How to Crack Bank Exams | IBPS Exam Tips

How to crack Bank Exams : There has been a tough competition in these days especially for bank jobs. We are here to help you to solve every doubt of yours and guide you to achieve your goal. Banking industry is looking for a pool of young talent to recruit. The selection procedure and the level of toughness are conveying the same. IBPS and SBI are all set to conduct banking examinations.

Here we are going to deal the basic information that every banking aspirant should know. The different aspects we are dealing ar

Entry levels for a fresher

• • Banking Exam dates 

• • Different phases for different Entry level Examinations

• • Online examination structure of different examinations

• • What to prepare?

• • How to prepare?

• • Motto behind Preliminary Examinations

• • Preparation for Preliminary Examinations

• • Motto behind Mains Examinations

• • Preparation for Preliminary Examinations

Eligibility Criteria

We should know the eligibility criteria before going in detail of cracking bank examinations.

Three important factors of Eligibility criteria :

• Nationality or Citizenship
• Age
• Education

NATIONALITY

Not only Indians but subjects from other countries with due permission from the government of India can also take banking exams of Indian banks. Here you go,

Nationality or Citizenship in order to take a banking examination
	A candidate must be either
	A citizen of India or
	A subject of Nepal or
	A subject of Bhutan or
	A Tibetan Refugee who came over to India before 1st January 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India or
	A person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan Burma Srilanka East African countries of Kenya Uganda the United Republic of Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar) Zambia Malawi Zaire Ethiopia Vietnam  with the intention of permanently settling in India
Provided that a candidate belonging to categories ii, iii, iv and v above shall be a person in whose favor a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India. IBPS Guide

EDUCATION CRITERIA

Minimum, people should have a bachelor’s degree in order to take any banking examination. Candidates with professional qualification and relevant working experience can be recruited for higher officer posts based on performance in the related examination particularly conducted for those posts.

1	Minimum Educational requirement	Any bachelor’s degree(graduation)
2	Higher officer posts	Professional qualification and relevant experience
3	Language Proficiency (for some posts)	Able to read/write/speak in official language of the state that you are applying for is required
4	Computer Knowledge	Must have studied computer science/IT as subject in the school or college. IF not, then you need to possess at least a certificate/ diploma in   computer operations/language form an institute
5	Note	Aspirants in the final year of their study or waiting for the result are not eligible

AGE

• Age limit for general category : 20-28 years as on 01-08-2017
• Age relaxation for IBPS, SBI clerical category and RRBs,

S.No	Category	Age relaxation
	SC/ST Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe	5 years
	OBC Other Backward Classes(Non-Creamy Layer)	3 years
	PWD Persons With Disabilities	SC/ST- 15 years OBC – 13 Years Gen – 10 years
	Ex-Servicemen/ Disabled Ex-Servicemen	Actual period of service rendered in the defense forces +3 years (8 years for Disabled Ex-Servicemen belonging to SC/ST) subject to a maximum age limit of 50 years
	Widows, divorced women and women legally separated from their husbands who have not remarried	9 years
	Persons ordinarily domiciled in the State of Jammu & Kashmir during the period 1-1-80 to 31-12-89	5 years
	Persons affected by 1984 riots	5 years
	Regular employees of the Union Carbide Factory, Bhopal retrenched from service ( Applicable to Madhya Pradesh state only)	5 years

1. Age relaxation for Probationary Officer and Specialist Officer category

S.No	Category	Age relaxation
	SC/ST Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe	5 years
	OBC Other Backward Classes(Non-Creamy Layer)	3 years
	PWD Persons With Disabilities	SC/ST- 15 years OBC – 13 Years Gen – 10 years
	Ex-Servicemen/ Disabled Ex-Servicemen	5 years
	Persons ordinarily domiciled in the State of Jammu & Kashmir during the period 1-1-80 to 31-12-89	5 years
	Persons affected by 1984 riots	5 years

Now the confusion regarding eligibility criteria has been clarified.  We should know the different entry levels to be a banker for a fresher in banking industry.

ENTRY LEVELS FOR A FRESHER

• Clerk/ Office Assistant / Multi-Purpose
• Officer Scale –I / Probationary Officer / Management Trainee
• Specialist officer

Note : Officer scale II & III are not for a fresher  

Different phases for Different Entry level Examinations

RRB Office Assistants/ Multi-Purpose, SBI Clerk & IBPS Clerk

• Preliminary Examination
• Main Examination

RRB PO & IBPS PO

• Preliminary Examination
• Main Examination
• Interview

SBI PO

• Preliminary Examination
• Main Examination(Includes Descriptive test too)
• Group Discussion
• Interview

SBI SO & IBPS SO

• Preliminary Examination
• Main Examination
• Interview

ONLINE EXAMINATION STRUCTURE OF DIFFERENT EXAMINATIONS

• RRB Office Assistant/ Multi-Purpose
• Preliminary Examination

Sr.	Name of Tests	Medium of		No. of Questions	Maximum	Duration
No.		Exam			Marks
1	Reasoning	Hindi/English	40		40	Composite time of
						45 minutes
2	Numerical Ability	Hindi/English	40		40
	Total		80		80

Note: Preliminary Examination for RRB Office Assistant has been introduced since 2016. Interview has been cancelled since 2016.

Official result for reference:

• Main Examination (objective) Office Assistant (Multipurpose)

	Sr.	Name of Tests	Medium of	No. of	Max. Marks	Total Time
	No.		Exam	Questions
	1	Reasoning	Hindi/English	40	50
						Composite Time
	2	Numerical Ability	Hindi/English	40	50
						of 2 hours
	3	General Awareness	Hindi/English	40	40
	4 a•	English Language	English	40	40
	4 b•	Hindi Language	Hindi	40	40
	5	Computer Knowledge	Hindi/English	40	20
		Total ::::::		200	200

• RRB Officer Scale _ I
• Preliminary Examination

Sr.	Name of Tests	Medium of		No. of Qs	Maximum	Duration
No.		Exam			Marks
1	Reasoning	Hindi/English		40	40	Composite time of
						45 minutes
2	Quantitative Aptitude	Hindi/English		40	40
	Total			80	80

Note: Preliminary Examination RRB Officer Scale – I has been introduced since 2016.

Official Result for reference :

• Mains Examination

Officer Scale-I
	Sr.	Name of Tests	Medium of	No. of	Max. Marks	Total Time
	No.		Exam	Questions
	1	Reasoning	Hindi/English	40	50
						Composite Time
	2	Quantitative Aptitude	Hindi/English	40	50
						of 2 hours
	3	General Awareness	Hindi/English	40	40
	4 a•	English Language	English	40	40
	4 b•	Hindi Language	Hindi	40	40
	5	Computer Knowledge	Hindi/English	40	20
		Total ::::::		200	200

Note: Preliminary Examination for IBPS CLERK has been introduced since 2016. Interview has been cancelled since 2016.

Sr. No.	Name of the Test	No. of Questions	Max. Marks	Duration
1.	English Language	30	30	Composite
2.	Numerical Ability	35	35	time of
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	35	1 hour
	Total	100	100

• Mains Examination

Sr.	Name of the Test	No. of	Max.	Medium of	Time allotted for each
No.	(Not by Sequence)	Ques.	Marks	exam	test (Separately timed)
1	Reasoning	40	50	English & Hindi	30 minutes
2	English Language	40	40	English	30 minutes
3	General Awareness with special	40	40	English & Hindi	25 minutes
	reference to the Banking Industry
4	Computer Knowledge	40	20	English & Hindi	20 minutes
5	Quantitative Aptitude	40	50	English & Hindi	30 minutes
	Total	200	200		135 minutes

• IBPS PO

• Preliminary Examination

Sr.	Name of Tests	No. of Qs	Maximum Marks	Duration
No.
1	English Language	30	30	Composite time of
				1 hour
2	Quantitative Aptitude	35	35
3	Reasoning Ability	35	35
	Total	100	100

• Mains Examination

Sr.	Name of Tests	No. of	Maximum	Medium of Exam	Time allotted for each
No	(NOT BY SEQUENCE)	Questions	Marks		test (Separately timed)
1	Reasoning	50	50	English & Hindi	40 minutes
2	English Language	40	40	English	30 minutes
3	Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	English & Hindi	40 minutes
4	General Awareness (with special	40	40	English & Hindi	20 minutes
	reference to Banking)
5	Computer Knowledge	20	20	English & Hindi	10 minutes
	Total	200	200		140 minutes

• Interview
• SBI Clerk / Junior Associate

• Preliminary Examination

SL.	Name of test	No. of Questions	Marks	Duration
1.	English Language	30	30	Composite Time
				of 1 hour
2.	Numerical Ability	35	35
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	35
	Total	100	100

• Mains Examination

SL.	Name of test	No. of Questions	Marks	Duration
1.	General/Financial Awareness	50	50	35 minutes
2.	General English	40	40	35 minutes
3.	Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	45 minutes
4.	Reasoning Ability& Computer Aptitude	50	60	45 minutes
	Total	190	200	2 Hours 40 minutes

Note: Interview has been cancelled since 2016.

• SBI PO
• Preliminary Examination

SL.	Name of Test	No. of Questions	Marks	Duration
1.	English Language	30	30	Composite Time
2.	Quantitative Aptitude	35	35	Of
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	35	1 hour
	Total	100	100

1. 1. 1. Mains Examination

Test	Name of test	No. of	Max.	Duration
		Questions	Marks
I	Reasoning & Computer Aptitude	45	60	60 minutes
II	Data Analysis & Interpretation	35	60	45 minutes
III	General/Economy/
	Banking Awareness	40	40	35 minutes
IV	English Language	35	40	40 minutes
	Total	155	200	3 hours

• Descriptive Test

Sr. No	Questions	Max. Marks	Duration
1	Letter Writing & Essay	50	30 Minutes

• Group Discussion and Interview

Sr. No	Tests	Max. Marks
1	Group Discussion	20 Marks
2	Interview	30 Marks

Overall Result of SBI PO -2015 for reference

What to prepare????

Let’s see what to prepare for different sections in detail.

	Sections	Syllabus
1	Reasoning Ability	Directions and Distance Syllogism Inequalities Puzzles(Floors, Heights, Weights etc.,) Coding-Decoding Machine Input-Output Blood Relations Statement and Assumptions Statement and Course of Action Statement and Argument Cause and Effect Seating Arrangements Order and Ranking
2	Quantitative Aptitude & Numerical Ability	Simplification Quadratic Equations Number Series Ages Ratio and Proportion HCF/LCM Square & Cube Roots Simple & Compound Interest Averages Probability Boats and Streams Time and Work Time and Distance Percentages Profit and Loss Allegation and Mixture
3	Data Analysis & Interpretation	Tabular Bar Graph Pie Chart Missing Data Interpretation Line Graph
4	English	Basic English Grammar Articles Parts of speech Noun Pronoun Verb Adjective Adverb Preposition Conjunction Interjection Phrases and Idioms Passive and Active Voice Tenses Direct & Indirect Speech Auxiliary and Modals
5	General/Banking Awareness	Current Affairs International Affairs National Affairs Economy Banking Science and Technology Sports Awards Books Cinema Days Personalities Stock GK Historical Monuments Famous Religious Places State/UT Capitals State/UT symbols International Newspapers/ Magazines Currency and Capitals of Countries Power Plants Stock Exchanges Around the world and their Indexes Governors of Indian States/UTs Largest Productions by Countries Mountains and Hills in India First to Win Awards Important Rivers/Lakes in India/World Days and Observance Dams/Monuments Across the world Dams in India International News/Press Agencies Cricket/Football Stadiums International Airports National Parks Bird/Wildlife Sanctuaries BANKING AWARENESS Banking terms Financial Terms RBI Types of Banks Functions of Banks Budget Banking Industry Regulatory Framework Basel Norms Facilities Provided by Banks International Finance International Financial Institutions Govt. Schemes effecting Banking Industry Investment Channels Mutual Funds Banks in India – Taglines, Headquarters, Head and History Latest Developments in Banking Bi- Monthly Monetary policy Review of RBI
5	Computer Knowledge	History of Computers Hardware Software Database Communication Networking Internet Security Tools, Virus MS Windows, MS Office Computer Shortcuts Logic Gates

How to Prepare for preliminary and mains examinations????

Motto Behind Preliminary Examination

What’s the need of preliminary Examination. Many people might get the same doubt. But the main motto behind it to ‘Eliminate the wrong one’ who are not genuinely giving the examination. True and determined aspirant doesn’t lose in this because he is genuine.

Preparation for Preliminary Examination

Preparation for Preliminary Examination is very easy compared to Mains Examination. Preliminary Examinations of any bank exam consists only 3 sections with a time span of 60 minutes (an hour) except RRBs. Because RRBs consists of only 2 sections with a time span of 45 minute.

   Motto Behind mains Examination

Banks want the best among all aspirants. It is the competition among all the true aspirants. Luck favored aspirants of preliminary examination cannot last for the final selection. The more the aspirants the more the competition and toughness. Difficulty level depends on many factors. We do need to prepare for everything. Every decimal counts in the final score. In these days banking mains examination especially PO examination almost resembles CAT level toughness.

Preparation for Mains Examination

We need to be careful while preparing for Mains. Every aspect counts in this examination. Never take a chance while preparing. There will be 4 to 5 sections in this examination. We need to cross the sectional cutoff only for every section. Over cutoff depends on our own interest. So we need to calculate our positive and negative sections. Where can we score the best is to be considered. Ssome might be well at quants, some may at reasoning, other may at English or current affairs or banking or computer awareness.

The preparation varies from exam to exam because of difficulty level of an examination.

The list we need to prepare are :

1. English Language
2. Numerical Ability(Clerks) / Quantitative Aptitude( PO)
3. Reasoning Ability
4. General Awareness
5. Computer Knowledge

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Topics we need to prepare are

• • • Reading Comprehension
    • Spotting Error
    • Sentence Improvement
    • Cloze Test
    • para Jumbles
    • Fill in the Blanks

English Preparation tips for clerical Examination

English is very easy when it comes to clerical examination. Mostly Basic English grammar and basic level of understanding is enough.

• • Reading comprehension and Para Jumbles are of fables which we have been hearing since our childhood.

• • Spotting errors and sentence improvement require basic English grammar. We should know tenses and usage of different auxiliary verbs
  • Close Test and Fill in the blanks require minimum vocabulary, degrees of comparison and V2 and V3 of a basic verb.

English Preparation tips for Officer level (PO) Examination

English section in PO preliminary examination is tougher when compared to clerical level. As this is a qualifying examination this section is less tougher than mains PO examination.

Tips to Prepare

• • Read English News paper daily

• • Enhance your vocabulary

• • Try to make a list of synonyms and antonyms of some words

• • Be through with commonly used Phrasal Verbs and Idioms

• • Practice comprehending passages daily
  • Increase the speed in reading English

Books to Prepare

• • Follow a standard English Dictionary

• • Standard Grammar book. Eg: Wren and Martin

• • Word Power made easy
  • English News Paper. Ex : The Hindu

NUMERICAL ABILITY/QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE

The only tip for this section is the more you practice the less the time will be taken in the examination. This section makes us satisfy because we usually get an answer which can made us more confident. Less uncertainty. The only thing we need to do is practice practice and practice.

Clerical and PO level

Note: Difficulty level vary based on the type of examination. Model will be the same in both kinds of examinations but the logic will be different

Tips for Numerical Ability/Quantitative Aptitude

• • Practice as much as possible

• • Try to solve different types of questions

• • Create own questions and solve

• • Revise frequently
  • Make a list of short cut formulae

Books we need to follow

• • Any book with model questions

• • RS Agarwal is preferable
  • Arun Shrama Quantitative Aptitude

REASONING ABILITY

Reasoning section is the tricky section in the examinations. If we miss small logic we may miss the question and need to restart. So be careful while answering this section. We may not be true all the time when it comes to reasoning section.

Tips to follow

• • Practice more and more model books

• • Try to understand the question carefully

• • Never miss the logic

• • Try to identify what exactly needed
  • Never get confused

Books to follow

• • Verbal and Nonverbal reasoning by RS Agarwal
  • Analytical Reasoning by M K Pandey

Note: The syllabus and preparation is same for Preliminary and Main when it comes to Quantitative and Reasoning sections. But the difficulty level varies from the clerical level to Officer level .

GENERAL/ BANKING AWARENESS

Tips to prepare

• • Try to collect as many questions as you can

• • Follow newspapers and news channels daily

• • Make a short notes on daily updates in news

• • Be thorough with static GK

• • Be thorough with latest banking updates

• • Banking terminology
  • Get updated with last 6 months current affairs

Books to follow

• • Any news paper ( State/ National level)

• • Monthly current affairs magazines
  • Objective type static GK

COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE

Computer knowledge tests our basic knowledge in operation computers. Our school and college education is enough for computer background students. For others better to follow a standard book of objective type questions.

Tips to prepare :

• • Get updated with latest technology related to computers
  • Read school children computer text books

Books to follow :

• • Computer Text Books
  • Objective type question books

How to prepare Descriptive for SBI PO type examinations?

DESCRIPTIVE TEST

This section mainly consists Letter writing and Essay writing which tests the candidate ability of professional writing skills. The test is always online.

Tips to prepare :

• • Practice keyboard typing

• • Learn rules for letter writing and essay writing

• • Enhance vocabulary

• • Read English news papers
  • Test yourself to write in the limited time

Books to follow

• Any standard book for letter writing and essay writing