Turn your wounds into wisdom : Nitin Hansda (SBI PO)-3 |

Dear Readers,

My journey to crack SBI PO started last year. But I was not that serious with my studies at that time. I think one can divide SBI PO examination into two different eras i.e. Before 2016 and one is from 2016.Initially, I started with looking at the syllabus and thereafter looked at the previous year’s papers and I thought that it’s not that hard and I somehow managed to clear the prelims of 2016 with less preparation. But the real battle was about to get started YES THE MAINS!

So I continued my preparation without any kind of planning and I was really casual and negligent with my study timings and also I had not given a single mock. I had a Preconception that the mains won’t be that tough. So with this kind of attitude, I went on to give the mains paper. But during the examination looking at the paper I was really shocked with the level of difficulty and the changed pattern. So as, soon as I came out of the examination hall I knew that I won’t pass the exam. Few days’ later results came out. And I failed miserably. I had scored 0.25 marks in GA section, it was more than enough to shatter my overconfidence and negligence and careless attitude towards my preparation and I changed my perception and view towards SBI Po exam. Now after the results, I promised myself that no matter how tough the paper would be I will crack this exam. So I changed everything. I made my strategy. I figured out my weaknesses and planned accordingly and I divided my time for each and every section. Since my GA section was the weakest so I divided it into the subcategories and started preparing for it on a daily basis. And banker’s adda helped me a lot with these. I used to watch BBM show on a regular basis and didn’t missed a show till my interviews I had made clear notes of all the banking topics and budget, economic survey and it helped me with my revisions. So whatever banking knowledge I am having till current date is because of BBM show. And for the current affairs part, I used to read the daily current affairs from the app and noted down the important points. And for static awareness, I followed the capsule.my 2nd weakest section was English, especially grammar. For that I watched all the bankers adda show for must know grammar rules and for vocabulary, I was quite good with my reasoning’s, so I practiced a lot of puzzles with different difficulty levels. And this time I practiced with a lot of mock papers. During this whole time, I had also given other exams like ibps po, niacl ao, rbi assistant. I used to pass every prelims but failed every mains. Sometimes I failed because of the overall cut-off and sometimes it was sectional cut-off. But with every failure, my scores were increasing. With prelims, I was getting more and more confident. And soon after SBI PO 2017 prelims came. Looking at my previous prelims record I passed this time as well. But the main threat was not prelims it was the mains. But this time I was well-prepared. And finally, for the first time, I cleared the mains for an exam. This was the best confidence booster for me. But the task was not yet finished.

The last step was the GE and Interviews. And this year interview played a crucial role in final selection. Because with every 3.33 marks in objective it was 1 marks out of 75 but with every 2 marks in interviews, it was 1 marks out of 25. So it was quite clear that interview had a lot of weightage in the final normalized marks.

Scoring well in GD and PI requires good speaking skills, so I practiced a lot and I used to speak looking in front of the mirror which helped me with my fluency. I looked for various videos on YouTube for HOW TO PREPARE FOR INTERVIEWS for SBI PO. And I made a list of probable questions and prepared their answers. So after keeping all things in mind and preparing for all these things finally the date of interview arrived. My GE was quite okay but my PI was really good. So I was quite happy with the way my GE and PI concluded. And now the only thing left was to wait. And after waiting for almost 2 months, the final results came. And seeing my roll no. in the final list was the best moment for me. It was all worth waiting.

Tip-Don’t slow down your preparation after mains because interviews are really important that’s what I felt this time. Give as many mocks as you can. And for interviews prepare well for the questions related to your hobbies and your place.

At last I would like to congratulate all the aspirants who have cleared the SBI PO exam and for those who couldn’t, please don’t give up now, it’s just a matter of time that your roll no. will also be in the final list. ALL THE BEST AND CHEERS!!!!