How to Prepare Reasoning for SBI PO Prelims 2022

Every year almost 20 Lakh students appear for the SBI PO exam. Have you ever thought about why 99% of aspirants fail the SBI PO exam? It is mostly because of a lack of planning, as someone has rightly said, Action without planning is the cause of every failure. Formulate a study plan which suits you and execute it with all you got.

The ambit of the reasoning Section is huge, so it is important that you should understand where to invest your energy and time. From an absolute exam preparation perspective, it is always considered better to completely cover 60% of topics of the exam syllabus that appear too frequently in the recruitment examinations, as the major criterion is to score high and clear the Cut Off Scores for SBI PO Prelims.

Important Topics for SBI PO Reasoning Section

Focus on topics that are considered important from the frequency point of view. Focus on the most scoring topics so as to attempt the maximum number of questions in the minimum time period. 

These are the most important chapters in the Reasoning section from the SBI PO exam point of view.

• Syllogism
• Coding-Decoding
• Inequality
• Puzzles and Seating Arrangement
• Direction Sense
• Blood Relations
• Data Sufficiency
• Series (Alphanumeric, symbol-based)

Also, read the detailed SBI PO syllabus that will help you in the thorough preparation for the SBI PO exam.

Topic Wise Strategy for Reasoning Preparation of SBI PO

Let's discuss here the topic-wise strategy for reasoning preparation of SBI PO in order to approach the questions hassle-free.

1) Coding & Decoding

Earlier this section used to be facile, consequently, a good scoring opportunity. Things have changed over the period of time; SBI has increased the complexity level. But still, this section is scoring, once you understand the fundamentals of coding-decoding.

You can expect a maximum of 4-5 questions in the SBI PO prelims exam on this topic. Several pattern changes have been introduced in this topic in the latest banking exams. Revise all the basic rules of this topic and practice its questions for deep understanding.  

How to prepare - Keep yourself updated with all the new trends, and practice as much as you can. Try at least 200 questions on Coding-decoding (from all variations).

2) Inequalities 

This is the easiest part among the reasoning questions and can give you at least 5 marks without investing much time. The Mathematical inequalities are simple, so practice at least 150-200 different types of questions from this topic.

But do prepare for Coded Inequalities too as it can help you score 5 to 7 marks if asked. Make sure to practice at least 10 sets (of 10 questions each) of both topics in the week leading up to the exam.

3) Syllogism

This could be a tricky topic, thus requiring clarity of the concept involved in the syllogism. Questions with 2-3 Statements and 2-3 Conclusions with possibility cases are most likely to appear. So practice at least 200 questions on Syllogisms. Also, learn how to solve Syllogisms by the Venn diagram method as it could be a handy tool.

Steps to solve Syllogism questions

• Step 1: Make a Venn diagram.
• Step 2: Read all the statements one by one.
• Step 3: Draw a Venn diagram for each statement.
• Step 4: Check whether the conclusion follows or not.

Understand how to draw a conclusion from statements. For this, you have to practice a lot of questions to get familiar with the common patterns. Learn the rules of either-or and neither-nor as well.

4) Seating Arrangement 

If you go through the previous year's question papers, you will see that questions from the sitting arrangement constitute a major chunk of the SBI PO reasoning section. This is a topic that you must attempt but be careful while doing so. It is a tricky topic and you could easily lose marks if you miss out on even a single case. Problems can be either of:

• Circular Arrangement 
• Linear Arrangement 
• Box & Floor Based Puzzles
• Square / Rectangular Arrangement

Here are some useful tips to crack reasoning for SBI PO which you should remember while solving the puzzle.

• Start with the direct information provided in the statement/s.
• Organize the information in the structure which is desired i.e., circle/table/ line.
• Learn the basic terms like “sitting to the left/right” “immediate right/left”, etc.
• After arranging direct information, work on an indirect one. 
• If the puzzle provides you with a lot of information, most probably it is easy to solve. 

5) Blood Relations

Spend some time learning different relations. They should be very clear in your mind. Draw family trees for visual clarity. There may come a comprehension of 2-5 questions based on the family tree or Coded blood relation. Try at least 40-50 questions on Blood Relations. Try a wide variety; make sure to attempt all the problems yourself without referring to a guide or solutions.

6) Direction Sense

There can be 2-3 questions on Direction Sense. Be clear with all the direction names. Apart from the four main directions i.e. North, South, East, and West, also know about North-East, North-West, South-East, and South-West.

Start questions by considering yourself facing the north direction and apply further statements accordingly. Practice such questions a lot to improve understanding. In many questions on this topic, the candidates are required to calculate some values like, the total distance traveled, the shortest path covered the distance between two entities, etc.

7) Data Sufficiency 

• The foremost thing to do is go through the complete question properly first. You’ll be able to make out what data is required to arrive at the answer to the question and then proceed to the statements that have been provided.
• There is no need to solve the question completely.
• Analyze each statement individually.
• Even if you conclude that the data in statement 1 is sufficient to answer the question, do not forget to check the other statements.
• Use the elimination process of options to narrow down the possible answers.
• Questions on this topic can be from the topics Puzzles, Order & Ranking, Blood Relations, Coding-Decoding, Directions & Distances, Ages & Birthdates, etc. 

8) Order & Ranking 

In ordering and ranking questions, the focus should be maintained. The position or rank of a person from left-right/top-bottom of a row/building is to be determined. In another case, a Rank or position can be given & the total number of persons needs to be calculated.

9) Series 

5 questions are expected from this topic in the Prelims exam. This is one of the easy topics, but it requires a quick understanding of the terms like, right, left, in the middle of, and so on. Also, quick calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.) are required to solve numerical series. 

Study Notes on all Reasoning Topics

You can practice Quiz on different topics from the link given below:

Attempt Reasoning Ability Quiz

Points to Ponder while preparing Reasoning for SBI PO Prelims

1) Practice a lot of questions. Cramming will never work in the Reasoning questions of SBI PO Prelims. Questions based on Reasoning will be purely logic-based. Practice as SBI PO previous year's question paper as possible, so that your logic-building process is initiated and you can identify how to proceed further with a problem.

2) Maintain Speed and Accuracy: Always starts with reading and understanding concepts of the Reasoning topics. Try to make an image of the question in your mind wherever possible. Once you are able to understand the basics behind each topic, divert your focus on both speed and accuracy since SBI PO is a competitive recruitment examination.

3) Time Management: Solving questions in a timely manner is extremely important. Since these questions are based on logic, there will always be a number of methods to solve them. Your thought process must be ready to identify the best way to solve keeping in mind both time and accuracy.

As general guidelines, the following are a few do and don’t while attempting the SBI PO Reasoning questions –

• Try to attempt more than 25 questions in the time frame of 20 minutes in this section.
• Always start with easy questions first so as to cover all the important topics in minimum time. 
• You can first attempt all the Coding-Decoding, Inequalities, Ordering & Ranking, Blood Relations, and  Direction Sense questions. 
• Next attempt the problems based on Input-Output, Syllogisms, etc.
• Attempt the Puzzles and Seating Arrangement next. Don't spend much time on each puzzle 
• Leave out the questions which you can’t solve on the first attempt.

Reasoning Ability is the section where aspirants have a very good chance to score good marks, all it requires is a regular practice of quality questions. Try to understand the question before picking or solving it. If practice is done daily in a dedicated manner, this section is the least time-consuming section. Amongst the aforementioned topics, figure out your strong and weak parts and put good efforts into improving the weak parts through the regular practice of the weak sections and polishing the strong sections. You can check your improvements by giving SBI PO mock tests regularly.

Feel free to connect with the counselors to get your answers if you are stuck anywhere regarding the preparation for an exam. Just Dial the number and vanish your doubts.