Study Plan: IBPS PO

General Awareness
1) General guidelines
a) Study the following topics with emphasis on understanding concepts. Avoid mugging of data and dates
b) These points below are given in decreasing order of importance. Meaning, you should focus on point 2 and 3
before you focus on point 4. You can cover points 2 and 3 properly in about 40-60 hours of study and this should
be enough to clear the GA cutoff. You will require deeper study (point 4) to score higher marks
c) With organizations, you should try to understand functions, jurisdictions, name of key current and past persons in
positions of responsibility, geographical location etc.
d) With economic terms and concepts, understand how they change, who changes them and how they are used in the
economy
e) With acts and legislations, understand when it was passed, what did it replace, what was the major change and
emphasis and how does it affect the economy and various sectors therein
2) Current affairs: Read Partiyogita Darpan (can be read online for free by clicking here: http://bit.ly/14zuFr6). You can also
use any other current affairs magazine like CST, Chronicle or Wizard.
a) Focus on the 5-6 most recent issues of the magazine.
b) Focus on the following topics within the magazine:
i) Economy
ii) International Affairs
c) Each issue will take you 2-3 hours to finish. You can cover this current affairs sections in 10-15 hours of study
3) Most important topics (click on any topic to open web links for reference and study)- These are the most important ~100
topics. Covering these should take you 30-40 hours of study.
a) Priority 1
i) Organizations: Banking structure of India; RBI; NABARD; Banking Ombudsman; SIDBI; EXIM Bank; Cooperative
Banks; CIBIL; Planning Commission; 5 year plans; Finance Commission; CRISIL; LIC; Bretton Woods, BASEL,
World Bank, IBRD, IMF
ii) Economic/ Financial terms & concepts: GDP; GNP; PPP; HDI; Inflation; WPI; CPI; IIP; SLR; CRR; Repo rate;
Reverse Repo; Bank rate; MSF; Liquidity adjustment facility; Priority sector lending; NPA; Capital Adequacy
Ratio; Credit Ratings; Derivatives; Options; Futures; Currency Swaps; VAT; GST
iii) Acts, Committees & legislations: Budget 2014; Economic Survey 2014, Railway Budget 2014; Companies Bill
2013; FEMA; Tarapore Committee; Narsimhan Committees; FRBM
iv) Banking services: Assets, liabilities and working capital of a bank; KYC; Types of bank customers; Types of
Bank Accounts; Negotiable instruments; MICR; IFSC code; CTS System; Clean Notes policy; Fake notes; White
Label ATMs; NEFT; RTGS; Banking Correspondence agents; Kisan credit card
b) Priority 2
i) Organizations: SEBI; IRDA; NHB; IFCI; RIDF; RRBs; MFIs; ARCs; BIFR; NDC; BSE; NSE; SENSEX; NIFTY; Moody;
S&P; Fitch; GIC; SBI & SBI Associates; HDFC Bank; ICICI Bank; ADB, Islamic Banking, ADR, GDR, IDR, GATT,
WTO, WEF
ii) Economic/ Financial terms & concepts: Millennium Development Goals; Gold Loans, ULIP, Mutual Funds,
Open Market Operations; Money supply; Nidhi; Chit Fund
iii) Acts, committees & legislations: Bank Nationalization; Information Technology Act; SARFAESI Act
iv) Banking services: CBS; ECS; SWIFT; BankNET, RBINET, INDONET; Digital Signatures; Bank guarantee; Letter of
Credit; Bancassurance
4) Books & Resources
a) You can refer to Pratiyogita Darpan- Indian Economy
b) For Indian Economy & Banking, refer to Lucents General Knowledge. Focus on sections: Indian Economy, Banking
c) For Banking theory, you can refer to Money, Banking & Finance by BSC Publication
d) For Economics Theory, you can refer to Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
e) The following books are useful for your study and are available free:
i) Available free: NIOS study material on Economics
th
ii) Available free: NCERT- class 11 book on Economics
iii) Available free: NCERT- Class 12th book on Microeconomics
iv) Available free: NCERT- Class 12th book on Macroeconomics

Win with MockBank Online Mock Tests

www.mockbank.com

Reasoning
1)
2)

3)

4)

5)

If you prepare for Reasoning diligently, you can score heavily

in the exam
General preparation
a) Use last year papers books from Kiran or Arihant. If you
have any other paper set, you can use that as well. You
should target to solve atleast 50 questions everyday from
the paperset.
b) While solving the papersets, there should be no time limit
or pressure. While you should try to maintain your
natural brisk speed and not waste time, you should not
impose any time limit on yourself. This is not a speed
increasing exercise- this is a concept building and
accuracy increasing exercise
c) You should try to solve each question, but only mark the
answer if you are absolutely certain of the answer. There
should be absolutely no guesswork.
d) Mark yourself by giving 1 mark for each correct attempt
and -0.25 for each wrong attempt. Over a period of time,
you will see your score, proficiency and confidence
increase
Topic wise preparation
a) If you are weak in any particular topic, the only solution is
practice. See 4 and 5 below for the list of topics. Here is
how you should practice:
b) You should solve 2 sets of 25 questions each on each of
the topic that you feel weak at
c) In one sitting, do only one set i.e. 25 questions. You can
do the second set later in the day after atleast a 4 hour
gap or on the next day
d) While practicing, follow all the rules given above in 2a),
i.e. no time limit, try solving all questions, attempt only
questions you are certain of, see your score increase over
time
Guidelines
a) The following are given in decreasing order of priority.
This means point 5b is more important to master than
point 5c and so on.
b) Solve 30-50 questions on each topic. However, if you
already are comfortable with a particular topic, you can
move to the next topic to make best use of your time.
c) Similarly if you are really afraid of any particular topic,
you can leave it. However, you must make sure that you
do atleast the first 5 topics properly and do not leave
many topics
Study the following topics from Analytical Reasoning by MK
Pandey. You can also choose some other book like RS
Aggarwal etc.
a) Sitting arrangement
b) Blood Relations
c) Puzzles
d) Syllogism
e) Data Sufficiency
f) Input- Output/ Sequential Output Tracing
g) Coding- Decoding
h) Mathematical operations/ inequalities
i) Logic Reasoning (Topics: Statement- Assumptions,
Statement- Conclusions; Deriving Conclusions from
Passage, Statement- Arguments;; Statement- Courses of
Action;)
j) Series Completion
k) Non Verbal Reasoning (Topics: Series; Analogy;
Classification)

1)
2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

Quantitative Aptitude
If you prepare for QA diligently, you can score heavily in the
examination
General preparation
a) Use last year papers books from Kiran or Arihant. If you have any
other paper set, you can use that as well. You should target to
solve atleast 50 questions everyday from the paperset.
b) While solving the papersets, there should be no time limit or
pressure. While you should try to maintain your natural brisk speed
and not waste time, you should not impose any time limit on
yourself. This is not a speed increasing exercise- this is a concept
building and accuracy increasing exercise
c) You should try to solve each question, but only mark the answer if
you are absolutely certain of the answer. There should be
absolutely no guesswork.
d) Mark yourself by giving 1 mark for each correct attempt and -0.25
for each wrong attempt. Over a period of time, you will see your
score, proficiency and confidence increase
Topic wise preparation
a) If you are weak in any particular topic, the only solution is practice.
See 4 and 5 below for the list of topics. Here is how you should
practice:
b) You should solve 2 sets of 25 questions each on each of the topic
that you feel weak at
c) In one sitting, do only one set i.e. 25 questions. You can do the
second set later in the day after atleast a 4 hour gap or on the next
day
d) While practicing, follow all the rules given above in 2a), i.e. no time
limit, try solving all questions, attempt only questions you are
certain of, see your score increase over time
Guidelines
a) The following are given in decreasing order of priority. This means
point 5b is more important to master than point 5c and so on.
b) Solve 30-50 questions on each topic. However, if you already are
comfortable with a particular topic, you can move to the next topic
to make best use of your time
c) Similarly if you are really afraid of any particular topic, you can
leave it. However, you must make sure that you do atleast the first
5 topics properly and do not leave many topics
Study the following topics from Quantum CAT by Sarvesh Kumar. You
can also choose some other book like Tyra or RS Aggarwal etc.
a) Data Interpretation
b) BODMAS
c) Sequences & Series (Some QA books may not have this topic,
because it is generally considered a part of Reasoning)
d) Geometry (Area-Volume- Perimeter)
e) Linear Equations
f) Probability, Permutations & Combinations
g) Percentages
h) Profit & Loss
i) Simple Interest & Compound Interest
j) Ratio & Proportion
k) Averages, Alligations (Mixtures)
l) Number Theory (LCM, HCF, Remainders)
m) Time, Speed & Work
n) Time, Speed & Distance
Speed mathematics
a) Trachtenbergs method for multiplication by 5, 9 and 11. Please
refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachtenberg_system
b) Learn multiplication tables of 2 to 25 by heart
c) Learn squares of numbers up to 31 and cubes of numbers up to
15 by heart

Win with MockBank Online Mock Tests

www.mockbank.com

English Language
1)

2)

3)

4)

1)

2)

General preparation
a) Use last year papers books from Kiran or Arihant. If you have any other paper set, you can use that as well. You should target to solve
atleast 50 questions everyday from the paperset.
b) While solving the papersets, there should be no time limit or pressure. While you should try to maintain your natural brisk speed and
not waste time, you should not impose any time limit on yourself. This is not a speed increasing exercise- this is a concept building
and accuracy increasing exercise
c) You should try to solve each question, but only mark the answer if you are absolutely certain of the answer. There should be
absolutely no guesswork.
d) Mark yourself by giving 1 mark for each correct attempt and -0.25 for each wrong attempt. Over a period of time, you will see your
score, proficiency and confidence increase
Topic wise preparation
a) If you are weak in any particular topic, the only solution is practice. See 4 and 5 below for the list of topics. Here is how you should
practice:
b) You should solve 2 sets of 25 questions each on each of the topic that you feel weak at
c) In one sitting, do only one set i.e. 25 questions. You can do the second set later in the day after atleast a 4 hour gap or on the next day
d) While practicing, follow all the rules given above in 2a), i.e. no time limit, try solving all questions, attempt only questions you are
certain of, see your score increase over time
Guidelines
a) The following are given in decreasing order of priority. This means point 5b is more important to master than point 5c and so on.
b) Solve 30-50 questions on each topic. However, if you already are comfortable with a particular topic, you can move to the next topic
to make best use of your time
c) Similarly if you are really afraid of any particular topic, you can leave it. However, you must make sure that you do atleast the first 5
topics properly and do not leave many topics
Study the following topics from papersets. You can also choose to use a book like S P Bakshi or A P Bharadwaj. You can also use
www.Pagalguy.com forums to prepare
a) Reading Comprehension
b) Cloze Test (Fill in the blanks- paragraph with many blanks )
c) Fill in the blanks- Sentence with blanks
d) Sentence Correction
e) Parajumbles/ Sentence Arrangement- you can use Pagalguy (http://pagalguy.com/forums/verbal/parajumbles-cat-2013-t-93071/)
for practice
f) Antonyms/ Synonyms

Computer Awareness
Instructions :
The following are important topics. Most of the questions are asked on these topics. Study properly about these topics from the below
mentioned books and material.
a) Basic Hardware and Software
b) Uses of Computer
c) Basic Computer Operations/ Shortcut Keys
d) MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc.)
e) Generations of Computer
Books & Resources
a) Any book from Kiran, Arihant or Upkar on Computer Awareness. If you have any other book, that will also do
b) Last years exam papers: Any one of Kiran or Arihant. If you have any other paper set, you can use that as well. You should target
to practice at least 30 Computer Awareness questions every day from the paper sets.
c) Available free: NIOS study material on Computer Awareness

Win with MockBank Online Mock Tests

www.mockbank.com