How to crack the IBPS Clerk Exam - Check Preparation Tips, Study Plan

Who can Crack the IBPS Clerk Exam?

There are lakhs of students every year who apply and appear in the exams of IBPS clerks for thousands of vacancies. But here the question arises who and how to crack the IBPS Clerk exam. The term intelligent/meritorious or average does not have a universal or static definition and it changes with the change of time, type of academic/competitive atmosphere all around, parental and expert counselling and guidance available to students, etc. There are several examples available where a 12th failed but later on not only cleared it, however he/she also cracked banking and UPSC Civil Services exams.

The poor academic result in school and college exams depends on many things like whether the student was serious about his/her academic performance or the situation in which he/she took the exam was favourable or something odd happened in the family, etc. Therefore, we can’t say the academic exam result or score decides the result of competitive exams. There are many factors like tips & techniques, analytical approach, and strategy for exam preparation which students generally don’t adopt during academic exam preparation but the same they adopt by heart and mind for the competitive exam preparation including IBPS Clerks. Thus, the important things for a candidate to have for cracking any competitive exams are the following:

• Having a mind set to crack it.

• Believe in your own strength and work on weak areas.

• Physical and mental capability to do hard work smartly with a positive attitude.

• Analytical approach to past papers, their pattern, and trends of questions.

• Time and study material to cover the syllabus before the exam.

• And last but not the least, determination to make the impossible possible.

How tp Prepare for IBPS Clerk: Prelims & Main Exam

Before going to detailed preparation tips of IBPS Clerk 2021, candidates can check these 10 small points for quick tips about how to crack the IBPS Clerk exam.

10. Important Tips to Make Strategy for IBPS Clerks Exams Preparation

1. Candidates should know the details about IBPS Clerks exam from its official notification.

2. They must know about eligibility criteria and their capability to crack it.

3. Detail knowledge of syllabus and exam pattern help in its preparation.

4. Analysis of previous Prelims papers helps in knowing the trends and difficulty level of questions.

5. Previous Main paper analysis helps in making an effective preparation strategy and plan of all the four sections of this exam.

6. They should know about a good attempt of a particular paper/test/section in general.

7. Selection of good and authentic study material and books help in knowing correct concepts and facts to solve the questions in the mock tests and score maximum marks in the exam.

8. Making a practical study routine and preparing bullet points notes help in the preparation.

9. They must check their speed and learning accuracy of the reasoning section regularly.

10. Regular practicing of mock tests helps in assessing the study progress and to rework on weak topics.

IBPS Clerks: Prelims 2020/2019 Exam Pattern & Previous Questions Trend Analysis

Before starting the IBPS Clerk preparation, students should check the IBPS Clerk exam pattern which is mentioned in the official brochure too separately for prelims and mains.

(a) IBPS Clerks Exam Pattern: Questions and Marks Distribution

Some important points to note:

• It is a computer-based online exam.

• It consists of objective type, multiple-choice questions (MCQs).

• The questions will be set both in English & Hindi except for the English Language.

• For every incorrect answer, 0.25 marks will be deducted.

• The test will have three sections (with separate timings for each section) as follows:

Note: Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing cut-off marks to be decided by IBPS.

IBPS Clerks Main Exam Pattern: Questions and Marks Distribution

(b) IBPS Clerks Prelims Exam: Previous Papers’ Questions Trend Analysis

For the better preparation of IBPS Clerk, it is advisable to go through the previous years exam analysis of IBPS Clerk.

Good Attempt & Overall Difficulty Level in 2020 & 2019 Papers

(i) IBPS Clerks Prelims: English Test Questions Trend Analysis

IBPS Clerks: Preparation Strategy & tips for Prelims & Main Exams

(a) Preparation Strategy and tips for English Language of IBPS Clerks

English Language paper in Prelims of IBPS Clerks consists of 30 questions and in Main consists of 40 questions. The questions of Prelims are generally easy in nature but in Main exam they are easy to difficult. Candidates have to qualify in English Language tests of both Prelims and Main separately by securing cut-off marks to be decided by IBPS. Maximum questions are asked from “Reading Comprehension, Cloze Test, Error Detection, Word Rearrangement, and Sentence Rearrangement, etc. To understand the previous questions trend and make strategy accordingly candidates should follow the tips:

• Download previous questions papers and analyse their English Language tests.

• Compare the analysed questions with English syllabus topics for their importance.

• Daily newspaper reading helps in preparing the Reading Comprehension topic.

• Improving grammar and vocabulary usage helps in solving this section quickly and save time for reasoning, quant, and other sections.

• Practice Reading Comprehension after understanding the essence of the article.

• Solve previous papers and Practice mock tests regularly to check learning as well as speed.

Also read:

IBPS Clerk Preparation Strategy and tips for Numerical Ability/Quantitative Aptitude of IBPS Clerks

The Numerical Ability & Quantitative Aptitude of the IBPS Clerks exam is scoring if a candidates have command over the important topics of the syllabus. This section helps candidates to score maximum marks for selection in the merit list. It includes questions from basic mathematics of matriculation level (i.e. class VIII to X) based on NCERT books pattern. The important topics of this section from exam point of view are Simplification, Arithmetic, Data Interpretation, Quadratic Equation, Inequality, Missing Number Series, Word Problems, Approximation, and Algebra, etc. Some tips for the preparation of this sections are:

• Solving previous years’ question papers of IBPS Clerk helps in knowing the trends and nature of questions.

• Having a good knowledge of syllabus and topics helps in better preparation of IBPS Clerk.

• Making the basic mathematical concepts clear from the NCERT books on syllabus topics.

• Practicing on important topics from which more questions are asked develops confidence.

• Solving the Word Based Problems such as ratio and proportion, time & work, average, partnership, and work & wages, etc. helps in good score.

• Working on speed in solving questions for having limited time.

• Learning short-cut methods such as memorizing tables up to 25, square roots up to 30, etc.

• Taking help from IBPS Clerks books on the Numerical Ability/Quants covering only syllabus topics is beneficial.

IBPS Clerk Preparation Strategy and tips for Reasoning Ability of IBPS Clerks

According to the IBPS Clerk syllabus, the Reasoning Ability section of the IBPS Clerks Prelims and Main Exams comprises the important topics like puzzles, seating arrangement, Alpha-numeric Series, Directions, Order & Ranking, coding-decoding, syllogism, Inequality, etc. Generally more questions are asked from these topics in 2019 & 2020. And Puzzles have the top most position quantity-wise. So candidates should make their study plan with the following tips to fetch maximum marks for good ranking:

• Solving previous papers gives knowledge about the trends and nature of questions along with important topics of syllabus.

• Making a study plan to cover the important reasoning topics first and then others.

• Taking help from IBPS Clerk best books recommended by IBPS exam toppers, like

i) R.S Agarwal- Modern Approach to Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

ii) M.K.Pandey- Analytical Reasoning.

iii) B.S.Sijwali & Indu Sijwali- A New Approach to Reasoning: Verbal and Non-Verbal.

• Developing general problem-solving skills to avoid silly mistakes.

• Practicing IBPS Clerk mock tests on a regular basis to assess learning and speed.

• Revising weak areas and syllabus important topics before exams for clearing concepts.

• Starting with easy questions and then moving onto difficult ones in the test/exam.

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Preparation Strategy & tips for General/ Financial Awareness of IBPS Clerks

The IBPS Clerks General/Financial Awareness is the most important section from the Main exam point of view as no specific syllabus is marked for. Candidates are expected to know about all national and internal news, events, and happenings related to political, economic/financial, ecology & environment, science & technology, social & cultural, financial institutions like banking, insurance, stock exchange, trades, etc. Generally this section of Main exam consists of 3 segments:

(i) Static General Knowledge

(ii) Current Affairs including current events

(iii) Financial Awareness including Banking, Insurance, Businesses, Stock Exchange…

Some tips are given below that can help candidates in preparation of this section:

• Go through previous papers and analyse to know the pattern and trends of questions.

• Study about the Indian financial system, history of banking in India, banking terms, types of banks & their accounts in India, principles of insurance, etc.

• Candidates should also know about banking Acts & Reforms and government schemes.

• Take half an hour daily to read newspapers and make short notes heading-wise.

• They should go through books, magazines & newspapers like:

(i) “Financial Awareness for Competitive Exams” 2016 by Dr. Md. Usmangani

Ansari (Chief Editor), Disha Publication.

(ii) Manorma Yearbook

(iii) The Hindu Newspaper

• Regular Mock Tests practice helps to evaluate learning and speed in solving questions.

IBPS Clerk Preparation Strategy & tips for Computer Aptitude of IBPS Clerks

Computer Aptitude is not the part of Prelims and questions are only asked in the Main exam along with Reasoning Ability section. Candidates are required to know the basics and fundamentals of computer knowledge to answer the questions generally asked in this exam. This section is easier to other segments and so candidates should know the followings:

• The nature of questions asked in previous years’ papers.

• The knowledge of Computer Hardware and Software.

• MS Office Basics, & Operating System Functions, Microsoft applications, etc.

• Basics of Internet, protocols, Network Basics, Email, etc.

• Learning all the computer shortcuts including Keyboards, and abbreviations is a smart strategy for this section.

• Practice of mock tests on computer aptitudes also helps a lot.

Success Mantra for IBPS Clerk Exam

1. Role of Analytical Approach in IBPS Clerks Exam Preparation

(a) Setting up IBPS Clerk as a Goal

Goal setting for achieving any target is the most important tools to have successful result. As it is truly said,

“If you want to be successful, set a goal that commands your thought process, release your hidden energy, and inspires your hopes for the positive result.”

__ Dr. Md. Usmangani Ansari

Some people say that hard work is the key element to have success in any field but statistics proved it wrong. Only hard work will not help anyone to be successful if he/she does not have an achievable goal. Hard work can only help if you have set a goal that is not beyond your reach. However a set goal plays an important role if anyone makes a strategy how and when to meet the goal by executing the plan with hard work smartly. When a goal meets commitment it always makes a dream realised.

When you have set a goal it makes you aware of what you want to achieve and how to do it. It helps in assessing and measuring your ability more accurately to achieve the goal. It is the goal that makes pressure to prepare a plan that guides you and keeps you on the right track like a GPS.

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