Success Mantras for Cracking Bank Exams

At time where private jobs are getting saturated and Govt jobs are more in demand, students are aspiring for PSU jobs. More than 7.5 lac freshers will be recruited by Indian PSU banks over the next 5 years. While the jobs are aplenty, the competition for these jobs is equally high.

But preparation for the exam is key. Success rate is only 1.5% - what this means is less than 2 out of 100 aspirants that take the bank exam actually get a job. Banks select freshers for their aptitude and train them in banking enabling them to move up the value chain. Hence, cracking the aptitude test is the first major hurdle for the aspirants.

Selection Process for Bank Exam

Of about 15-16Lakhs appeared for IBPS(PO) exams in 2015, only 5 – 10% make it through the Elimination round of the Aptitude Test. Hence it is critical to prepare and make sure you cross this first hurdle successfully.

Five success mantras for cracking this examination.

1.      Take charge: Knowing where you stand on your Ability to Cract the Aptitude Test

2.      Know the Game: Know the examination process and procedure

3.      Get Trained: Get help - Professional Coaching

4.      Practice, Practice and more practice

5.      Just do it

1. Take Charge: Knowing where you stand:

This area is normally and easily overlooked by aspirants. Bank exams test only basic Aptitude, and hence it is easy to ignore the need for development and falling on the trap ‘I know all these things’.

Yes, the fact is that the exam covers basic arithmetic and aptitude. However, what gets overlooked is the need for speed coupled with Accuracy. In a typical examination, there is a major time pressure. One has to answer 250 questions in 150 minutes – a mere 36 seconds for each question.

Hence, knowing how to solve a problem does not suffice, knowing how quickly you can do the same correctly is the key. Hence, taking charge of where you stand with respect to speed and accuracy on various topics that gets covered in this exam is a must.

The best way to know where you are is to take mock tests and get to know where you stand in terms of the marks scored by you, time taken and compare your marks with the cut off marks and marks scored by other aspirants.

2. Know the Game: Know the examination

The next step is understand the examination. While the knowledge required for most aptitude tests are the same, the strategy to handle the examination will differ significantly depending on the exam itself.

For eg. the Common Written Examination (CWE) conducted by IBPS, looks for one to be well rounded across multiple areas. Hence, there are individual cut offs for each section. If one is strong in say English & have the ability to score very high, it will help his cause in selection. However, as a pre requisite one has to cross the cut of mark in each of the 5 sections. Thus, if one scores very high on English and very low in say GK, he / she will not qualify in spite of the total marks being better than the average cut offs. This needs to be understood and there are many other things. Some of the key areas are:

1.      Qualifying marks in each section

2.      Negative marks

3.      Questions with differing difficulties & strategy for handling

4.      Time management in line with the above pattern

Taking guidance on each of the exam and its uniqueness will go a long way in creating a suitable strategy for one in attacking this examination.

3. Professional Coaching

Another frequently raised question among aspirants is that ‘is there a need for professional coaching for bank exam?’

This arises generally from the fact that as confident individuals we tend to believe that we are ready for the challenge and we can crack any examination as we know most of the concepts. This confidence is absolutely necessary. However, confidence alone is not sufficient.

We need to understand the fact that a person who has an above average aptitude levels has a fair chance to crack the exam irrespective of coaching. However, ifprofessional coaching helps him to get 10-20 additional marks, this can make a huge difference – because the competition is very high and every additional mark is a value.

Yes, many people believe that what is covered in the bank exam coaching were taught in school. But the fact is, most of us tend to forget what was taught in school and a refresher is a must for one to be ready for facing the competition with time deadlines.

In addition to preparation, the benefit of professional coaching includes ability to create a strategy for the examination, understand what other aspirants are doing and also get more focussed attention on exam specific development which will come handy in the GK section of the examination.

4. Practice, Practice and more practice

Practice makes a man perfect it is said and this is definitely not without reason. More the time spent in practicing, better is the efficiency in the examination. Take Sachin for example, he has made it a habit of practicing and more he practices, more efficient he becomes at the crease. Higher the efforts prior to the examination, better is the efficiency during the examination.

Hence, a serious contender who is keen to land a job in banking needs to put in hours and hours of hard work, which has the ability of providing rewards in multiples.

The practice must be well directed. A misdirected practice has the danger of de railing your preparation. If the Australian team spends hours and hours of practice for playing a short pitch ball for a tour to India – is it going to be of any value? Similarly, for any examination, practice has to be focused and in line with the requirements.

A professional guidance in understanding the areas which require practice will go a long way in making one better equipped to crack the bank examination

5. Just do it

Like in most things in life, success comes to those who enjoy what they are doing. Yes, Bank exam preparation can be an arduous task. However, one has to enjoy going through the preparation. Those who enjoy this hard work will relish the same in the future. So put in your hard work with your own heart and see how the whole world works towards making your dream come true.

Summary:

You can do it. What you need is the right approach coupled with good strategies for reaching your destiny. I am happy to sign off with this, having had my first communication with a future banker. Have a great time.