The IBPS PO is one of the major banking exams conducted every year by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). The exam is conducted with the purpose of recruiting qualified candidates as Probationary Officers in various reputed commercial banks across India. The IBPS PO exam comprises three stages i.e., The Preliminary exam, The Mains exam and the Personal Interview round.
Each year a large number of students preparing for competitive exams like IBPS PO pay heavy fees and enroll themselves in coaching institutions thinking it a necessary step to crack any exam. However, this is not true, many aspirants every year crack the IBPS PO exam without any coaching. They make the best use of their time and educational resources available and leave no stones unturned to crack the exam.
On that note, let’s talk about some important exam preparation tips that might help you ace the IBPS PO exam without any coaching.
Know About IBPS PO Exam and Pattern in Detail
Students should carefully go through the IBPS PO exam pattern and syllabus before starting their preparation. This will give them all necessary information on different stages of the exam, subjects and chapters to study, time duration, weightage of each section, marking scheme, etc. With this knowledge, the students can put in place an effective study plan.
Moreover, students should analyze different topics and sub-topics in the exam syllabus and must segregate and allot time to them accordingly. The exam structure or pattern gives the knowledge of the weightage of various phases of the exam in the final shortlisting of candidates.
Students should remember these details while studying for the IBPS PO exam as they should know what is required to clear the IBPS PO selection process.
Choose the Best Sources to Study from ( Books, Live Coaching, Test Series)
Prior to beginning with IBPS PO exam preparation, candidates should acquire the best quality sources to study from such as books, online courses, test series, study material, etc. This is essential for any successful exam preparation.
Gone are the days when you needed to physically attend coaching classes to seek guidance to prepare for any exam. Various Edtech startups like Testbook have started offering live coaching services to students for helping them prepare properly for their respective exams.
You can join the online crash courses offered by these exam preparation portals and receive top-notch guidance from expert mentors. These courses also include other educational resources such as study notes, quizzes, mock tests, etc.
Moreover, you must buy the best books and study materials that have refreshed and relevant content that is as per the latest IBPS PO exam syllabus.
Finally, just studying isn’t enough, you should test your knowledge by attempting an online test series. These test series include multiple sectional, chapter-wise and full-length mock tests that will help you to track your progress, give you an insight into your strengths and weaknesses and lastly, will enhance your accuracy and speed.
If candidates have appeared for the IBPS PO exam in the past, they should maintain a record of the previous year’s IBPS PO Scorecard. This will allow them to properly analyze their previous year’s performance in different sections and to estimate how much time they should devote time to different subjects to crack the exam.
Prepare Short Notes in Each Subject for Quick Revision
While you prepare for the IBPS PO exam, remember to underline important points and make short notes in a concise manner for quick and effective revision of various concepts, principles, formulas and short tricks, etc in different subjects.
Especially in Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability, candidates will benefit from making a separate note of formulas and short tricks as they would be able to revise them quickly just before the exam.
Also, preparing short notes saves a considerable amount of time during revision and lets you revisit and recall what you have studied earlier.
Clear Concepts in Each Topic and Learn Useful Short Tricks
Candidates should have a sound understanding of the fundamentals behind every concept in each topic. This is due to the fact that questions posed in any banking exam are mostly concept-based and are of higher difficulty levels. Most candidates often struggle to tackle these types of questions in the exam as they lack conceptual clarity on which the premise of the questions is based.
Furthermore, candidates should not thoroughly rely on the basic method learned for tackling questions in the quantitative aptitude and reasoning ability section. This will eat up their valuable time during the exam. They could save this time and use it to attempt other questions.
Consequently, it is encouraged to learn formulas and tricks as it can be of assistance in reducing the number of unnecessary time-consuming steps and save you time to attempt other questions later and will help them achieve a better score.
Attempt Regular Mock tests and Solve Previous Years Papers
After covering a majority of the syllabus, a candidate must begin with attempting mock tests consistently. This will assist them in gaining the knowledge of their strengths and shortcomings so that they could benefit from their strengths and work on their shortcomings to improve their performance.
Furthermore, attempting online mock tests on a regular basis will help a candidate build up a calm and composed mindset and will boost his/her confidence level to attempt various sections in the exam within a very limited time.
Apart from this, candidates are advised to solve as many previous years’ IBPS PO papers as they can to get an idea of the types and pattern of questions and trends in the weightage of different topics in each section.
