IBPS PO is one of the most ambitious exams undertaken by candidates hoping to make a career in the Banking sector. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducts the IBPS PO recruitment exam annually for appointing deserving candidates in various posts. The test is conducted online in three phases:-
- Preliminary Exam
- Main Exam
- Interview
IBPS PO Preliminary Exam
The Preliminary Exam is the qualifying exam in order to appear for the Mainexam. It is conducted for 100 marks consisting of objective type questions for time duration of 1 hour. One-fourth of the marks i.e… 0.25 marks are deducted for every wrong answer in the IBPS PO Preliminary exam. The structure of the exam is given in the table below:
| SL. No. | Section | No. of Questions | Maximum marks |
| 1 | English Language | 30 | 30 |
| 2 | Numerical Ability | 35 | 35 |
| 3 | Reasoning Ability | 35 | 35 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | |
Practice with IBPS PO Mock Test as per latest exam pattern and theme to get a real feel of the examination.
IBPS PO Mains Exam
This is the next phase conducted for the recruitment process in the IBPS PO exam. Only the candidates who have qualified in the Preliminary exam are eligible to appear for this round of exam. This test is also of objective type consisting of 5 sections for 200 marks and the total time duration is 140 minutes. The negative marking is the same as for the Preliminary exam. However, there is a specific time limit for each section and a certain order in which the sections are to be attempted. The candidates cannot skip or move to the next section before the specific time limit is over for that section. The structure of the IBPS PO Main exam is as listed below:
| SL. No. | Section | No. of Questions | Maximum marks | Duration (In minutes) |
| 1 | Reasoning | 50 | 50 | 40 |
| 2 | English Language | 40 | 40 | 30 |
| 3 | Quantitative Aptitude | 50 | 50 | 40 |
| 4 | General Awareness(with special reference to Banking Industry) | 40 | 40 | 20 |
| 5 | Computer Knowledge | 20 | 20 | 10 |
| Total | 200 | 200 | 140 | |
IBPS PO GD/Personal Interview
Interview is the final phase of the IBPS PO exam. After qualifying in the Main exam, the candidates called for the Interview round. The Interview round is for a maximum of 100 marks and the final selection is based on the aggregate of the Main Exam and the Interview process. Therefore, it is mandatory to prepare well for the Main exam and the Interview round of the IBPS PO recruitment Exam. However, it is necessary that you clear the Prelims first with at least the minimum marks.
IBPS PO Exam 2017- Section wise tips:
IBPS PO Reasoning : This section is one of the sections which carries the maximum marks in both the Preliminary and Mains Paper i.e 35 marks in the Prelims and 50 marks in the Mains.You need to practice a lot as this section takes most of your time for calculation, therefore, if you make any mistake, you will lose your time as well will be awarded negative marks. For your convenience, we have categorized the topics as per difficulty level:
- Easy question types may include Classification/ Odd pair, Series Completion/ Analogy, Direction based tests/ Direction Sense Test, Number, Ranking and Time Sequence Test and Alphabet test/ Dictionary.
- Moderate difficulty level questions may include Syllogisms, Inequalities, Blood Relations, Coding-Decoding and Data Sufficiency.
- Difficult types are Seating Arrangement, Complex Puzzle, Floor Puzzle and Input-Output Machine.
IBPS PO English Language :
The English section carries 30 marks and 40 marks for the Preliminary and Main Paper respectively. People who feel that this section is their weak area need to start from the very basics right from the proper structure of sentences, basic grammar, tenses. You can read newspapers daily, study school level English for passage comprehension, story reading etc. Take the help of a dictionary and learn 3-4 new words every day.
IBPS PO Quantitative Aptitude :
English language and Quantitative Aptitude/ Numerical ability are the two sections that carry the maximum marks in the IBPS PO exam i. e… 35 marks for Prelims and 50 marks for Mains. This section is considered to be the toughest section as it dealswith Mathematical problems. For this section, you need to start from the simple topics such as number system, profit & loss, interest etc. gradually moving on to the higher levels. Maintain a formula book for all formulas included in the different topics and mug up these formulas on a daily basis so that you can remember it in an instant.
IBPS PO General Awareness :
General Awareness carries a weightage of 40 marks in the IBPS PO Main exam. When compared to other sections, this is one of the easy sections where you can expect to score the full marks.
- Some of the topics which you can prepare for the financial awareness sub-section included in General Awareness are History of Banking in India, Organizations (RBI, NABARD etc.); Planning Commission (5 year plans, Finance Commission); World Bank; Reserve Bank of India’s role in Indian banking system; Economic/ Financial terms & concepts (GDP, GNP, PPP, HDI, Inflation, WPI, CP, IIP, SLR, CRR, Repo rate, Reverse Repo, Bank rate, Mutual Funds, Open Market Operations, Money supply); Foreign Exchange reserves of India;Different kind of accounts and corresponding interest rates; Non-Banking Financial companies (Definition, Difference from bank etc.);NPA and SARFAESI;Acts, Committees& legislation;Types of Markets; Money and banking instruments;Reverse Mortgage Loans;Priority Sector Lending;Banking Abbreviations, terms and concepts;Headquarters of Banks etc.
- The Following sub topics can be prepared for the Current Affairs section: National Current Affairs; International Current Affairs; Sports Current Affairs; Science, Technology, Space & Defense Current Affairs; Current Affairs Yearbook, Person in News/Awards, Economy current affairs.
- For the General Knowledge sub-section, some of the topics to prepare are Agriculture Seasons and various crops produced in India; Terrorist groups; White Revolutions; Wildlife Sanctuaries/Parks; States, UTs their Capitals and CMs; Dams in India; Major Fault lines in the world; Festivals around the world; Important rivers and towns; Important Days; Currencies of different countries; Famous Sportspersons etc.
IBPS PO Computer Knowledge :
This section is included only for the Main paper of the IBPS PO Exam and carries 20 marks out of the 200 marks. It demands you to havefundamental knowledge about Computers such as Shortcut keys, Microsoft office, Computer software & hardware, networks, etc. which is taught in School level. However, to refresh your memory you can go through all these topics again so that you can correctly attempt all questions in this section.
Manage your time well in the exam and start with section which you are most comfortable.
All the Best