How to Prepare for Bank PO Exams

The Public and Private Sector banks are offering many Bank jobs in India to recruit Considerably In the next Three years as new branches of various banks are to be opened and lots of employees will retire in the next 2 years creating many more Bank jobs.

Bank exams, be it for clerical or Bank PO, are not as difficult as people might think them to be. But the problem is the vacancies to number of applicants' ratio, which is normally very low. So matter of worry and emphasis is about your preparation and time management and not the toughness of the exam.

Though the exact pattern of the examination is described in manual of application in the application form issued by bank. For now, we will consider the standard pattern for A PO exam that has a total of 225 questions with 135 minutes time i.e., 2 hrs and 15 minutes. That accounts for 36 seconds per question. Sounds cheap!

But that's not all as we are not going to attempt each and every question. Remember that the minimum cut-off marks for each section that should be crossed are normally 40%. If a candidate attempts around 180 with good precise answers then he's done a pretty good job! More than 190 are excellent.

Those who have taken a few bank exams in the past should follow the strategy that they are accustomed of, but if someone takes a bank exam for the first time then he/she should start off with General awareness/General knowledge as this part does not take much time if prepared efficiently. As candidate doesn't have to think a lot over any question it's just a matter of reading and ticking the answer if he knows about it. This part should be finished within 10-15 minutes time. That's a good start!

The next section to attempt would be of General English and in it the first 9-10 questions will be of comprehensive passages that take a lot of time to read and understand. So That part is recommend to be left as the rest of the section is pretty easy and Basic English. Again this part should be completed within 20-25 minutes. Till now we have done 2 sections within 40-50 minutes and two more are left with another 135 questions to be done in 85-95 minutes.

Choice among the next two sections, Reasoning and Quantitative ability should be made Depending upon your strength and practice. Go for any of them but do remember to solve the easier questions first as it will save time and will be the deciding factor. For Example the DI part in Quant Is an important and easy part and which will be the scoring and deciding factor. Most of the question in DI can be solved without even using the pen. So prepare well for DI and Attempt it first.

Any thing that requires long calculation in Quant or serious thinking in Reasoning should be left and come back to it if time remains in the end. Questions on compound interest calculations in Quant and circular arrangement in Reasoning could be avoided at first and may be attempted at last if the time Permits.

So time is the most important resource and should be managed well to get an edge over the other candidates and ensure a place there in the Selected Candidates.