IBPS Clerk Exam: Tips and Strategy- English Language

The common written examination conducted by Indian Banking Personnel Selection(IBPS) for recruiting aspiring candidates to various nationalized banks is about to take place in the month of December. The candidates who have applied for the clerical posts have all geared up till now for the examinations and this article would help them in sharpening their edges. The last minute preparations are quite crucial as this demarcates the success and failure of the candidates in the examinations. The candidates should be well aware of the structure of the examination at the very beginning, so that they can prepare accordingly.

There are five papers: Reasoning, Numerical Ability, General awareness, English Language and Computer Knowledge. Each paper carries a total of 40 marks and the overall written examination carries a total of 200 marks which needs to get solved in two hours. These papers test the logical and mental ability of the candidates in solving basic problems under time constrain. It checks candidate’s ability to make precise decisions while handling pressure situation. The written examination is followed by a personal interview, clearing which lands the candidates in a job in the banking sector.

Preparation for English Language

English Language is one such paper which needs no superlative knowledge in part of the candidate. All you need to be aware of, is the basics of English grammar and a prevailed sense of sentence formation. Those candidates who have a zeal for the language would find it really easy to crack, but those who have problems in the basic English grammar and tense, would suffer and need to work very hard to mend that for their own good. There would be questions from reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary and the candidates need to be equally strong in all these three branches of the paper. There would be questions on cloze tests, idioms &phrases, synonyms and antonyms, sentence and passage reconstruction, phrase substitution, fill in the blanks, commonly misspelt words and reading comprehensions. Those candidates who have a reading habit and a sentence formation capability would find it quite easy to deal with and thus could score well in the overall examination through the paper.

Tips to Prepare for English Language

• The best way to prepare for the paper is to develop a reading habit and make it a regular affair. The more one reads the more he/she gets familiar with new words which in turn increase the vocabulary of the candidates. It also allows them to learn more about the sentence formation structure and style.
• It is important to practice sets available in various books to underline the mistakes one commits while solving problems in this paper. Often the simplest of questions in the paper can lead to a misleading answer because of the alluring options that are present along with the questions.
• It is important to get your basics right to solve the questions in this paper and thus revisiting the basics would be the best option for all the candidates. This would help them solve the questions easily and in less time.
• Mastering the theory of elimination works wonders often in this paper. You would get three to four options in each of the questions and if you are not sure of the answer you can try the method of elimination. Though it is a bit time consuming, it can provide you the correct option and the marks associated with the question. All you need to do is to put every option in the blank and check out its relevance with the sentence to check its importance.