The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection or IBPS is a government recruitment agency that hires and places job seekers in various positions in the public banking sector. This institute sets the qualifying IBPS exams that play a pivotal role in determining the right candidates for the roles.
Therefore, aspiring banking candidates need to understand the IBPS syllabus in detail so that they can crack the exams and land in the appropriate banking role.
Here are some essential things you should know about the IBPS examination process and syllabus:
Examination Process
There are two levels in the IBPS examination – one is the written exam, and another is an interview. The participants who pass and qualify in the written exam are eligible to attend the interview. The written exam consists of two levels of the IBPS preliminary exam and the IBPS main exam. Again, here the participants must clear the prelims level to write the main exam.
While the preliminary exam scores are not accounted for in the final selection process, it is required for you to make the cut-off to qualify for the main exam. The marks scored in the main exams account for 80%, while the interview accounts for 20% to be finally selected for the role.
IBPS Syllabus for Preliminary Exam
The IBPS Prelims consists of objective questions worth 100 marks totally with a maximum duration of 1 hour. It consists of three sections – Quantitative Aptitude, English, and Reasoning. Each section is allotted 20 minutes each and cannot be swapped in between to finish. Every wrong answer carries a negative marking of 0.25.
Candidates are required to clear the sectional and overall cut off of the prelims to move to the next main level. The sectional and aggregate cut-off is generally determined based on the candidates’ category, number of applicants, number of vacancies, the difficulty level of the exam, and the performance of the candidates. To get a fair idea of the cut-offs, candidates may check the previous year’s category-wise cut-off scores.
IBPS Main Exam Syllabus
The main examination is for a total of 200 marks with 200 questions and a time duration of 2 hours. It has more sections, including:
- Reasoning and Computer Aptitude
- English
- Quantitative Aptitude
- General Awareness
Finally, the examination ends with a descriptive test that constitutes letter writing and essay for 25 marks with a time allocation of 30 minutes. The most challenging portion of the test is the Quantitative section, which focuses on data interpretation and other basic numerical concepts.
As far as the English section is concerned, candidates are tested for a good grip on the language. On the other hand, the reasoning section focuses on problem-solving skills with varied topics of series, sequences, syllogism, etc. The general awareness test is where candidates will be tested on their knowledge of the Indian economy and current financial affairs.
- The first step to passing out with flying colours in the IBPS exams is to know about the IBPS syllabus and focus on the sections that you are relatively weaker in and work your way up. Also, consider writing IBPS PO mock exams to get a real feel of the tests.
