Important tips to crack the Bank exams

Banking industry is one of the growing sectors in India in current era, and it is one of the sectors which is providing continuous employment from last four five years, and as per the predictions made by different veterans of the sector, more and more vacancies are going to come in the upcoming years.
Financial inclusion & large no of retirements in the sector had supplemented the vacancies to a higher level. It became an open secret that besides getting monetary benefit, other ads on like medical allowance, discounted loans for various purposes are also provided and that is why more and more youth are persuaded towards the sector. These had made the banking sector jobs more and more competitive as students who initially neglected banking jobs and are persuading the same now.  The toughness of the exam is also upgraded over the years, making it quite a difficult exam to crack. Even, I, myself had tried the exam 2-3 times before being actually got selected. So, only having a good educational background is not enough for getting through. A good analysis of the exam and a detailed planning are very necessary. Somebody said “planning is half of a success”. So, I am going to share my personal views with you, hope this will be beneficial for you guys.

1. The toughness of the exams can be categorized in following sequence, stating from the most toughest
• RBI grade B
• SBI PO
• NABARD
• RBI assistant
• PO exam (Commercial bank excluding RRBs)
• RRB PO
• SBI clerk
• Clerk exam (Commercial bank excluding RRBs)
• RRB clerk.
2. If we analyze the exam from time, it is seen that most of the exam is of 120 minute and the questions given is about 200 questions. The time for per question is about 36 sec. Now for general knowledge & computer knowledge it is possible to answer a question even in 10 sec. so that portion will going to save time. For the other sections if a decent practice is made, generally time taken by the math section is on an average above 70 sec, English takes 20 to 40 sec each and quantitative aptitude takes less than 30 sec to 50 sec each.
3. Since time is very limited, always be careful in selecting the questions; first select only those questions which you can work out just by having a glance on it.
4. Do not try to solve lengthy questions at the beginning, because this will consume lot of time in reading and understanding the question, and at the worst case you may unable to solve the same. So instead of wasting time on the question, keep it for solving letter.
5. Instead of attaching yourself to a particular section only, try to secure the cutoff marks for all the section and if time left than go to the easiest section to secure more.
6. Generally, English don’t contribute to your final score so you only need to pass in this section, so face the section in such a way that, when you become confident that you have solved questions enough to get through the section, leave it and move to the other section.
7. If you are not succeeded in one attempt, don’t lose your hope. The best thing you can do is to analyze the exam and try to figure out your weakest section, then find out some good books and prepare more in that section.
8. While practicing for a banking exam, always compete with the time. E.g. how much you can solve in 30 minutes. Suppose 24 questions and in the following day try to solve more.
9. For general studies you need to have a continuous study. Otherwise you won’t be able to make it. But instead of reading various news try to read the economic affairs more. My suggestion to you guys is to go through basic economics studies so that you can understand various economic terms and news. Always try to relate the news and think for its consequences. 
10. Continuous study is again very much necessary, from my view, three months continuous study of the subjects is sufficient to make you through. But what is needed is your continuous effort.
11. Try not to waste a single second while you are in the exam.
12. Instead of leaving the answer sheet to mark later, you could mark the answer sheet after solving each page of the question paper. This will help you in having a pause without wasting your time. You can even think of your further plan to tackle the exam.
13. But above all, you need desire to tackle the exam, all the above become useless, unless, you have desire to do the same. Somebody says. For success “you need talent and desire, but desire is first”
14. Try to use pen minimum while practicing, practicing black & white is always time consuming.
15. At the worst possible cases, you can guess the answers at least to some possible stage. Suppose, you guess 5 answers, in the worst possible case where all the answers become wrong you could lose 1.25 marks (deduction for each question is 0.25 marks), however, in the reversed case you could make 5 marks from the same questions. If you make at least one question correct, then the net effect of mark will be zero. So one against four. If you make one more question correct it will add up to you total. But I will advise to make guess answers only when you are satisfied that you have given enough correct answers. Otherwise guessing may become dangerous. 

Hope these suggestions will help you guys at least to some extent. Good luck.