Master Strategy to crack NIACL AO Mains 2018-19, Read here!

Before going into detailed strategy, let’s have a look at the exam pattern.

1. Online Objective Exam Pattern

I) For Generalist

Name of Test	Max. Marks	Duration	Medium of Exam
Test of Reasoning	50	Composite time of 120 minutes	English/Hindi
Test of Quantitative Aptitude	50		English/Hindi
Test of English Language	50		English
Test of General Awareness	50		English/Hindi
Total	200		English/Hindi

II) For Specialist

Name of Test	Max. Marks	Duration	Medium of Exam
Test of Reasoning	40	Composite time of 120 minutes	English/Hindi
Test of Quantitative Aptitude	40		English/Hindi
Test of English Language	40		English
Test of General Awareness	40		English/Hindi
In Specialist segment, an additional test to assess technical& professional knowledge in the relevant discipline	40		English/Hindi
Total	200

1. Note: Each candidate will be required to obtain a minimum score for each section of the objective test separately for shortlisting for the Descriptive test evaluation and for shortlisting for the Interview.
2. It means you have to clear both sectional and overall cut off in the exam.

2. Descriptive Test Pattern

• Descriptive Test will be of 30 minutes time with 30 marks. It is the Test of English Language.
• In this, there will be 2 questions; one is Letter Writing which carries 10marks & another is Essay Writing, which carries 20 marks.
• The descriptive test will be in English only and conducted through online mode.

Note: 

• The descriptive answer would be evaluated only in respect of those candidates who qualify the objective test. Depending on the number of vacancies, cut-offs will be decided on Descriptive paper evaluation.
• A candidate shall be required to qualify in the descriptive test, but the marks in the descriptive test will not be counted towards shortlisting for an interview or final selection.
• Let’s move further and check subject wise strategy including important topics, the number of hours to be devoted in the remaining time, study notes, practice quizzes and much more to make sure that we are all geared up and confident enough to face the exam.

A) General Awareness

1. Try to give a minimum of 3-4 hours daily
2. This is the most important and score booster section among all.

• Prepare current affairs of at least 5-6 months, going as per the latest trend as seen in the majority of the exams in 2018.
• Static GK including Capital & Currencies of countries, Important days, International organization Headquarters, Awards, National Parks/Wildlife sanctuaries/ Bird sanctuaries, Dams in India, Rivers and state/cities on the bank of the river, Indian Dances, CM-Governor of all states & UT, Census etc.
• Prepare for insurance and banking awareness such as History, headquarters, Important committees, Important rules and regulations, abbreviations, etc.
• Monthly capsules of last 5-6 months.
• Revise thoroughly the interim union budget of FY 2019-20.

This section will help you score maximum marks. Also, it will take the minimum tie in the final exam. Give special attention to this subject and revise current affairs and other above-mentioned topics again and again to get an extra edge over other students.

Here are some important links for preparation:

Static Banking Awareness

Current Awareness

Daily GK Update

Daily GK Update

Daily GK Quiz

Topic Wise Current Affairs Quiz

We will be providing you with the GK Tornado & Insurance Capsule for NIACL AO Mains Exam. Till then, attempts quizzes and revise from weekly and monthly PDFs.

B) Reasoning Ability

1. a) Spend a minimum 2-3 hours daily
2. b) Topics wise strategy:

• Go through the previous year paper once. The important topics are Puzzles & Seating Arrangement, Coding-Decoding, Syllogism, Input-Output, Logical Reasoning, Blood Relation, Direction Sense, and Ranking.
• According to this, prioritize the topics as per your expertise.
• Solve the most important and scoring topic i.e., minimum 4-5 puzzles on daily basis, but don’t forget to use a timer while solving them and try to solve as soon as possible (min. 2 to max 4 minutes). It will help you to solve puzzles quickly in the exam.
• Practice high-level coding-decoding as asked in latest exams of 2018.
• Practise important syllogism cases like the reverse syllogism, definitely does not follow cases, some not cases etc. from previous year’s exams.
• For the Logical Reasoning section, prepare topics like cause and effect, statement and argument, a course of action, assumptions and conclusions, the strength of argument, inference etc. from previous year papers.

In the end, we will suggest you practice sectional tests so that you can have a look over multiple topics asked in such exams.

Here are the links to daily reasoning quizzes.

Reasoning Ability Quiz

C) Quantitative Aptitude

1. a) Give a minimum of 2-3 hours daily on this subject.
2. b) Topic wise strategy:

• If we analyse the previous year paper of NIACL AO Mains, the important topics are Data Interpretation, wrong number series, quadratic equations etc.
• Practise all types of Data Interpretation Bar graph, Tabulation, Pie Chart, Line graph, Mixed type and Paragraph DI (Caselets) are asked.
• Practise a minimum of 2-3 Data Interpretations based on arithmetic topics like profit and loss, simple and compound interest, mixtures and allegations, probability etc. DI is one of the topics which is asked in a major chunk.
• Practise questions from topics like profit and loss, simple and compound interest, mixtures and allegations, probability, Average, Ratio & Proportion , Percentage , Profit & Loss , Problem based on Ages , Mixture & Allegation , SI and CI ,Time & work , Speed, time & Distance , Mensuration ,Boat and stream , Probability , Permutation etc. Be aware with concepts of each of the topic as nowadays most DI’s, Data Sufficiency & Quantity Based Questions are based on these topics.
• Practice an adequate number of questions of Simplification/ Approximation, the more questions you will solve, the faster will be your calculations. It will help in improving accuracy as well.
• Sharpen your calculation skills by practice. You can get a very good score in less time if your calculation speed is good. Make sure to learn tables (1-30), squares (1-50), cubes (1-30), square roots and cube roots to solve these questions accurately in a fast manner.

Attempt  Important quizzes of different subjects from the link given below:

Quantitative Aptitude Quiz

D) English Language

• Spend a minimum of 2 hours daily
• Do not ignore or be afraid of this section. This section can be the most scoring section in NIACL AO exam if you follow a well-planned strategy.
• Students often ignore this section during preparation and start preparing for it 4-5 days before the exam. But this strategy can deduct your marks in this section.
• Work on your reading skills. The best way to do this is to read an English newspaper on regular basis. Also, you can make a habit of watching daily news on television.
• Reading more and more newspaper articles will assist you to get a sense of reading passage quickly and hence, it will increase your reading speed.
• Revise all the basic grammar rules thoroughly. Practice Sentence Correction, Phrase Replacement, Error detection, and other new pattern questions to know your preparation level.
• Read about the latest social, political, economic and cultural issues. This will be helpful for both English and GA section.
• Do not spend much time to answer any question and do not make any wild guess as there is negative marking in the exam.
• Practise more and more questions from previous year papers.

LETTER WRITING:

• Practise all types of letters i.e. formal and informal.
• Learn and remember their formats like letter body, greetings, salutations etc.

ESSAY WRITING:

• To practice this section, develop a habit of reading articles from newspaper related to current social, political, economic and cultural issues and create a self-opinion and view on these topics.
• Be well aware of current topics.

Attempt NIACL AO Mains Score Booster Mini Tests

Important Note:

Try to attempt at least one full-length mock test every day, review your progress daily, know your weak areas and work on them, go through the unique or new pattern questions and practice them to achieve a better score.

In this tale, we are sharing an ideal time management strategy in the exam. Follow this technique while giving mock test so that you become habitual of attempting sections in this way.

S. No.	Name of section	Maximum Time (Minutes)	Minimum Time
1.	General Awareness	08	10
2.	English Language	20	25
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	45
4.	Quantitative Aptitude	35	40

Aiming to crack NIACL AO Mains 2019? Must Attempt free mock through below link –