“The Best Competitor of Yours is only You” and it turned out to be true in my case also.
It all started back in August 2017, the day when I completed my bachelor’s Degree (BCA). I was pre-determined and focused towards my goal to kick-start my career in “Banking Sector” that’s why I took admission in the college in my hometown only. I started my banking preparations seriously just after my Graduation.
It took me almost 1.5 years to achieve this feat.
I have been selected in 3 exams within last 1 month and that is:
• Canara Bank PO (PGDBF).
• IBPS PO – Alloted “Allahabad Bank”.
• IBPS Clerk – Alloted “Bank of Baroda”.
My journey so far regarding major banking examinations: –
(1) IBPS PO 2017- failed in mains just by 1.5 marks (Got 80.5/225, the cut-off was 82).
(2) IBPS Clerk 2017- failed in mains by 3 marks (Got 104/200, the cut-off was 107 around).
(3) Syndicate Bank PO 2018- Qualified in mains – Attended G.D & Interview also but out in final merit list by 1.5 marks.
(4) SBI Clerk 2018 – failed in mains by 6 marks (Got 88.85/200, the cut-off was 94.9).
(5) SBI PO 2018- failed in pre itself by 2 marks (Got 54.75/100, the cut-off was 56.75).
(6) BOB PO 2018- failed in Mains.
Then again the turn came for major banking exam i.e. IBPS PO & Clerk 2018:- Didn’t want to take any chance this time so deeply analyzed myself, learnt from past mistakes –used the experience from the previous exams, changed my strategy and did a fresh start from zero level ,Preparing the day in & day out, it went the right way & worked for me :-
(7) IBPS PO 2018 – Got Selected in-
(a) Prelims (Got 72/100 marks, the cut-off was 56.75)
(b) Mains (Got 94.50/225 marks, the cut-off was 74.50)
(c) Interview (Got 70/100 marks)
& Finally Alloted “Allahabad Bank”, which was my 2nd preference.
(8) IBPS Clerk 2018 – Got Selected in
(a) Pre (Got 82/100 marks, cut-off 73.50)
(b) Mains (Got 116/200, the cut-off is around 102 in my state Bihar).
& finally Alloted “Bank of Baroda”, which was my 1st preference.
(9) Canara Bank PO 2018 – Selected in Mains with (131/200 marks, cut-off was around 130) then Attended GD & Interview (got 90/100 marks) – “and Finally got my name in Final merit” (only due to good marks in GD + Interview).
(10) Bihar Co-operative Bank Po & Clerk Exams 2018 – Waiting for their mains & final results Respectively and also very hopeful of getting selected in both of the exams, but now I will leave those seats for a needy candidate, which is obvious, as I have already got a better opportunity now.
Coming to My preparation strategy: –
• Reasoning Section: It was my strong subject so didn’t need to work much in this portion except the regular practice through “Mock Tests”. In the beginning, I learned basics from various YouTube channels and then the regular practice of puzzles other than regular mocks.
• Quantitative Aptitude Section: I was not much good in this section so always have had to give extra focus on this. I referred Study Smart & YouTube channels mostly, then practiced the ample number of questions on that topic and at last regular practice of mocks helped me to sail through this portion. In every exam, I wisely chose the questions to be attempted and always stick to few topics that I did prepare from self, as I was not master of quants section. I always used to skip the miscellaneous questions and tried to master DI portion as this is the most scoring topic in quants nowadays, whether it be Clerk exam or PO exam.
• English Section: There is always a chance for improvement in this subject, so was the case with me. I started to read an English newspaper on a daily basis and continued it for 10-12 months. I used to jot down the important 10 vocabs daily from the newspaper and also made a sentence using that word on my own, which helped me to remember vocabs for a long time. Reading the Editorials regularly improved my comprehension section and framing the sentence on my own helped me to improve grammatical and fillers portions. By reading the newspaper on daily basis became useful for English as well as current affairs section. So, 2 goals in just 1 shot. And last but not least, I gave mocks regularly with proper analysis that gradually improved this section.
• GA Section: Since the starting days of my preparation I got to hear about Bankers Adda and “Adda’s capsule” for banking exams, so started to follow Adda247 for current affairs. After a few months, I came to know about “The Monthly Hindu Review” and started following it also. And trust me it was very helpful for me to score in GA. But, by the time, after failing the exams just by 2-4 marks of margin several times, I realised based on previous failures that I need to improve my overall scores by 5 -10 marks to qualify any exam and I was at my peak point in other sections so for improving the overall scores further, only GA section left a scope for me. From here I changed my strategy a bit and started to cover Current affairs from 2 other sources along with Adda 247 as current affairs cover very vast syllabus and it’s not possible to score excellent in this section just by relying only on 1 source. So I personally suggest all of you not to rely on a single source, follow at least 3 sources for GA section.
And it really paid back to me in IBPS PO 2018 and further in other examinations also. My previous score in GA ranges between 16-17 marks out of 40 but this time I scored around 32 marks in PO mains which is double compared to last year PO mains exam which clearly gives edge over others (as 15-16 marks is a huge margin in PO mains examination) and this strategy ultimately gave me final selection in IBPS PO and Clerk as well.
Mock Test: Nowadays, this is the most important part of preparations whether you are preparing for Banking, SSC, UPSC or any other exam because today the questions in competitive exams are totally unexpected and if you are not habitual to such surprises then you will be blown out in the exam for sure.
For Prelims exams, I used to attempt 1-2 mocks
on daily basis and then properly analyzed them & then worked on my weak portions for further improvement of my scores. For mains exam, I gave 1 mock on every alternate day or at a gap of 2 days (but not daily) as the scenario in mains exam is completely different from that of the prelims so, I thought it’s better not to waste 3 hours daily on a mains mock test and utilize the limited time for GA and deep analysis of every single mock.
As I was already impressed by The monthly Hindu review and GA Power Capsule of Adda, I opted for “Adda’s mock test” without any second thought and I was again satisfied with the quality of contents in mocks.
Here, I would like to thanks to the whole team of ADDA 247 for providing such a relevant and superior quality mocks which played a major role in my selection and at such a lower price (as I purchased the Bank Prime Yearly plan at just Rs 999/- which is seriously a good deal to consider). Please continue to provide such yearly offers as everyone isn’t able to afford the separate mocks for each examination.
I also purchased mock of another website for more practice and suggest all the aspirants practice from at least 2 different mock tests (Adda 247 is advisable) and you can go for any 1 other mock whichever you like. Many candidates are reluctant to mocks but don’t do that blunder. Do practice regularly from at least 2-3 different mocks (already suggested few) to prepare yourself for the worst.
One very important thing I would like to share with you all:
“When I failed the very 1st time during this journey in IBPS PO 2017 mains exam, I got depressed due to my failure (which was unexpected to me as I was too confident to get selected) and also ruined my clerk mains exam”. It was very hard for me to recover myself from that situation and it took almost 25-30 days to recover properly & restart the preparations. In such situations, you are the only savior of yourself. At least you guys can try to avoid this type of situation of getting too confident to be selected because at last it only harms if the result is not as expected. And in today’s scenario, it’s really very hard to expect the result and cut-off for any exam as there is stiff competition everywhere and the seats are limited.
“It’s quite normal to get depressed in such a situation, but try to make it your strength and take motivation from your past failures as I did and I guarantee you nothing can stop you from being successful.”
Without failure, one can’t understand the real value of success, one can’t have the zeal of achieving his/her goal. It’s just the start of a Journey, “A Journey of Millions Dreams” still has to go a long way. Best of Luck to all the future aspirants and also to those who can’t clear exams this time – “Don’t give up, Great things take time”.
You’ve become an achiever from an aspirant, its time you pass on your knowledge and help other aspirants by guiding them with how your journey was? what helped you? what you believe in? how Adda247 and Bankersadda helped you??
We’ll post your journey’s video and your success story on bankersadda.com and on our Facebook pages. This way, you can inspire others to aspire for their future!! mail to blogger@adda247.com
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