The State Bank of India released a notification of SBI PO recruitment. SBI Probationary Officer post is the most prestigious positions in the most leading banks of India. It is a dream job majority of graduates each year. The SBI PO notification has been released on 21st April 2018. The SBI PO recruitment process is carried out in 3 stages namely preliminary, Mains and the final stage is personal interview. The candidates are required to qualify in all the stages however, the score of Mains, as well as performance in GD/Personal Interview will be taken into consideration for the final selection. The Preliminary exam is conducted online and is scheduled on 1st, 7th & 8th July 2018. The selection is based on merit. This article provides SBI PO Prelims exam pattern, syllabus and the section-wise tips.

SBI PO Prelims Exam Pattern:

This is the first stage of SBI PO recruitment process. This is conducted online for 100 marks and the duration is 60 Minutes. The test contains 3 sections and the candidates must clear cut-off in each section to get qualified in this stage and move to the Mains exam. There is a negative marking of 1/3rd mark for each wrong answer. The exam pattern is below:

S.No.	Name of Tests(Objective)	No. of Questions	Maximum Marks	Duration
1	English Language	30	30	Composite time of 1 Hour
2	Numerical Ability	35	35
3	Reasoning Ability	35	35
Total		100	100

 

SBI PO Prelims Syllabus:

The SBI PO syllabus is basically issued as broad subjects though there may be subdivisions into individual topics. It is given below:

English Language	Numerical Ability	Reasoning Ability
Reading Comprehension	Number Series	Puzzle and Arrangements
Cloze Test	Simplification/ Approximation	Inequality
Parajumbles	Quadratic Equations	Syllogism
Spotting Errors	Data Interpretation	Coding – Decoding
Sentence Improvement	Miscellaneous	Blood Relations
Fill in the Blanks		Direction sense
		Order and Ranking

 

SBI PO Prelims Section-wise tips:

 

English:

Firstly, let us begin with the English section. This is an easier section and can be finished in less time too. The candidates who are well equipped with the English language can manage with good marks in this section, otherwise it will be difficult for those who may ignore during preparation.

1. You must rewind your memory to prepare for this section. You must be well prepared with the basics.
2. Read Newspapers, magazines on a daily basis. Try to highlight the difficult words and find out the usage, synonym and antonyms. The preparation in this section will help you till the end of your selection. Solve the vocabulary section from the previous model papers.
3. Understand the concepts like Tenses, Articles, Prepositions, Degrees of Comparison, Subject-Verb Agreement, Conjunctions, Parts of Speech, Standard Construction, Adverbs, Number in Nouns, etc. These are the basics.
4. Reading comprehension is one topic which may consume your time if you are slow at reading. Read the passages relating to Finance, Banking and Economy, Geo-Politics, Social Issues, Business etc. Practice such passages and also the one from the model papers.
5. The questions on incomplete sentence, word substitutes, fill in the blanks, odd one out etc., fall under Verbal ability section. Practice questions on these topics.

 

Preparing for each individual topic with the help of previous question papers and mock tests for SBI PO will help to a great extent.

 

Quantitative Aptitude (Numerical Ability):

This is the toughest of all the sections. You really need to pull up your sleeves and make a good preparation to get the cut-off score. This section evaluates your numeric ability and problem-solving skills.

1. You must be well equipped with the fastness and accuracy in solving questions on Ratio and Proportion, Average, Speed and Distance, Time and Work, Number Series, Data Interpretation, Quadratic Equations, and Simplification.
2. Practice from the model papers, mock tests should help in improving your score, speed and accuracy.

Reasoning Ability:

This section is also considered as the scoring section just like English. It evaluates your puzzle-solving aptitude.

1. The questions will be logical, prepare for topics such as Syllogism, Puzzles, Seating Arrangement, Coding-Decoding, Ranking and Order, etc.
2. The scoring chapters are Ordering and ranking, Arrangement & Pattern, Analogy, Binary Logic. Practice at least 20 questions on Arrangement & Pattern as well as Random Alphabet Sequences, 40 questions on Analogy each on Number based analogies, Letter based, GK based and Meaning based analogies and 60 questions on Binary Logic.  Practice 50 questions on Directions & distances and blood relations.

These topics are decent preparation for Reasoning Ability.

 

Follow this section-wise tips to crack the Prelims. The preparation strategy and tips are provided here after a thorough analysis and also expert opinion.