The official notification of IBPS PO 2017, which was released a few days back, left numerous students in a quandary. IBPS introduced a major change in the pattern of Mains exam this year, transforming it completely on the lines of SBI PO Mains exam. This has left students speculating about the level and preparation strategy of IBPS PO Exam this year.
To help you all with this, we are going to share some important preparation tips based on the new pattern, that will help you boost your score for the upcoming IBPS PO Exam!
How to prepare for IBPS PO Exam 2017 based on New Pattern
First, understand the major changes that IBPS has incorporated in the PO Exam this year.
- There is no such change in the exam pattern of Prelims phase.
- Computer Awareness section has been removed in the Mains exam and clubbed with Reasoning section, under the name, ‘Reasoning Ability & Computer Aptitude’ section.
- Quantitative Aptitude section in the Mains exam has been replaced with ‘Data Interpretation and Analysis’ section, which means more number of DI questions in the Mains phase.
- The number of questions and time allotted for each section has also changed from this year onwards.
- Total vacancies this year has reduced. Although many banks have not reported their vacancies yet, still, don’t expect a major change in the total number of vacancies. Naturally, the level of paper will rise because of this.
Important Preparation Tips
1. Go through this year’s exam analysis of SBI PO Prelims and Mains exam. This will help you understand the level that can be expected in the upcoming IBPS PO Exam.
2. Understand the basic concepts of old as well as new topics introduced this year. If your basics are clear, attempting questions will be comparatively easy, no matter in what way they are asked in the exam.
3. Work on your Time management, Speed and Accuracy. These 3 parameters will play a key role in the prelims exam and anyone with a good command over these 3 factors can easily clear the prelims exam.
Time management is essential because section wise time is not allotted in the Preliminary exam and you need to ensure that you devote proper time to each section at your end.
Speed is essential because the number of attempts matter a lot. Given the high level of competition and reduced vacancies, it is important that you improve your question attempt in the exam, and this can be accomplished only with a good speed. Have a look the cut off of previous year and aim to attempt sufficiently higher than that number.
Accuracy is important because if your answers are not accurate, even an attempt of 70+ questions would go in vain.
4. Prepare yourself for a high level of the exam to avoid any last minute surprises. Prepare with a mindset of a difficult level of exam, and attempting questions in the exam will be comparatively easy for you.
5. Attempt as many mock tests as you can. Online full-length tests will help you overcome your exam paranoia and you’ll be able to prepare more efficiently. Mock tests will also help you work on the above 3 parameters.
We will now take up individual sections and discuss the tips that will help you score more in these sections. We have discussed tips for the Prelims exam below. We will publish another post for the Mains exam later.
Reasoning Ability
35 questions would be asked from this section in the Prelims exam. Each question would carry 1 mark and a penalty of 0.25 marks in case you attempt them wrong.
Have a clear idea of the topics that will be asked in the Prelims and Mains exam first. You can go through the detailed syllabus of IBPS PO Exam 2017 for this, where we have discussed the basic information and weightage of each topic in depth.
- If we have a look at this year’s exam analysis of SBI PO Prelims exam, Puzzles and arrangement questions constituted maximum marks in this section. There were 3 sets of such questions out of 35. Have a thorough practice of arrangement and puzzle problems with at least 1 additional parameter, because you cannot afford to skip this topic completely.
- More scoring topics of this section will be Inequality, Syllogism (if asked), Coding-Decoding and few miscellaneous problems. Try to attempt these questions before others in exam.
Quantitative Aptitude
This section will also comprise of 35 questions out of the total 100 and will carry a weightage of 35 marks as well.
- Data Interpretation will be the major highlight of this section, with a total of 10 - 15 questions overall. Have a thorough practice of calculative DI sets to score more in this section.
- Scoring topics of this section are: Number series, Quadratic equations and Simplification/ Approximation. Practice these topics properly to improve your quant score in exam.
English Language
There will be 30 questions from the English Language section in the prelims exam.
- You can expect an equal distribution of 10 question each from RC plus 2 other topics in this section. These may be Cloze test, Spotting errors, Sentence Improvement etc.
- For English section, a proper hold over Grammar rules and Vocabulary will help you score better.
How to prepare for IBPS PO Exam in the remaining days?
You now have approximately 45 days left before the Prelims phase of IBPS PO Exam starts. Utilise this time to the fullest if you are serious about getting a bank job this year.
- Work on your time management and speed in these days as much as possible.
- For this purpose, attempt mock tests regularly. We have already highlighted the importance of attempting mock tests at this stage.
- Spend some time on analysing your performance in these tests as well. This will help you understand the common errors that you make during tests, and you can eventually avoid them in the actual exam.
- While practising questions from different topics, make use of a timer to improve your speed in it. If you’re unable to do the question in the allotted time, try to look up alternative methods to solve such questions, which would consume less time.
We will update a proper study plan for the remaining days before IBPS PO Exam, to help you utilise this time efficiently. Meanwhile, keep practising!
To channel your IBPS PO preparation, get here the IBPS PO Test Series for Prelims and Mains Exam launched by gradeup and attempt free mock tests now!
All the best for your exam.
Team gradeup
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