How To Score More in the IBPS PO Exam

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is the conducting body for all IBPS exams. Candidates seeking for a job in the banking sector waiting for IBPS recruitments to be conducted each year because the number of vacancies is high and the close to 20 Public Sector Banks participate in IBPS exams.

At the beginning of each year, the conducting body releases the official exam schedule where the IBPS exam dates are mentioned for the candidate’s reference and they can start their preparation accordingly.

The major IBPS exams include PO, SO, Clerk and RRB exams. Of these, the most sought after is the post of IBPS PO or Probationary Officer.

The IBPS PO exam is conducted in three phases and the final selection of candidates is based on the shortlisting done in these three phases. The three stages of IBPS PO exam include:

1. Preliminary Examination
2. Mains Examination
3. Interview

IBPS PO Exam Pattern

It must be noted that the preliminary examination is only qualifying in nature and the marks scored in this phase are not included while calculating the final merit of the candidates. A combined score of Mains and Interview phase is estimated to get the final list of shortlisted candidates.

Given below is the exam pattern for the IBPS PO exam:

Tips To Score More in IBPS PO Exam

Candidates appearing for the IBPS PO exam can refer to the tips given below to score more in the Probationary Officers exam:

1. Solve Sample Questions on each Topic – While you are preparing chapter-wise, ensure that you solve sample questions based on each topic. This will give you a better understanding of the topic.
2. Avoid Guessing Answers – Since, there is negative marking in the IBPS PO prelims and mains exam, candidates may lose 0.25 marks for every wrongly answered question. So, guessing answers and marking them is an absolutely wrong practice. To score more, candidates need to ensure that they do no lose marks by making such silly mistakes.
3. Attempt more and more Mock Tests and Practise Papers – Once you are done with preparing each topic under each section, the best way to revise the entire syllabus is by solving mock tests or practise papers. These model tests will give you an idea of how the questions can be solved in the stipulated time and how to strategise answering of questions in the final examination.
4. Solve Previous Year IBPS PO Question Papers – For candidates who shall be appearing for the exam for the first time, referring to the previous year question papers will act as an added advantage. You shall be able to apprehend the level of exam, types of questions asked and the exact exam pattern. This will reduce the scope of losing marks due to stress and help you score more by boosting your confidence.
5. Refer to the Exam Analysis – The IBPS PO exam is conducted in different shifts on multiple days. So, it is suggested that candidates must scrutinise the exam analysis in order to know the important topics with respect to the exam and accordingly prepare themselves to score more.
6. Take A Look at the Previous Year Cut Off Marks – Over the years, the trend has shown that the IBPS PO cut has only been increasing with each passing year. So, candidates can estimate the cut off for the upcoming recruitment by referring to the previous year scores.

Analysing the IBPS PO cut off will also enable an aspirant to apprehend that how many correctly answered questions can secure their place in the final list of shortlisted candidates.

Thus, aspirants who are looking forward to applying for the IBPS PO exam must start their preparation now and refer to the set of tips that are given above to improve their scores in the upcoming Probationary Officers exam.