SUCCESS STORY: How I manage 74.5 in IBPO PO Prelims and 125 in IBPS PO Mains

Hello friends,

This is Rohit Agarwal from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. I would like to share my success story.

I completed B.E. in 2013 from a reputed government college of Madhya Pradesh. In final year, I was placed in a Software MNC but didn’t join as I decided to prepare for civil services. I wrote state PSC Mains in 2013 itself but didn’t make it to the final list. 

Next year I was not even able to manage prelims. This time I come to know that this is something on which you can not completely depend. You must have some job so I decided to go for a job. After evaluating available option in front of me, I decided that I can go for IBPS exam. 

My journey started in 2015; however I was not serious at the beginning. I was still preparing for PSC and fill the form of NABARD in 2015. At that time I even didn’t know about the pattern of the exam. I just go for exam without attempting any speed test. It was my first on-line exam. I spend my whole time in understanding interface. So I just failed. 

Next one was NICL AO. This time I prepared but I was not serious about it. I was sailing in 2 boats i.e. civil service and IBPS. Thus I failed to clear cut off by 0.5 marks.

So I decided to prepare full-time and wrap up my civil service exam preparation. As I was very clear that I would not fill any clerical exam, henceI had just 3 exams in my mind. SBI PO,  IBPS RRB OS1 and IBPS PO.  It was already April 2015.

My first one was SBI PO. I decided not to join any coaching class and depend on self preparation. I purchased speed test series from CAREER POWER which was really helpful. I Prepared extensively but in my mind, I thought that there are just 2000 seats. So I was under confident. This effected my preparation and although I went up to interview in my very first attempt, I couldn’t make it to final list.

Although I was very sad, but at the same time I thought that if I can reach up to interview when there was just 2000 seats, why can’t I make up to final in IBPS as there are much more seats than SBI. This made me confident.

Now my next exam was IBPS RRB OS1. I worked really hard on my weakness and finally made it to the merit. I followed the same pattern in IBPS PO and managed to score 74.5 in pre and 125 in mains. 

Now I will share my strategy on how you can do the same. 

For General Awareness–  I did just 2 things for that. First is to read daily current affairs from Bankersadda and second was to read capsule provided by Bankersadda. I can guarantee that these two are more than sufficient. Revision is the key to score high.

For Computer – Since I am from computer science, I didn’t need to put in too much effort for computer. For other than computer science graduate, computer capsule and daily test are sufficient. Also when you attempt on-line test series you will become better. 

For English- I know that most the people suffer from English phobia, but believe me it is not as hard as it seems. The key is to understand the pattern. You know there are 40 questions, but how many questions require grammar knowledge. Just 5 question. Apart from these 5 questions all other question can be solved without knowing grammar rules. The key is to improve your overall English. Believe me none of the native English speaker know grammar rule but they are good in English. So first thing is to improve vocab. For that purpose read word power made easy from Norman Lewis. The second thing is to start reading English newspaper, for example Editorial from THE HINDU. Also listen to ALL INDIA RADIO. These 2 things will improve your overall English then you can solve even those 5 grammar question just by reading.

Remember these 3 sections are the key area where you can score a lot. I have managed to score 81.25 in these sections alone, more than the required overall cutoff. 

Now For Reasoning– I just followed Analytical Reasoning from M.K.Pandey and found it more than sufficient. Next thing is practice, practice and practice. 

For quant– many people have maths phobia, but again you need to understand the pattern. See out of 50 questions, 20 questions are from DI itself. It’s an opportunity for you. Just increase your calculation speed and then you are in. You can refer to M Tyra or Quantam CAT. Both are good, it depends on you choice .

Now the most important thing is Maximum practice on speed test.  If you follow above strategy but didn’t practice, you can never clear even cutoff. So subscribe any test series and practice a lot. 

My marks are- 

SBI PO PRE– 59.75/100

SBI PO MAINS–133.75/250

SBI Final– 56.63/100(cut off for general  was 58.93)

IBPS RRB OS1– 127/200

IBPS RRB OS1 final 64.55/100 (finally selected)

IBPS PO Pre– 74.5/100

IBPS PO Mains-125/200