Aug 19, 2018, isn’t too far away when IBPS will test your skills for the profile of Office Assistant. It being prelims, it is more of a rejection test than a selection test. And there is a reason for it. For 5,249 vacancies tens of lakhs of aspirants appear, out of which around 2 lakh gets shortlisted for the mains exam. Now to get qualified for the mains exam, you need to work really hard at this point in time. Assuming that you have already worked on your basics and are thorough with the shortcuts, it’s high time that you indulge in three tasks: practicing, reviewing what went wrong and working on the weak areas.
Mock tests are the need of the hour
Only 12 days are left now and a systematic practice backed with proper analysis can work wonders. And for this mock tests are perfect tool. Not only they simulate exam-like conditions, they also highlight the area you didn’t do well. The tests provide your rank vis-a-vis other test takers as well so that you know how much more efforts you need to put. If you did any question incorrectly, the analysis provides detailed solutions to ensure that you don’t repeat the same mistake in the actual examination.
A quick review of the examination
Let’s have a quick review of the examination pattern and cutoffs. There will be 40 questions each from Reasoning Ability and Quantitative Aptitude which you need to answer in an aggregate time of 45 minutes. Each question carries 1 mark. So a total of 80 questions need to be answered in 45 minutes giving you around 33-34 seconds for each question. The sectional cutoffs were 10.75 and 12.75 for Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability in 2017 respectively. The overall cutoff ranged from 50.75 to 67.00 (depending upon the respective state).
Come up with a strategy
By now you must have got an idea about your strengths and weaknesses in both of the sections. Try solving questions from those topics which you can do easily. Since there is an even distribution of marks you should try to solve questions in such a way that a maximum number of questions are solved with high accuracy in minimum time. Try different strategies in different mock tests and after 12-14 tests stick to one strategy. Please remember that you don’t have to solve each and every question as there is a negative marking of 0.25 marks per incorrectly answered question in place. Also, the fact that this exam is just qualifying in nature and marks of this exam will not be included in the final merit list. So the focus should be on clearing the cutoffs.
On the penultimate day
Avoid taking any mock test on Aug 18, 2018. You have done what you could have done. Now it’s the time to relax and to stay calm so that you can give your best the next day. You can revise shortcuts/formulas. Last but not the least, be ready with the below and don’t keep anything pending for the last minute:
- Admit card
- A photograph (same as that on the admit card)
- Original ID proof and its photocopy
All the best!
We wish you ‘best of luck’ and hope these tips would definitely help you in clearing the exam.
