Another Angle of SBI PO Mains Exam Experience : Shared by one of you

Found a good ‘open’ restaurant and had normal breakfast. Took chocalate and ‘high-carbohydrate’ Banana to eat just before exam.

# Keep belly full so that Mind doesn’t thinks about Food for 3.5hr.

Took out very imp. notes to go thru once. Seeing candidates going thru Bankersadda 80-page capsule, made mind a little more happy, that, this I have done already.

Candidates were asked to keep Bag, bottle etc outside. Even ‘analog’ wrist watch wasn’t allowed.
Before entering, Metal detector was run over body. Although no-beep sound, made the ‘Frisker’ check his detector again (whether its working or not) But i had already kept all metal things, like coins etc in my bag.

# Name on ID Card and Call-letter was matched seriously.

Divyang-friends were allowed first and staff were very supportive in that regard. (Divyang = Physically-Disabled)

Before entering the Lab, candidates were asked to keep shoes/sandals outside. Means we have to roam around naked-feet. Even toilet also has to be used naked-feet 🙂

On entering, candidates were asked to see at the camera to take photo and have to scan the right-thumb (fingerprint). The Pop-up on the invigilator’s screen said at first time as “Fingerprint not matched”, then rescanning was done. I am still not able to find that, from where it was being matched, as i have not provided my Aadhaar anywhere. (I guess they might have scanned pages of Prelims-Exam where we gave fingerprint.)

On reaching my desk, i checked the chair (comfortable), mouse and ‘not-normal-sized’ keyboard. All was fine. As time was remaining, i went to washroom, drank water. Came back and started typing in the “Password-field” to become friendly with keyboard. Felt fine after practicing around 5minutes with random sentences.

# Do check the system provided to you. Even if Ur Name/pic appears on system, they can make you sit to any nearby ‘Fine’ system, if you complain.

Just before start of exam, they took fingerprint on their attendance-sheet and signed on our admit card. Gave rough sheet. I went and washed face to got-ready for 3.5hr.

After Logging-in I just checked when will be the ‘Free-time’ in between all 5 sections. Free-Time = remaining time of GA Section 🙂

First it took 3-4 minutes to load, then i was automatically logged out after seeing 1st question.
I was little shocked, But on seeing the same expression on all other students’ face, i felt Okay.
It was asking to re-Login, but on entering details, it was saying “Authentication failed”. On retrying thrice, window disappeared. And on Desktop, one window with IP Address was opened. I clicked ‘Proceed’ on that and was able to Login and No-Time was lost (Time started from 59:59)

After Reasoning of 1 hour, Completed GA in 15minutes and went to washroom. Came back, revised the unattempted questions. and then did all remaining section. (Sequence was: Reasoning-GA-English-Quant-Descriptive)

# In the last 35-40 seconds of English, i thought not to try to attempt any more and took rest for 30 seconds before DI appeared.

30 seconds loss in English is more important to keep mind focused for ‘Always-Hard’-‘More-Mark-per-Que’-DI section.

# Letter was of 20 mark, so gave first 10min then went for Essay (30 marks). After completing Essay, came back to Letter in last 90 seconds to recheck.

After exam completion also, there was biometric verification. Again.
I think thru Pic, they wanted to check whether we went home for changing dress. 🙂
And thru fingerprint, they wanted to check whether we were there at Lab or not after long 3.5hr or we have asked any of our friend to write the remaining test. 🙂

Issues while typing:
-Text Box to type, was not totally ‘word-wrap’ed, had to use scroll bar and mouse (irritating).
-Up & Down Arrow key and Delete Key were disabled. Back Space was working. To go back to any previous line: First Scroll through Mouse & Scroll Bar and then click in-between words (irritating).

Issues with the Center:
-Bags of 800 students were kept one-another, Think how to find out bag while leaving.
-Low quality rough-sheet.

Issues with Lab:
-Reluctant while giving rough-sheet.
-Toilet with naked-feet
-Non-responding on initial technical issue.

There were issues, but these were very small compared to the 3.5hour Exam and also for one of the best PSB. SBI has ‘innovated’ the process of test. Don’t get tensed, innovate yourself to take any type of challenge. If you work really hard and from heart. No exam pattern or issues like above can stop you in achieving your goal. Believe in Yourself.

(I am already working in a PSB, Joined thru IBPS SO in 2014. Writing exam to have experience before RBI Exam. Writing Experience because i have always followed Bankersadda. In future, this experience may be useful for novice candidates.)

Best of Luck.