SBI will be coming up with its notification of filling a number of vacancies of clerical jobs. To give you an idea, the number of vacancies was 5,000 last time. This time, the number of vacancies will be somewhere around the same number. Lakhs of aspirants will be applying for these vacancies. It is imperative that you need to outshine your competitors to face the first level of the shortlisting process i.e. SBI Clerk 2021 prelims exam. In contrast with the mains exam which is more a test of the application of concepts, the prelims exam is a game of speed and you need to be really fast in deciding which question to attempt and which one to skip. Needless to say, you need to solve questions fast as well.
Evaluate SBI Clerk Exam Pattern & Previous Year Cut-offs
There will be 30 questions in the English section and 35 questions each in the Reasoning & Numerical Ability sections for which you will be given 20 minutes per section. Please note that there are sectional time limits in place so you need to prepare yourself to harness each section completely before you are allowed to move to the next section.
If you have observed the previous year cut-offs, the sectional cut-offs are not very difficult to achieve. It’s the overall cut-off that goes really high and to achieve which you need to capitalize on the sections which are your strengths. In fact, you need to be excellent in 1 or 2 sections and good in the remaining ones. Identify your strengths and see that you are taking full advantage of them. At the same time, keep working on the sections you are not so good at. Please bear in mind that this is the golden time for you to burn the midnight oil and get an entry to the path of a rewarding career. Let’s have a look at the preparation strategy you need to follow for each of the sections.
Section-wise Preparation Tips
English Language
English is one section in which a lot of aspirants face difficulty. Take a lot of quizzes to brush up on your skills in this section. Practice a lot of questions on topics like Reading Comprehension, Para Jumbles, Error Spotting, Cloze Test, Fill in the Blanks etc. Also, read editorials on a daily basis to improve your vocabulary and reading speed. An improved vocabulary will directly help you in questions based on synonym-antonyms apart from helping you in RC, Cloze Test etc. On the other hand, increased reading speed will help you particularly in reading RC passages quickly. Make sure to practice one sectional test on a regular basis. You can take the quizzes on the English Section as well to keep evaluating yourself periodically.
Numerical Ability
As already stated, prelims is a game of speed and when it comes to the numerical ability section, you have to be cautious about your calculative skills as a negative marking of 0.25 mark per incorrectly answered question is in place. Practice is the key skill to master this section. Practice rigorously on topics like Number Series, Data Interpretation, Data Sufficiency, Quadratic Equations & Simplification/ Approximation. These topics are easy to answer in a short time provided you are comfortable with the concepts and have practised a lot of questions beforehand. Please bear in mind that practising a lot and seeing different ways of solving the same questions enables you to develop your own shortcuts. These shortcuts will be a saviour in this section. Ensure that you solve a sectional test on a regular basis. Also, keep solving the quizzes on the Quants Section to see how much you are able to score.
Reasoning
As the name indicates, this section is all about logic. Get a crystal-clear conceptual understanding of topics like Coding-decoding, Direction Sense, Blood Relations, Ordering and Ranking, Inequalities, Syllogism, Input-output, Data Sufficiency and Puzzles. Practice is once again the key here. Solve a sectional test on reasoning on a regular basis and check out the topics which take time / you are finding difficult to solve. Give some extra time to these topics to make the maximum out of this section. You can also solve Reasoning Quizzes for your practice.
Keep Practicing Mock Tests for a continuous appraisal
Apart from solving 3 sectional tests and quizzes, you can solve PracticeMock Mock Tests which encompasses all the 3 sections and provide you with a simulation of the actual test. You also get an All India Ranking to help you understand how much more effort you need to put in to be in the top slot. The report which you get highlights your weak areas for you to work on and improve upon those. Continuously practising via mock tests will definitely help you achieve your dream-job. This is all from us in this article. Wishing you all the best for your preparation!
