Banking-Cracking Bank PO Exams

Government Jobs 
With over 18 million employees, government sector still accounts for over half of the total employees in the organized sector in India. And for millions of graduates and diploma holders in non-metros, a public sector job is still a passport to financial security, social status and general well being. Lakhs of people every year sit for hundreds of examinations conducted by a host of agencies for that elusive government job. 

Recruitments in the government sector happen at four levels. The central government recruits through the Union Public Service Commission and the state governments through their own public service commissions. The public sector undertakings and autonomous institutions recruit either individually or through centralized recruitment boards on an allIndia basis. 

And recruitments in the public sector are diverse. Fromgardner to advisor, government recruits for various job profiles and at all levels of responsibilities. The entry requirements, selection process, catchment area, and eligibility requirements are amazingly diverse. 

·        Cracking Bank PO

·        Banking offers excellent upward mobility. Most of the CMDs began as POs and climbed up the career ladder.

            Banking sector in India has been one of the preferred destinations for employment. A career in banking assures well paid, secure and satisfying career prospects. Unlike the banks in USA and some other developed countries, Indian banks have proved to be rock-solid and have remained virtually unaffected by the global meltdown in banking industry. Banks have now diversified their activities and are getting into new products and services including credit cards, consumer finance, wealth management, insurance, investment banking, mutual funds, pension fund regulation, stock-broking services etc. Indian banks are going global, setting up offices in foreign countries and offer opportunities in a global arena.

      Employment opportunities 
Banking sector was one of the largest job providers in the country in 2008-09 with over 50,000 vacancies being notified and 2009-10 is likely be an encore! Banking industry provides entry opportunity at clerical and officer levels. The Probationary Officer (PO) is the entry-level position in the managerial cadre in banking industry. Most of the current chairman-cum-managing directors of the public sector banks have joined as PO and risen to the highest level in the bank hierarchy. Each bank has a separate process of selection for the POs. Some use only the exam, some others an interview too. Not surprisingly, every bank PO exam attracts lakhs of graduates, postgraduates and professionals who want to grab one of few hundreds or thousands of vacancies notified. 

     Recruitment

    With the abolition of the Banking Service Recruitment Boards, Probationary Officers are now recruited directly by the Nationalised Banks. Each Bank, or an outside agency hired by the Bank for this purpose, will issue advertisements for appointment to the Officer's cadre in all leading dailies and Employment News. The examinations are held at various Centres; all state capitals are usually included as Centres. Candidates should study the Notifications for complete details of the examination requirements. 

      Minimum Educational Qualification

      A graduate degree from a recognised University or any equivalent qualification recognised as such by the Government of India. 

      Age Limit

            Between 21 and 30 years as on the specified date notified in the advertisement. In some cases the age limits          may vary. The relaxation of the upper age limit is available for SC/ST and OBC candidates, 

        Ex- servicemen/Commissioned Officers and visually/Orthopaedically handicapped candidates, subject to 

certain conditions.

Reservation

Appointment of candidates belonging to reserved categories will be as per directives of the GoI.

Selection Procedure

All eligible candidates whose applications are received on or before the

prescribed date will be called for a written test, which will be of both

the Objective and Descriptive types. The State Bank of India has a two-

Tier system in which only those candidates successful in Tier I can

appear in the Tier II Test.

Candidates must pass the Objective and Descriptive Tests separately

as per cut-off marks determined on the basis of Group Performance

in each Test, subject to certain specified minimums. Depending upon

the number of vacancies, only those candidates who rank sufficiently

high in the written examination will be called for Group Discussion and

Interview.

Final selection will be on the basis of the aggregate marks obtained

by the candidates in the written test and interview and shall be strictly

based on merit.

How to Apply

Applications should be neatly typed or legibly handwritten (including

the particulars to be furnished) as specified and in the format given in

the advertisement. The application, complete in all respects, should be

submitted to the Bank or to the recruiting agency as indicated in

the advertisement.

Objective-type Test

Candidates will normally be given a composite test booklet consisting

of four tests: (1) Test of General Awareness, (2) Test of English

Language, (3) Test of Quantitative Aptitude and (4) Test of Reasoning.

The tests may be attempted in any order. However, candidates are

advised in their own interest, not to spend too much time on any one

test, since, to qualify in the written examination, a candidate must pass

in each of the four tests separately.

The total number of questions in the above four tests will be about

200, for which a total duration of two hours will be given. The

number of questions in each test varies from bank to bank.

Some Banks have introduced segments in the Objective Test like

marketing knowledge/attitude and socio-economic & Banking awareness

to accentuate Banking Operations.

The Tests of General Awareness, Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude

will be both in Hindi and English. Of course, the Test of English will

be set in English alone and must also be answered only in English.

The Descriptive Paper: Besides the four objective type tests, candidates

have to answer a 60 minute Descriptive Paper, either in English or Hindi.

Scope of Objective Tests:

Assessment of general academic ability, general awareness and

job aptitudes.

(i) Test of General Awareness: Designed to give an index of the

candidate’s awareness of people and events, past and

present, in different walks of life and on recent socio - economic

developments.

(ii) Test of English Language: Designed to evaluate how well a

candidate knows English usage. English language ability is tested

through questions on grammar, vocabulary, sentence

completion, errors in sentences, syntax, synonyms, antonyms,

comprehension of passages etc.

(iii) Test of Quantitative Aptitude: Designed to measure how

fast and accurate a candidate is in dealing with numbers, viz, in

computation, quantitative aptitudes, reasoning and interpretation

of tables and graphs.

(iv) Test of Reasoning: Designed to assess how well a candidate

can think and reason out in questions of various kinds. There

may be problems in the form of figures, designs and drawings.

These may be of three types i.e. (i) series, (ii) analogies and

(iii) classification.

Scope of Descriptive Paper

The Descriptive Paper is designed to measure a candidate's higher

order cognitive abilities such as comprehension and analysis of situations,

generation of unique ideas or concepts, assessment of knowledge of

socio-economic developments, communication skills, etc.

The paper may consist of four or five questions out of which the

candidate will be expected to answer the required number of questions

within the given duration. The questions are in English and Hindi with

the option to answer in English or Hindi. Answers are to be restricted

to the space provided on the question-cum-answer sheet. The use of

supplementary sheets is not allowed.

In the Descriptive Paper some banks include letter writing, essay writing,

precis writing etc. to test the candidates' proficency in the English

language. 

Maurya's Career Academy covers the entire syllabus.

 A list of the main topics that are covered is as follows:

1. Test of Reasoning/Mental Ability/Aptitude:

This section usually tries to test the reasoning abilities and mental aptitude of the candidate. 

Questions are asked mainly from the following categories.

VERBAL

• Number Series
• Alphabet Series
• Test of Direction Sense
• Coding-Decoding
• Number Ranking
• Arithmetical Reasoning
• Problem on Age Calculation
• Blood Relations
• Analogy
• Decision Making etc.

NON-VERBAL

• Non Verbal Series
• Mirror Images
• Cubes and Dice
• Grouping Identical Figures
• Embedded Figures etc

2. Quantitative Aptitude:

This section tests the quantitative and mathematical skills of the candidate.

Questions are asked mainly from the following categories.

• Number System
• HCF, LCM
• Simplification
• Decimal Fractions
• Ratio and Proportions
• Unitary Method
• Time and Distance
• Percentage
• Profit and Loss
• Time and Work
• Average
• Simple and Compound Interest
• Mensuration (2D and 3D)
• Algebra
• Data Interpretation

3. English:

This section is designed to test the language abilities and understanding of English grammar. Questions are asked mainly from the following categories.

• Verb
• Adverb
• Error Correction
• Subject Verb Agreement
• Tenses
• Sentence Rearrangement
• Fill in the Blanks with Modals, Articles etc
• Comprehension
• Answering questions based on Unseen Passages
• Vocabulary
• Synonyms
• Antonyms

4. General Awareness:

This section is checks whether the candidate keep himself/herself up to date with the world around them.

Questions are asked mainly from the following categories.

• Current Affairs (National and International)
• Major Financial/Economic News
• Budget and Five Year Plans
• Who's Who
• Sports
• Awards and Honours
• Books ans Authors
• Science - Inventions and Discoveries
• Abbreviations
• Important Days
• International and National Organisations

5. Computers

6. Marketing

7.Sample Papers and Previous Question Papers

NOTE:

Syllabus may vary from Bank to Bank and from Time to Time. However this

broadly covers all the topics one should prepare for Bank PO Examination. This syllabus

 is valid for Bank Probationary Officer Recruitment Exam conducted by

State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BOB), Allahabad Bank, ICICI, Corporation

Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and other national banks.