How to prepare for Bank PO Examination?

There has always been and will always be a great craze for government jobs among Indians. That’s why many students prepare for exams like UPSC Civil services examination, Bank PO, SSC CGL, etc.

In this article, our focus will be on Bank Probationary Officers (Bank PO) exams in general (e.g. IBPS, SBI, etc.). It’s an exam that any graduate is eligible to sit in. We will discuss its pattern, preparation tips, etc.

Though IBPS PO and SBI PO are the most famous exams for Bank PO, there are many other exams too. Some government banks and most private banks conduct their own recruitment test.

However, if you have prepared for IBPS PO exam, or SBI PO exam, then in general you need not prepare for other such exams separately.

Also, some banks offer Banking Courses, e.g. Bank of Baroda. So, once you clear their exam, you will study in their institute for some years and then on completing the course you will get to work in their Bank. When I was a PO in Bank of Baroda in Kanpur, there was one PO that joined the bank via this route.

Note

I had prepared for MBA exams (CAT, XAT, etc.) and got calls from XLRI-Jamshedpur, IIFT-Delhi, IIT-Mumbai, etc. Also, I prepared for UPSC Civil Services Examination and wrote its Mains 4 times. That’s why I never had to prepare for Bank or SSC exams separately.

Still, I cleared them easily. In fact, in IBPS-II conducted in 2012, I secured 90th All-India rank out of 17 lakh students that appeared, without studying for it even for a single day. I also cleared SBI PO in my first attempt. For that I only studied a SBI PO current affairs capsule released by Career Power coaching for a day.

So, once you prepare for Aptitude (Maths, Reasoning, English) and General Studies for any exam, it will help you out in other exams too.

If you want to study for Aptitude exams online, then you may refer to our following websites:

• Online Guide for Aptitude exams (In English)
• Online Guide for Aptitude exams (In Hindi)

Table of Contents

• Bank PO Pattern
• How to prepare for Bank PO?

Bank PO Pattern

There are three rounds that you will have to clear in any Bank PO exam, be it IBPS PO, or SBI PO. These are:

• Preliminary Round
• Mains Round
• Interview Stage

Note

Earlier, there used to be an interview round for some Bank Clerk jobs too. But now Indian Government has removed Interview stage for all Group B, C and D central government jobs. It applies to Bank Clerks too.

This was done to reduce instances of corruption and biasness, and make the entire recruitment process more transparent and objective.

However, to get the Bank PO job you will have to face the interview panel for sure.

Now, let’s delve into these three stages in more detail. Patterns of all Bank PO exams (e.g. IBPS, SBI, etc.) are more or less similar. But they keep it changing a bit every 3-4 years or so.

Preliminary Round

The pattern of Preliminary Round of both IBPS PO and SBI PO is almost the same. Students need to solve 100 questions in 1 hour. There are three sections, and the time is equally distributed among these three.

• English Language – 30 questions in 20 minutes.
• Numerical Ability / Quantitative Aptitude - 35 questions in 20 minutes.
• Reasoning Ability - 35 questions in 20 minutes.

Every question has 1 mark. 0.25 marks are deducted for each incorrect answer. Though no mark is deducted for unattempted questions.

Note

Unlike SSC CGL Tier I, marks obtained by students in preliminary round of SBI PO and IBPS PO are not counted in making of the final merit list. Bank Preliminary round is purely qualifying in nature, i.e. it is just an elimination round.

Warning

Unlike SSC CGL Tier I and SBI PO preliminary round exams, there’s sectional cut-off in IBPS PO preliminary round. That is, a candidate must clear cut-off in all the three sections in IBPS Pre, to qualify for the next stage (i.e. for IBPS PO Mains round).

Mains Round

In Mains round of both SBI PO and IBPS PO, there are two types of papers – objective and subjective. While there’s negative marking in objective paper, there’s no penalty marks in subjective test.

• Reasoning & Computer Aptitude – 45 questions for 60 marks (60 minutes)
• Data Analysis & Interpretation - 35 questions for 60 marks (45 minutes)
• English Language – 35 questions for 40 marks (40 minutes)
• General/ Economy/ Banking Awareness - 40 questions for 40 marks (35 minutes)

So, there are a total of 155 questions for 200 marks. Total allotted time is 3 hours for objective papers.

Descriptive Test in both SBI PO and IBPS PO has two questions – Essay and Letter. Time allotted is 30 minutes.

Note

While the Total marks allotted to Descriptive paper in IBPS PO is 25, in case of SBI PO it’s 50 – 25 marks for Letter, and 25 marks for Essay.

Descriptive paper is evaluated only if a candidate qualifies the objective test (in case of both IBPS PO and SBI PO exams).

Interview Stage

In interview stage candidates may be asked questions based on:

• their resume – hobbies, strengths, weakness.
• educational background, especially if you have had a finance/economy related background.
• basic bank and economy related concepts, such as NPA (Non-Performing Assets), inflation, CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio), etc.
• current affairs, especially economy and bank related news.

Note

In SBI PO, you will also have to face a Group Discussion (GD) round, along with the Interview. I faced this round of SBI PO recruitment process in Delhi in 2013 (at the SBI main building near Connaught Place).

In GD, we were given two topics and we were asked to choose the topic of our choice. Though I do not remember the exact topics now, but both topics were abstract, philosophical type topics. There were 7-8 members in our group. Interview was conducted after the GD round. The whole process took around 3 hours.

The interview conducted by SBI was much more intense and professional than what I faced in IBPS earlier. When I gave my SBI PO interview, I had already been selected in Bank of Baroda as PO (through IBPS). However, I didn’t tell them that, nor did they ask.

The final merit list of IBPS PO is made by considering the marks secured by a candidate in Mains and Interview in 80:20 ratio.

In case of SBI too, the final merit list is prepared by considering the marks secured by a candidate in Mains and Interview. Here, GD has 20 marks, and Interview has 30 marks allocated to them.

How to prepare for Bank PO?

The main four subjects in any Bank PO exam are Maths, English, Reasoning, and General Awareness.

However, if you are applying for the post of specialist officers, then you may have to face paper based on your subject too. For example, when I gave IBPS Specialist exam for Information Technology (IT) officer, I had to face an exam on computer knowledge too.

Though many candidates join some offline or online coaching for Bank exams, it’s not absolutely essential. Self-study is the most important aspect of one’s preparation. So, you may clear Bank PO by just referring to some standard books and studying online from free YouTube videos.

Note

Leading coaching institutes for Bank PO preparation are Career Power, KD Campus, Byjus, etc. However, new coaching institutes keep mushrooming every year. Then there are many online learning platforms such as upGrad, Unacademy, etc.

If you want to find out how good an institute is, just have a look at their material. Better the material, the more serious that institute is in helping you out.

Moreover, you should focus more on the teacher who is teaching you, and not the name of the institute. Anyways, it is your self-study that will make you a topper. No teacher can help you, if you can’t help yourself.

For Maths you may refer to material of some coaching, e.g. TIME, or Career Power, etc. Students also refer to the books written by some teachers. Just refer one or two sources, and then give a lot of mock tests.

Books such as R. S. Agarwal are for beginners. So, if you are very weak in Maths/Arithmetic, then you may start from here. However, it won’t be enough if you have to successfully tackle Mains stage of any PO exam, such as IBPS or SBI.

Make sure you maintain a diary containing all the Maths formulae and important properties and theorems. Revise it on a regular basis.

Note

You should start giving mock tests from the very first month. Also, have a look at various previous year papers. It will clear a lot of your doubts regarding what to study.

Apart from offline tests, you may attempt IBPS PO and SBI PO mock tests online too, e.g. at testbook, byjusexamprep (formerly GradeUp), etc.

As far as English is concerned, there are many books written by teachers, such as Neetu ma’am of KD Campus. You may also refer to the material of leading coaching institutes, such as Career Power, and TIME, etc. However, in my opinion you must refer to a standard book for Grammar, such as Wren and Martin.

Vocabulary can be learnt from any good source, some coaching material, or books like Word Power Made Easy (by Norman Lewis), etc. However, the best way to improve one’s vocabulary is to read widely, be it newspaper, books, novels, stories, etc. It will also improve your reading comprehension skills.

Though Maths in Bank PO exams is not as challenging as that in SSC CGL exam. However, Reasoning is comparatively much more challenging.

Though some questions are framed on topics such as direction, blood relations, etc., for which you can refer any standard book or material of a coaching, such as TIME, Career Launcher, or Career Power.

However, the main stress of Bank PO exams is on Puzzles. There’s only one way to prepare for puzzles, and that is to practice. The puzzles that you will find in books are generally of lower difficulty level. So, practice puzzles by giving mock tests and attempting previous year bank papers.

Some Bank PO exams (such as SBI PO) also stresses a lot on Data Interpretation (DI) questions. So, much so that they often have a separate section for it in exam. In SSC exams, only a few simple DI questions are asked. However, in Bank exams expect some good quality DI questions in a healthy amount.

The way we prepare for DI is the same as we prepare for puzzles, i.e. by practice. Attempt mock tests and previous year bank papers.

General Awareness section of Bank PO exams is tilted heavily towards current affairs and Economy. So, the best way to prepare for it is to just refer the material of a coaching, and the current affairs released by them. Though, if time permits, you should also read a good quality newspaper on a daily basis. Focus more on the business and economic news.

Note

Reasoning and DI sections in Bank exams are much tougher and much more important, than they are in SSC exams. Similarly, Current Affairs and Economy is more stressed upon in Bank. In SSC exams, you have to study GK in general, e.g. Polity, Geography, History, Science, etc. Though questions from these subjects are asked in Bank exams too, but their quantity is comparatively less.