Tips to crack IBPS clerk mains examination

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection or IBPS clerk main examination is around the corner and students are ramping up their preparatory efforts.

After the changes seen in the RRB office assistant mains, every aspirant is wondering how the IBPS clerk mains 2017 will be.

The year 2016 brought about some major changes in the trend of banking examinations that was started by the State Bank of India (SBI) and then subsequently incorporated in the IBPS exams too. For candidates, this results in a big question about what their strategy should be for IBPS clerk mains 2017.

Let us take a look at a general analysis of the examination first.

The IBPS clerk main examination has five sections: English language, reasoning, quantitative aptitude, computer knowledge and general awareness (with special reference to banking) and every section has 40 questions each but with varying marks division.

It has 200 questions for 200 marks and time is allotted to each section individually. Sectional timing in this exam is beneficial for candidates appearing as they would only have to make strategies about topic management within the sections, they don’t have to worry much about overall time management.

Tips for reasoning test

The reasoning section can be the game changer for a candidate. It is a tricky section and you need to formulate a proper strategy to score well in this segment.

* The first step is to understand the concept, which makes it easier for a student to attempt any question. Brush up your skills in blood relation, coding-decoding and inequalities as you can easily score good marks in these questions.

* Apart from these, alphabets, ranking and direction are also not very tough to crack. A wise strategy would be to find these questions and then finish them first.

* Then comes machine input-output and syllogism. These topics are not very difficult but questions can be tricky to interpret. After that, you can solve logical reasoning, seating arrangement, and puzzles questions. These questions, however, are time-consuming and the smart choice would be to skip them if you are unable to solve and invest your valuable time in other questions that take less time and add to the marks.

Tips for English language test

This section came as a surprise to many in IBPS PO and IBPS RRB clerk mains, so you may have to work out of your comfort zone.

* English section will have 40 questions that can fetch you 40 marks, and the time limit is 30 minutes. Firstly, you should attempt the Cloze test, antonym/synonym, spellings and fill in the blanks as they are relatively easier and far less time-consuming than other topics.

* Be careful as there is negative marking. Do not take chances in the examination as even 1 mark is very crucial. You can then go for sentence improvement and jumbled paragraph.

* Then you’ll be left with reading comprehension. As it is a clerical level examination, story-based reading comprehension is expected. The trick for this section is to quickly read the questions and then accordingly go through the passage, this can save your time. Do not forget to pin down important keywords while going through the passage.

Tips for quantitative aptitude test

* This section will have 40 questions for 50 marks and with a sectional time of 30 minutes. Quant is all about practice and the more you are clear with the concepts, the easier it will be for to you to score well.

* In this section, number series, simplification and approximation and quadratic equation/inequality are generally of easy to moderate level. It is advisable to solve these first and then target questions of data interpretation. In each set of DI, there will be 5 questions of which 2-3 will be of easy to moderate level. With good practice, you can easily score in data interpretation too.

* You should approach word problems next. The topics included in this section are percentage, average, ratio and proportion, partnership, time and work and work and wages, pipes and cisterns, allegation or mixtures, simple interest, compound interest, permutation and combination, probability, mensuration and data sufficiency. The only strategy is to attempt questions that you find easier and are good at.

Tips for general awareness test

* This section is of 40 marks and you’ll be given 25 minutes which is quite sufficient but don’t be tempted to take chances by compromising your accuracy and marking wrong answers.

* GA is expected to have questions from current affairs, banking and financial awareness and static awareness questions.

Tips for computer knowledge test

* This section will have 40 questions for 20 marks and you’ll be given 20 minutes to test your computer knowledge. In this section, you should aim at scoring maximum, so don’t take it lightly and be well prepared.

* You should focus on history and general questions on computers along with basics of computer hardware and software with input-output devices. Questions from basic knowledge of computer memory and Office Suite are also expected.

IBPS clerk mains will bring you one step closer to securing a job in the government sector, the goal you’ve been aspiring for. So, be thorough in your understanding of the new and the old examination pattern.

Lastly, do not forget to take a print out of your admit card and reach the venue at least 15-30 minutes earlier than the time of the examination as IBPS is strict with its rules and regulations.

(Nagar is the CEO and co-founder of Career Power. Views expressed here are personal.)