Various exams conducted for selecting candidates for the position of Bank Probationary Officer (PO) including IBPS PO and SBI PO Examination. If you interested in taking bank job as a career , then you must know the roles and responsibilities of a bank PO.
The Bank PO Examinations usually test candidate’s skills in General Awareness, Computer and Marketing, English Language and Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Analysis, and Reasoning. The screening test is usually conducted in two-three phases. The first phase is called preliminary, second is main and the third is the interview.
1. General Awareness, Computers and Marketing Aptitude:
General awareness comprises current affairs and banking questions. Computer Awareness and Marketing are to test the basics of candidates and is considered the easiest sections of the exam.
2. Reasoning:
It is considered as the most challenging section of the exam. The important areas to prepare are puzzle/seating arrangement, logical reasoning, sentence coding, syllogism, direction-based questions, and data sufficiency. The maximum marks are allotted to puzzle/seating arrangement and logical reasoning questions
3. English Language:
It includes questions from reading comprehension, sentence correction, cloze passage and jumbled sentences. The difficulty level of the questions varies from easy to moderate.
4. Data Analysis & Interpretation:
Topics in this section are questions based on pie charts, line graph, bar charts, tables and probability. The section includes most of the questions from tables, bar and pie charts. This section includes moderately difficult questions and is considered as scoring.
For clearing the exam, candidates should obtain qualifying marks in each section. The qualifying marks for each section are decided by the bank. This online exam is followed by a descriptive exam.
The descriptive exam is conducted to test the candidate’s written English and business communication skills. Syllabus for bank PO descriptive exam include different types of writing:
1. Reading Comprehension:
This section could be easy or tough, depending on the given passage. Some passages use complex words which makes it very difficult to understand.
2. Essay Writing:
This helps judge the candidate’s ability to express thoughts into words and general awareness. The topics for essay writing generally easy, but sometimes they specific to banking sector.
3. Letter Writing:
This section is added to the exam because most of the communication in banking sector happens through written letters. The letter can be a formal or informal letter.
4. Paragraph Writing:
Paragraph writing has to crisp, expressive, clear, and informative. This section may include innovative topics such as topics related to the financial sector.
5. Precise Writing:
This section is considered easy, as it is to judge the candidate’s rephrasing ability and understandability.
Best Books for SBI PO , IBPS PO And Other Bank Exam:
1. Verbal and NonVerbal Reasoning by R.S. Aggarwal
2. Analytical Reasoning by M.K. Pandey
3. An Advanced Approach to Data Interpretation by R.S. Aggarwal
4. Data Interpretation Data Sufficiency by Arihant Publication
5. Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Pearson India
6. Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by R.S. Aggarwal
7. Fast Track Objective Arithmetic by Arihant Publication
8. Marketing Aptitude by Arihant Publication
9. Computer Awareness by Arihant Publication
10. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
11. Better English by Norman Lewis
12. How to Read Better and Faster by Norman Lewis
13. SBI PO Exam: Probationary Officer Success Master by Arihant Publication
14. SBI PO Examination 20 Practice Sets by Arihant Experts
15. Objective Computer Awareness by R. Pillai
16. Solved Papers Bank PO Exam by Arihant Experts
17. The Hand on Guide to Analytical Reasoning & Logical Reasoning by Peeyush Bhardwaj
The candidates that clear Bank PO online and descriptive exam, appear for Group Discussion and Interview. The selections are made based on the top graded candidates in each category.
Career Path of a Bank PO
Bank PO’s career growth is directly relative to the candidate’s performance level. There are promotions that help a bank PO in balancing huge responsibilities.
Those who are looking for notification regarding SBI PO Recruitment 2016-2017 can find it on SBI’s official website, at http://www.sbi.co.in/portal/web/home/careers-with-us
Those who are targeting IBPS can find the notifications at http://www.ibps.in/cwe-probationary-officers-management-trainees/
