section which requires a lot of understanding and an ability to apply logic as swiftly as possible. This section requires a lot of smart work with hard work. This section is a combination of LOGIC and REASONING ABILITY.
So, you need to sharpen your logic taking help of your natural ability to reason well in the pressurised exam scenario. Some important topics asked in this section are –
– Syllogism
– Coded Inequalities
– Seating Arrangement Puzzles
– Data Sufficiency
– Input- Output
– Blood Relation
– Order and Ranking
– Alphanumeric Series
– Statement & Assumptions/Cause & Effect
Certain points that you need to keep in mind are-
- Divide the chapters according to the difficulty level – Easy / Moderate / Difficult.
- Divide the time you have according to your strength and weakness.
- Divide the questions according to the probability of your attempting them the least / most accordingly.
- Remember not to ignore the easier topics, while practicing the tougher ones.
- Keep a track of what you are doing.
- Keep a stopwatch while solving a puzzle and try to invent ways to reduce the time in the next attempt.
- Try to use the least paper space while solving a question, especially a puzzle.
- Do not get stuck on a question / puzzle if you cannot manage it in sometime and mark it for review to return to it later, if you feel it can be done for sure. By getting stuck, you are eating up your time meant for other questions.
- PRACTICE and only practice can save you in the actual exam.
COMPUTER AWARENESS
Computer Awareness forms a small part of the IBPS PO exam. It is usually asked in the ‘mains’ exam, usually included with the Reasoning section.
The questions that are asked under this section are usually based on the fundamentals, operational knowledge, questions on software and hardware, keyboard shortcuts and other miscellaneous topics. Computer Awareness may prove to be one easy catch and a scoring part as it doesn’t need very technically detailed knowledge to answer the questions in this section. As the name suggests, it tests your basic awareness of computers.
GENERAL TIPS:
- Avoid attempting questions you are not aware of.
- Scan the paper before attempting.
- Practice as much as possible.
- Avoid mistakes- avoid negative marking; Maintain accuracy.
- Write/solve in clear handwriting, which is readable by you later.
- Do not panic.
- Take some time out for yourself in order to avoid boredom and monotony in the preparation schedule.
“OPPORTUNITY does not waste time with those who are unprepared”.
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