Cracking the code for IBPS exam

Aashish Arora 

Banking examination is one of the most sought after government examinations for aspiring candidates. Every year close to 15,000 to 20,000 vacancies are reported (combining IBPS, SBI, RBI, RRBs) with around 12 – 15 lakh candidates appearing for the examinations, making it an increasingly popular choice of employment.

One of the major reasons for aspirants not qualifying for the examination is the lack of a structured method of preparation. This can be solved by aspirants receiving access to quality bank exam preparation strategies, valuable study materials and top educators to help them crack their dream exams. 

IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection) examination is designed to test one’s knowledge and spontaneous decision making ability.

The IBPS exam mainly has four sections — Quantitative Aptitude, General Awareness, Reasoning & Computer Aptitude and English Language. Each section requires the examinee to be equipped enough to navigate through the paper and indulge in smart study to crack banking examinations.

For solving Quantitative Aptitude questions one needs to apply two-three concepts in a single question which requires skills that one cannot learn from a book alone. It is essential to have a guide or an educator who can help the aspirant crack the examination in a holistic and planned way. As the syllabus is not vast or complex, one of the primary focuses during my classes is to provide aspirants with top notch content at par with the current IBPS trends.

When it comes to English language paper, it would be crucial to consume as much content as you can in English. Making reading a regular habit will prove to be beneficial whether that is newspapers, books or magazines. 

At the same time, for the general awareness section, reading the newspaper and making notes on a weekly or fortnightly basis is a must to keep in track of new developments in various sectors.

The reasoning section in the IBPS examination consists of puzzles that need to be decoded in a short span of time. The ideal target would be to solve 5-6 high level puzzles daily to ensure one is efficiently equipped to solve them during the examination.

Following four basic strategies can help one prepare better for the examination:

Choose quality over quantity for mock tests: What we usually notice is that aspirants get swayed by the high scores they get in mock tests and shift their focus on solving more number of mock tests rather than solving quality mock tests. The focus should be on solving mock tests that really challenge your preparation.

Solving mock tests are the crux of cracking banking examinations and one should be solving at least 50-60 full syllabus mock tests a month or two before taking the exam. This will also result in strengthened confidence when taking the actual examination.

Stay away from excessive group discussions: While peer-to-peer learning is an integral component of exam preparations, students tend to waste time in unnecessary offline and online discussion which do not add to their preparation in any way and only end up wasting precious preparation time.

Stick to one educator and divide focus on all subjects: While it is important to know the tricks to excel in examinations, it is also important to keep in mind a few things that should definitely be avoided. One of those things is to not waste time and effort running from one teacher to the other. Choosing one educator that you think will help you learn better and try and stick to him/her for the course of your preparation. Aspirants should avoid over preparing their favourite subject and give equal attention to the others as there is an individual cut-off score for each section.

Focus on one source of information: Aspirants tend to refer to multiple sources of content and that ultimately leads to information overload and low retention. So following a particular source of information and studying that in-depth will be the most efficient.

Aspirants need to put in a minimum of four months into the preparation, coupled with sincere and focused efforts, which will result in the opportunity of you cracking the examination in the first attempt with good scores.

For the ones just starting out, you would require to build a solid foundation of preparation, beginning with quantitative aptitude and you should start by brushing up on calculations. 

 The writer is an Educator at Unacademy 

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