Congratulations to all those who have cleared SBI Prelims!
By now, All those students who have been selected for Mains must be rigorously preparing and taking ample number of Mock Tests, leaving no stone unturned.I hope, all of you do revise your General Awareness,Computer Awareness and Marketing Awareness Section on daily basis, to score well in that Game-Changer Section.
So, What are the scores you are getting in your mock tests ?
Are you getting 150+ in each mock test you attempt ?
Or Are you barely able to touch 100 ?
Or in worst case, you never get to cross that 80 number in any of your mock test?
Any of the category, you fall into, One thing you all must be doing and that is ‘IMPROVEMENT.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN OBSTACLES YOU FACE WHILE ATTEMPTING A MOCK ?
1.General Awareness Phobia. What if that goes Bad ?
You start with a General Awareness Section, and You tend to mark only around 25-30 with more than 90% accuracy, then you feel lethargy envelopes you in the entire mock, because you were not that fluent in this section. And this attitude will kill your enthusiasm for challenging sections like Data Interpretation, beacause, somewhere you accept your defeat even before the War begins.
SOLUTION : Please Be well prepared for General Awareness Section. This is most important to keep your energies high for the Real Battle.
And God forbid, Even After preparing GA well, you somehow end up marking only few correct answers, then Remember, Act like a brave warrior, Fight till the end. Who knows where you will grab those extra marks to clear that overall cut-off.
2.English Section: How much I should donate to thie seemingly easy section ?
Most of the students tend to follow a definite pattern to attempt an exam, i.e General Awareness , then Reasoning, then Quantitative Aptitude, and then English.
Well, I believe, There is no particular pattern for a Good Score, All you need to take care of, is your balanced approach to each Section.
Say, According to the most popular pattern, You attempt English at the end, then How much time you normally take for English ?
20 minutes ? 30 minutes ? Or more ? Or You never cared ?
SOLUTION : See, SBI PO MAINS may throw (with more than 90% chances) 2 Big Passages for Reading Comprehension Section, for straight 20 Questions, i.e 20 marks and attempting both these 2 passages is quite a ‘MUST’ for the Good Score.
Reality Check : Whats your Reading Speed ? Are you comfortable reading lengthy passages quickly, comprehend the gist of the passage, then answer the questions with a good accuracy ?
How much time you need to be sure of 20 marks in your pocket ?
Ideally, its 10 minutes per passage. Do you take more than that ?
Or you never cared to look at the ticking clock while you read ?
I assume, you are familiar with your Reading Comprehension Strength. Thus suggesting you the way, it should be done.
See, 10 minutes per passage, roughly 21 minutes for both passages. Rest Cloze Test, should be done in 5 minutes, even less! Believe me, its a free ride in English Section, only if you know the trick behind.(Observe the overall paragraph, see its context, grasp the theme, then go for quick filling of the blanks)
Then Fill in the blanks, Find the correct sentence, Parajumbled Sentences combined should not take more than 10 minutes.
How much time we took ?
36 minutes ?
Again, there is no Nazi Rule for timings, whatever you feel comfortable with is Best. But you should be aware of your strengths and time Consumption for each Section.
Never Go in Exam Hall, without any Strategy!
3.Data Interpretation : I always tend to be slower in this section, still score pathetic. How should I prepare ?
You belong to the majority of those, who find Data Interpretation quite tough, or rather Big Headache in all these Competitive Examinations.
Ideally, your main aim in this section should be just to clear the Cut-Off, and score heavily in other sections, But a million Dollar Question,, Do we know the Cut-Offs For Data Interpretation ?
Accurately, NO ! Approximately, YES !
If I tell you, that cut off for this section will go to 40. Will you trust me ?
Definitely No.
See, I am not underestimating the power of the Common Man for solving Data Interpretation.
But Aim here, is not solving Data Interpretation but scoring Maximum in the Overall Exam.
Let me cut short myself,
Follow these steps for Data Interpretation,
a.Allot roughly 35 minutes for this section.
b.Find the Set with easy looking numbers, (Do I need to explain, what those easy looking numbers are ?)
c.If you won’t be able to find such sets, Try looking for simple looking Tabulations/Pie Charts/Line Graphs, and solve accurately.
d.Do not make blind guesses.
e.God forbid, if you can’t find any of these things, Try solving Ratio/percentage/Comparison based Questions from different sets. These are most easy questions to solve.
f.By the time, your 35 minutes end, You should have done 25 questions with more than 90% accuracy.
If you are just too good in Data Interpretation and thus not satisfied with the number of questions I suggested you to solve, Please go ahead and solve more.Again, there is no definite rule for Section wise time and Section wise Questions.
4.Reasoning related Queries : Do you really have queries in this section ?
Please Practice more. Trust me, its hell of an easy section.
You should be aiming for 40+ in this section. If you are scoring any lesser in your mock tests, then Reality Check is must for you.
Answer these few questions and analyse your strengths and weaknesses.
No doubt, there is little time left for you to cover all topics but still atleast you can brush up your basics.
Rearrangement Questions Sets is a free ride of this section. Please Do attempt with 100% accuracy.
Syllogisms should be a cake walk for everyone who has cleared SBI Prelims.
Many people tend to avoid solving Input/Output based Questions, but again this section allows you to skip your major weaknesses and concentrate only on your strengths.
What else from this section ? Inference based,Assumptions based, Relationship based, all kind of stuff should not make you worried about this section.
Keep Scoring High!
All the best :)
Affairs Cloud Team
