Getting into SBI is the biggest dream of all banking exam aspirants. Although vacancies are a few thousand, the number of candidates who apply for the exam is around 9 to 10 lacs and that is where all of your mindset, strategy, and determination come into play.
Hello to all of my future Bankers. First of all, I would like to say to you that I believe in your hard work and you shall surely succeed in your life soon.
Coming to me, My name is Vishal Bandray and I belong to Jabalpur, a city of Madhya Pradesh, I have cleared SBI Junior Associates Exam 2021. I have been preparing for banking exams for a while and I would like to share my experience with you all so that you can learn from my mistakes and get success as soon as possible. We will divide this story into 3 parts –
- My Journey
- Strategy for clearing this exam (pre + mains)
- Final verdict
My Journey
I started a serious preparation journey in November 2020. Although it has been 3-4 years since my graduation, I was not focused on banking sector exams. I had given multiple exams in the field of Banking, SSC but my journey started in the late 2020s when I realized that I do need Job security along with reputation and that can only give you the banking sector as its recruitment process is very efficient, transparent and rapid. Merely committing to a positive intention won’t make your journey smooth. You will face ups and downs throughout the preparation months. I too had setbacks. I lost some of my loved ones during the second wave of the Corona virus but all I used to think was to be in a better position in my life so that I could support my family and by God’s grace and the blessings of my loved ones, I achieved this.
Strategy for Clearing the Exam
Now, this is a controversial part and I know most of you spend lots of time gathering information about topper’s strategy, their sources of current affairs, the books they referred to, or the YouTube channel they followed. But believe me, their strategy can only give you a blueprint, you should not blindly copy their strategy. You need to design your own. Your first task should be knowing about the syllabus of the exam and topics that are frequently asked in the exam for example – puzzles and seating arrangement in reasoning, simplification, and approximation in quantitative aptitude, spotting the error in English, etc. Once you are aware of the syllabus you will need to clear your basic concepts of arithmetic, reasoning, English, etc. Once you are done with that you will need a one-stop source for quality questions to practice and it is where Guidely’s PDF bundle course comes into the picture. I practiced from this bundle and I found the level of questions and quality of questions pretty similar to exam level. Their daily practice targets give you discipline to keep up with the pace of preparation.
I have seen people around me who focus all the time and energy in preparing preliminary examination but friends as you know, it is not about just preparing prelims but Mains too.
Hence you need to have an integrated approach to prepare for pre+mains because I have seen people clearing prelims exams with flying colors but due to lack of focus given to mains level questions and current affairs, they fail to make it into the merit list.
Prelims Strategy
Prelims is the stage where a large chunk of students get filtered out and here you have to prove your ability of how quick you are.
Questions asked in this level are of basic level with a little bit of brain-twisting which, if you have already given focus to basic topics like – For English – para jumbles, spotting the error, fillers, basic reading comprehension. For Quantitative aptitude – Simplification, Approximation, number series, Quadratic equation, arithmetic, etc. For Reasoning – Puzzles, Seating arrangements, direction sense, Blood relations, syllogism, etc. This will surely give you confidence and a strong foundation over which you will be able to build mains level concepts.
Mains Strategy
Here along with basic subjects of prelims, you need to put ample amount of time in preparing current affairs and banking awareness for which you should pick 2 or 3 daily current affairs sources along with Guidely. Newspaper reading plays an important factor in enhancing your comprehension skills needed for mains level RC and in-depth sight into current affairs. Here I want to give you an example. We all know that Neeraj Chopra won gold at Tokyo Olympics and we as an aspirant expect a question from this topic and the question did come in the exam but they asked about the weight of javelin that is thrown in the Olympics. Now you see, this question cannot be answered if you only relied on monthly compilation PDF current affairs but if you had a habit of reading any reputed newspaper like the Hindu or Indian Express, you would have easily answered this question. So start preparing your current affairs from day one.
To wind up this topic, prepare prelims and mains together, Guidely’s PDF bundle course is a reliable source to practice a variety of questions and once you are done with your basic preparation, without wasting a day just jump into giving mock tests.. you can refer to 2 or 3 test series as different test series will give you different type of questions and you can see your performance level in comparison with other aspirants… Just keep giving mock tests, analyze them, learn from your mistakes and the scoreboard of your performance shall keep moving in a positive direction.
Final Verdict
Future Bankers, I know it is very hard to see yourself failing again and again. You might feel frustration, self-doubt, mental breakdown but let me tell you a little secret, every person goes through this, you are not alone. It is absolutely normal to go through a dark phase but you need to chin up the next day and start preparing again and again till you make it… There is a proverb which says – “fall 7 times and gets up 8th time”. Your academics, be it very good or average or very poor doesn’t really matter in the field of Banking exam competition… What really matters is your consistency, your time management, and last but not the least, Self-belief. If I can do it, you too are capable of doing this. Thank you for reading this. I hope this will contribute to your successful journey.
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