Dear readers,

We at PaGaLGuY wish you the very
best for your upcoming exams! Believe in yourself, be confident and attempt the
test with a relaxed mind. Do not get too worried in these last few hours before
your exam. Revise the important formulas once and then ensure that you have sufficient
rest so that you are able to give the test with a fresh mind. And, be confident
that your preparation will be enough to ensure that you clear the cutoffs.

Expected cutoff:

The IBPS PO prelims is being
conducted for the first time this year. It is expected that the cutoff for this
test would be around 40 to 45 for general category candidates. This estimation
is based on the cutoff for SBI PO prelims 2015. The cutoff for SBI PO prelims
this year was 47.75.

Also note that the sectional
cutoff in SBI PO prelims was 5.75 for English Language, 5.75 for Quantitative
Aptitude and 9.25 for Reasoning Ability. Accordingly, in the IBPS PO prelims,
sectional cutoffs in these three subjects should be around 5 to 6 marks for
English and for Quant and 8 to 10 for Reasoning.  

Do note that this expected cutoff
is based on the assumption that the difficulty level of IBPS PO prelims this
year would be similar to the difficulty level of this year’s SBI PO prelims
exam. If the difficulty level of IBPS PO prelims is similar to the difficulty
level of this year’s SBI PO prelims then the cutoff for IBPS PO prelims should
be around this range.

Your target:

Now that you know the likely
cutoffs, you can plan your approach during your exam. First of all, ensure that
you divide time equally (roughly) across all sections. Remember, that you need
to clear the sectional cutoffs in each section. Hence, you cannot ignore any
section. For prelims, you may give 20 to 25 mins to Quant, 20 minutes to
Reasoning and 15 to 20 mins to English. Overall, you should attempt around 60+
questions, with around 20 attempts in each section.

Also, start the exam with your
strongest section. This will ensure that you gain confidence and speed right
from the start of the test.

Section-wise approach:

In each of the sections, you
should chose those 20 questions that you can solve quickly and accurately. Do
not think that you have to solve the first question that you read or the first
5 questions that you read. Instead, remember that in each section you only have
to attempt around 20 questions – which means that you can reject 10 to 15 tough
or time-taking questions in each section. After you have solved the 20 easy
questions in each section, if you still have extra time left, you may then
solve some of the tough/time-taking questions that you had left out earlier.

Let us now look at how you can
choose these 20 easy questions in each section.

Quantitative aptitude:

The possible break-up of the
quant section is: DI – 10 questions, Quadratic equations – 5, Arithmetic and
others – 10, Number series – 5, Simplification – 5 questions (based on SBI PO
prelims pattern).

Now, out of these questions, if
you are careful with your calculations, you can easily attempt 7 to 8 DI
questions accurately. Similarly, you should be able to attempt at least around
5 to 7 questions from questions based on Arithmetic, etc. Finally, you should
be able to try around 5 to 7 questions from the Number Series + Simplification
portion. This should easily give you a total of 20 attempts in around 20 to 25
minutes. Do note that in this approach we have completely ignored the quadratic
equation portion, which may appear complicated to some students. Also note that
DI questions can be time-taking but can be attempted with very high accuracy
since they do not require any advanced formulas or complicated logic.

English language:

The possible break-up of this
section is: RC – 10, Cloze test/Fill in the blanks – 5, Para jumbles – 5,
Sentence Improvement – 5, Spot the error – 5 questions.

In this section, RC would
typically include at least 3 to 5 questions based on vocabulary only.
Similarly, Cloze test/ Fill in the blanks largely depend purely on vocabulary
only. Out of these 8 to 10 vocab-based questions, you should be able to attempt
at least 6 to 8 questions quickly. Similarly, try to attempt at least around 7
to 8 questions from the Sentence Improvement + Spot the error portion. From
Para jumbles, try to identify at least the first and the last sentence. That is
relatively simple to do and would fetch you another two attempts. This itself
gives you close to 20 attempts (in less time, since vocabulary questions would
not be time-taking). Note that to solve vocab-based questions from the RC
portion, you may not need to read the passage, which would again save you some
time.

Reasoning:

The possible break-up of this
section is:  Syllogism, Coding-Decoding,
Inequality, Blood Relations and others – 5 questions each, Arrangement – 5
questions, 2 Puzzles – 5 questions each (based on SBI prelims pattern).

In this section, out of the 20
questions from the Syllogism, Coding-Decoding, Inequality, Blood Relations and
others portion, try to attempt at least around 15 questions. These are
standalone questions typically and are not very time-taking. After this, look
at the Puzzles, Arrangement portion and pick the set that appears easiest to
you. Solve the 5 questions from that set and that’s it – you have got 20
attempts in this section as well.

The above is one suggested
approach that can help you manage your time effectively, maximize your number
of attempts and hence, clear the Prelims. Based on which topics you are strong
in, you can come up with your own approach. Do plan out your approach in
advance so that you are fully prepared for the test. Also, do note that the
pattern of IBPS PO prelims may be somewhat different from that of SBI PO
prelims. Be mentally prepared to change your approach according to the actual
pattern of your test. This will ensure that you are still able to get 20
attempts per section and 60+ attempts overall and will ensure that you are able
to clear the prelims.

Once again, Team PaGaLGuY wishes
you the very Best of Luck!!!