Effective Tips to crack IBPS RRB Prelims 2017 - Officer Scale I & Office Assistant

IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection) has already released notification for the recruitment of Group A- Officers (Scale I, II and III) and Group B- Office Assistants (Multipurpose). The IBPS RRB Prelims Exam will be conducted in September in a 6 day window i.e. 9th, 10th & 16th Sept 2017 for Officer Scale I and 17th, 23rd & 24th Sept 2017 for Office Assistant. As it is almost time for the exams, let us go through some effective tips to crack RRB 2017 Prelims.

IBPS RRB Recruitment- Important Exam dates:

The tentative schedule of events is as follows:

Activity	Dates
On-line registration (Modification, Online Payment) by candidates	24.07.2017 to 14.08.2017
Download of call letters for Pre- Exam Training for Officer Scale-I	August 2017
Conduct of Pre-Exam Training for Officer Scale-I	28.08.2017 to 03.09.2017
Download of call letters for Pre- Exam Training for Office Assistant	August 2017
Conduct of Pre-Exam Training for Office Assistant	04.09.2017 to 09.09.2017
Download of call letters for online examination – Preliminary	Officer Scale-I- August 2017 Office Assistant – September 2017
Preliminary Examination	Officer Scale-I – 09.09.2017, 10.09.2017 and 16.09.2017 (if required) Office Assistant- 17, 23 & 24.09.2017 (if required)
Result of Online exam – Preliminary	Officer Scale-I – October 2017 Office Assistant- October 2017
Download of Call letter for Online exam – Main / Single	Officer Scale- I, II & III – October 2017 Office Assistant- November 2017
Online Examination – Main / Single	Officers (I, II & III) – 05.11.2017 Office Assistant - 12.11.2017
Download of call letters for interview (For Officers Scale I, II and III)	December 2017
Conduct of interview (For Officers Scale I, II and III)	December 2017
Provisional Allotment (For Officers Scale I, II and III & Office Assistant. (Multipurpose))	January 2018

Please note that No interview is required after the Mains Exam to get selected for the post of Office Assistant.

How to Prepare for IBPS RRB Prelims Exam 2017:

Know the Exam Pattern and Syllabus

Before you sit to prepare for any exam, you must know the pattern for the exam & syllabus thoroughly. The IBPS RRB Prelims Exam consists of 80 Questions from 2 sections i.e. Reasoning & Numerical Ability. The exam pattern for IBPS RRB Prelims is given in the table below.

Section	No.of Questions	Maximum marks	Duration
Reasoning	40	40	45 minutes
Numerical Ability	40	40
Total	80	80

Prepare a strict study plan

Prepare a study plan not only for the Prelims but also for IBPS RRB Mains Exam, as you will not get much time for preparation after the Preliminary exam. Make your study plan based on that specific exam that you are preparing for i. e … either IBPS RRB Officer Scale 1 or IBPS RRB Office Assistant. But if you have applied for both Officer Scale I and Office Assistant posts, then you can simultaneously prepare for both exams since the syllabus for both is same.However, the IBPS RRB Officer Scale I is more tricky & tough as compared to Office Assistant. To crack these exams you have to maintain yourstudies on a daily basis sincerely & attend speed test as you will have less time so you need to boost your speed.

Set your Target after cutoff marks analysis

Have a proper analysis of previous year’s cutoff marks and set an expected cutoff marks for current exam. The expected IBPS RRB 2017 cutoff marks will give an idea of how much you should score to qualify in the exam. But don’t just study or attempt for cutoff marks only as doing so might put you in the danger zone.

Assess your performance with Mock Tests

After having studied half of the syllabus, begin taking IBPS RRB Officer mock test,  IBPS RRB Assistant Mock test to assess your progress how far you have reached. It will assist you in knowing your time factor and the weaker areas which you will need to work on. Take at least 3-4 mock tests per day to boost your time efficiency.

Section-wise preparation

To prepare Reasoning & Quantitative Ability for IBPS RRB Prelims 2017, go through the topics which have been asked in previous year question papers. After you get a proper idea about difficulty level & questions asked, start studying from the basic topics of Reasoning Ability & Quantitative Aptitude. Once you cover all the topics & build up your basic concepts then start practicing easy to moderate questions. Once you get better at solving these questions, move up to the next level.

1) Reasoning Ability

Some important topics to prepare for Reasoning are:

•        Coding & Decoding
•         Inequalities
•     Syllogisms
•      Puzzles especially Seating Arrangement and Double Line up

       Books to Prepare

•        Book Name: Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations
•        Publisher Name: R.S. Aggarwal and S.Chand

 

2) Numerical Ability

Some important topics to prepare for Reasoning are:

·         Number Series

·         Simplification

·         Data Interpretation

·         Quadratic Equation

Books to Prepare

•        Book Name: Test of Reasoning
•        Publisher Name: Edgar Thorpe and Pearson

Learn Shortcut hacks

The most important part in acing any exam is learning shortcut tricks and strategies to solve questions. Traditional ways or lengthy methods take most of your time so it is really necessary that you have some simple hacks up your sleeve. It will save much trouble and also help in time management. Only few problems cannot be solved with shortcut methods but maximum questions can be done in simpler easy ways. Find out that key ingredient and you will find much of your dilemma is over.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more updates.