IBPS PO IV Exam Review and Detailed Strategy

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Hello Everyone, I am Navneet Singh and want to share my experience of IBPS PO-IV Online Exam of 12th October 2014. I appeared in the Morning Shift of the exam at Gurdaspur, Punjab. This was my second serious attempt in IBPS PO. Last time I was not able to clear the cut off, obviously due to insufficient preparation. I want to share my experiences so far and performance in today’s exam.

About Me :  I am software professional, a B.Tech graduate and have 3 years of work experience in a software firm as Business analyst. Last year Feb I quit my job being disappointed with the work culture. I am not saying that all software firms have similar culture but in my case I had some not so good experiences. I have been an average student in my education career or you can say just like many of you who are not just perfect in anything particular but have little knowledge about everything. Soon when I started my preparation I realized that I lag in almost all the topics asked in any competitive exam and cannot say that this is my strong point. But my family had a great belief in me that I will crack the exam in one go. But I knew my inside that it doesn’t looked so possible like a cake walk being weak in all sections. Slowly I started preparing used to get demotivated many times but had support from couple of my friends and family. I would like to add here that I am almost cut from outer world and only few friends to count on when I need them. Second thing I do always read a success story from Gr8ambitionz.com , which really used to give me a spark. If they can, I too can.Last year I failed in PO but cleared IBPS clerk but that too by just 1 mark, which obviously was of no worth to me. Without losing any hope, I carried on preparing for this exam. My list of failure is really long in competitive exams but this time I am expecting something worth for my efforts.

Exam Review & Strategy: I have been appearing in several full mocks in last one month which really helped me in identifying overall current position and weak spots. On the basis of my mock test analysis done by me, I followed a strategy for IBPS PO exam.  I attempted the paper in this sequence Computer-GK-Eng-Reasoning-Quant Aptitude. My clear aim was to attempt those sections first in which I was scoring good during mocks and then gradually move on to weaker sections. Then next thing I did was selecting question which I am going to attempt especially in Reasoning and Quant. At present Quant is my weakest section. I devoted time in individual section like this: Comp-5 Min,Gk-15 Min,Eng-30 Min,Reasoning-40 Min, Quant-30 Min.

Computer : I started with this section and found it very easy. I had gone through all the sets provided by Gr8ambitionz and previous content on computer provided by them. Also followed basic computer fundamental book from my graduation first semester. I think it’s more than enough for anyone to score good.

My attempt: 17

GK : Almost 70% question asked in this section is already provided in this site. I followed this site content (Capsules and sets) along with current magazines available in market for GK. This time IBPS is also asking current as well as banking in equal weight age. Like if 15 questions were from current than 15 were from basic banking and remaining 10 you can say general awareness.

My attempt: 29

English : The real fight begins here. You will find dual passage. But as I told it was pre-decided by me, to attempt selected questions only. I started with cloze test, error detection, para-jumbles and then finally passage. In passage I attempted word meaning similar/opposite first. You have to be smart in selecting the passage, as one is very long passage and one is short. The very long passage was on organization growth and the shorter one was on Economy. Economy passage is not simple to understand so I opted for the organization one. Did almost all question from the passage except one or two.

My attempt-27

Reasoning :As expected it was of high level, they asked Syllogisms in a different way than usual. One needs to directly mark the conclusions. Also, there were possibility based, Sitting Arrangement, Puzzle, Inequalities, Assumptions etc. I planned to attempt Input-output, puzzle, inequalities, syllogism, Assumption and sitting arrangements.

My attempt-34

Quantitative Aptitude: My biggest hurdle in the exam was this section. When I reached to this part, I had only a few minutes left. I had planned to attempt only DI and Quadratic equation questions. Spending two I reviewed the paper and decided which question I am going to do. At this level I was feeling a bit nervous and praying GOD please just help me clear cut-off at least. This section was really tough this time as compared to last year. No straight question in DI, almost all question with heavy calculations. I would recommend to students weak in this section to focus on other section to increase marks and try just to clear the cut off here.

My attempt-13 :(

I am pretty sure now to clear cut off in all sections but have a little worry in maths looking into the less number of attempts. I wish if I could have been able to do couple more questions in maths. But still I guess there is a Hope. My total attempts are 120, a very genuine effort from my side to clear the exam. Hope for the best.

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