Combined Strategy for IBPS RRB OS-I & Office Assistant 2017

You have around two months to
prepare for IBPS RRB Officer Scale-1
& Office Assistant Preliminary
examinations. We suggest you start your preparations immediately. Both Officer Scale-1 and Office Assistant Prelims have two
sections: Quantitative Ability & Reasoning and do not include the ‘English’
section like most bank exam prelims do. The following preparation strategy will
guide you through your preparation process.
Officer Scale-1 & Office Assistant 2017 Exam Pattern

Name of
the section
Number of
questions
Total
Marks
Duration
Quantitative Aptitude
40
40
45 Mins
Reasoning
40
40
Total
80
80
Officer Scale-1 & Office Assistant 2017 Study Material
Your preparation material should
be kept to a minimum. Following books are useful for concepts in Quant and
Reasoning:
  • Magical Book on Puzzle by K. Kundan
  • Analytical Reasoning by M.K. Pandey
  • Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT – Sarvesh
    K Verma
  • A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-verbal
    Reasoning by R.S. Aggarwal
  • Data Interpretation by K. Kundan
  • Quicker Maths by M. Tyra


Note on books: A lot of books containing
practice sets and previous year solved papers will have errors in them. We
suggest you buy ones that are most recommended and are free of errors.
Oliveboard provides concept
lessons, video lectures, topic tests, sectional
tests to practice questions and understand concepts better. These
preparation material are created by exam
toppers and experts after thorough research and analysis and
therefore contain questions from the latest exam pattern and latest syllabus.

Take a free trial here: IBPS
RRB Officer Scale-1 & Office Assistant Preparation Material

Officer Scale-1 & Office Assistant Syllabus

Important Quant topics:
Data Interpretation [Bar Graph,
Pie Chart, Table, Line Graph, Radar Chart, Mixed Graph], Number Series, Data
Sufficiency, Quadratic Equations, Problems on Ages, Partnership, Ratio &
Proportion, Percentage & Averages, Profit & Loss, Mixture &
Allegations, Simple Interest & Compound Interest, Work & Time, Time
& Distance, Boats & Streams, Simplification Approximation,
Important Reasoning topics:
Seating Arrangement [Circular
& Linear], Syllogism, Input Output, Coding Decoding, Alphanumeric Series, Ranking/Direction/Order,
Alphabet Test, Date Sufficiency, Coded Inequalities, Puzzles, Logical Reasoning,
Blood Relation, Data Sufficiency.
The above list is just indicative of the syllabus and isn’t an
exhaustive list. Refer to previous year exam papers and the official
notification to determine the syllabus.
Officer Scale-1 & Office Assistant 2017 Preparation Approach
Follow a systematic preparation
approach. Make a time table and stick to it. Allot specific time for Quant and
Reasoning topics and keep some time for revision.
Steps:
Start with the basics!

If your Math isn’t very good, we
suggest you first brush up your basics in math from NCERT Math textbooks of the 8th, 9th and the
10th grades. However, do not spend too much time on it. Do selective
practice of topics that will help you in your exam.
The reasoning section tests your mental abilities, problem-solving and
decision-making skills. This is something that requires time and a lot of
practice to master. However, for starters, we recommend you solve crossword
puzzles, sudoku, and other mind-benders to sharpen your skills.
Calculation speed:
To
save time, it’s important that you have a good calculation speed. It’s best to
perform basic calculations mentally to avoid the need for using rough sheets
during exam. Following are a few things you can do to increase your calculation
speed in math:
  • Learn quicker Addition, Subtraction,
    Multiplication and Division. These are used in almost every math problem
  • Learn Tables up to 20, Square roots up to 30
    and Cube roots up to 20
  • Follow the one-liner
    approach technique     for quicker
    Addition & Subtraction

While
learning these is important, it’s equally important to revise them multiple
times. Practice by writing these down in a practice workbook and revise them
regularly.
Learn the concepts

While it is important to learn
all the concepts of each topic, it is equally important to prepare them in an
order. We suggest this because most of the topics in Quant are interdependent.
Start with Ratio & Proportion,
Percentages and Interest for Quant section as you might require to apply
these concepts to other bigger topics.
Use your preparation material to
learn the concepts of every topic under the Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning sections. After learning each
concept, it is important that you practice 15-20 questions related to that
topic to master it. Follow this for every concept until you have exhausted the
syllabus.
A word on Shortcut Tricks:
We
suggest you learn shortcut techniques for topics only after you have mastered the conventional way of solving
them. It’s also important that you are selective
about the shortcut tricks you learn. There are hundreds of books available
in the market that teach you shortcut techniques. Learning all of them does not
make any sense and will only end up confusing you.
Therefore,
we recommend you learn only the most important shortcuts that will help you
arrive at solutions quicker. The key, is
to master both the conventional way of solving and solving using shortcut
techniques.
How
to learn the shortcut techniques?
You
can personalize your shortcut. Every
individual can device their own shortcuts based on their strengths and
weaknesses and understanding of the topics. We recommend you try and come up
with your own shortcut tricks. If and only if you can’t do that, refer to books
that contain shortcut techniques.
Do
not waste your time trying to learn all the formulas! Learn only the most
important ones.
Solve previous year question papers
Once you have understood all the
concepts of Quant and Reasoning thoroughly, solve the IBPS RRB Officer Scale-1 and Office Assistant previous year question
papers.
Why should you solve previous year papers?
  • It will help you
    understand the difficulty level and pattern of exam
  • Sometimes the
    questions from previous year papers might repeat this year
  • It will help
    you strategize your time for the exam

We suggest you refer to fully
solved previous year papers as it will give you a chance to analyze the
solutions and find the one that works best for you.
Take Mock Tests

We cannot emphasize enough on the
importance of mock tests for IBPS RRB Officer Scale-1 and Office Assistant Exams. You need to take Mock Tests on every step of
your preparation process:
  • Take one mock
    test before you start learning your concepts to assess your performance
  • Take sectional
    mock tests after each practice session to measure your progress
  • Take mock tests
    after learning the concepts and solving previous year papers to identify your
    strong and weak areas. Work on your weak areas by practicing more questions
    from those topics and retake the mock tests to check your improvement.

Take a sample mock test for free:
IBPS RRB Officer Scale-1 & Officer Assistant Mock Tests

Improve speed and accuracy
Once you’re confident about all
the topics, use mock tests to improve your speed and accuracy.
  • Take an IBPS RRB Mock Test
  • Determine your
    speed and accuracy: The mock tests analytics feature provides an in-depth
    analysis of your performance. It tells you your speed and accuracy for each
    topic. Use this information to practice those topics to improve your speed and
    accuracy in those topics and also your overall speed and accuracy.
  • Retake the test
    after your practice to measure your progress
  • Repeat this
    till you achieve a decent speed and accuracy across all the topics.

Save the above strategy and use
it as a handy guide during your IBPS RRB
Officer Scale-1 and Office Assistant Exam Preparation.
We wish you all the very best!