IBPS Clerk is conducted by IBPS annually and 17 central and state banks all over India participate in it. The exam is the entrance for clerical posts in all these banks. It is one of the most popular exams and considered a golden opportunity to enter the banking industry. There are two tiers of the exam, namely prelims and the mains. While the syllabus is not very difficult and can be covered if you start studying dedicatedly at least 3-4 months before the exam, the main problem that aspirants face is with time management. There is sectional time-limit in both mains and prelims which have increased the difficulty of the exam manifolds. But with smart study strategy and practice, you can overcome the trouble posed by Time management in this exam.
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In order to make the most of the exam duration, you must develop a habit of smartly attempting the paper. To do this, you have to be familiar with the exam pattern, section-wise division and marks weightage. Also, keeping the IBPS Clerk Prelims cut-off from the past years in mind, estimate the number of questions that should be attempted in order to achieve your target marks. The following table will give you an idea about the same-
Topic | Number of questions | Time duration | Marks weightage | Safe attempts (marks) |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | 30 | 20 | 30 | 22-25 |
Reasoning ability | 35 | 20 | 35 | 26-30 |
Quantitative aptitude | 35 | 20 | 35 | 25-29 |
Total | 100 | 60 | 100 | 70+ |
There is negative marking for every wrong answer and hence the calculation of the number of attempts should be accordingly made. By keeping your score 70+, you have a sure-fire chance of qualifying. The key is to answer only those you are sure of and maximizing the number of questions like this through practice.
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Your aim should be practicing the syllabus so thoroughly that you are able to attempt any questions correctly and very fast. The following are few generic tips to improve your overall time management for all the sections-
With sectional time limit, we are going to approach them separately regarding time management and how to can make the most of the twenty minutes allotted for each of them
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By practising the sections keeping their individual time limit in mind, you can improve your accuracy and speed further. The following are detailed tips on how to manage your time for IBPS clerk Prelims for each section.
English language is considered the easiest by many who already have a strong base of the language while it is also considered the toughest by those who lack it. If you practice the syllabus well, it is a very scoring section and also the one which can be entirely completed within the 20 minutes. This is because there are no complicated calculations involved. The following is a topic-wise time division that you can apply.
Topic | Probable number of questions | Time in minutes |
---|---|---|
English comprehension | 10 | 5-6 minutes |
Fillers | 3-4 | 2-3 minutes |
Phrase replacement | 3-4 | 3-4 minutes |
Cloze test | 5 | 3-4 minutes |
Match the columns | 2-3 | 3-4 minutes |
Spotting errors | 2-3 | 2-3 minutes |
Para jumbles | 2-3 | 3-4 minutes |
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The quantitative aptitude section has 35 questions and 20 minutes allotted for all of them. It is also the most time consuming section even if you know the methods of solving the problems. This is primarily because every question is numerical-based and requires extremely fast and accurate calculation skills to solve within the designated time. Aim to correctly solve around 26-29 questions from this section without any error to secure way more than the sectional cut-off and enough to meet the prelims cut-off.
Topic | Probable number of questions | Time in minutes |
---|---|---|
Number Series | 2-3 | 5-6 minutes |
Quadratic Equations | 2-3 | 2-3 minutes |
Simplification/ Approximation | 2-3 | 3-4 minutes |
Data Interpretation (1-2 set) | 5-10 | 3-4 minutes |
Arithmetic Questions | 8-10 | 3-4 minutes |
Data Sufficiency | 2-3 | 2-3 minutes |
Quantity based questions | 2-3 | 3-4 minutes |
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This section also has 35 questions and 20 minutes allotted for it. While it is tricky and time consuming, if you practice the previous year questions as well as solved examples from good reference books, you will get a hang of the question pattern and hence can solve them easily. It is a very scoring section and does not require time for many calculations but you have to be quick with your logic.
Topic | Probable number of questions | Time in minutes |
---|---|---|
Puzzles and Seating Arrangement (2-3 sets) | 4-10 | 7-8 minutes |
Syllogism | 3-4 | 2-3 minutes |
Inequality | 2-3 | 2-3 minutes |
Coding - Decoding | 3-4 | 2-3 minutes |
Alphanumeric Series | 3-4 | 2-3 minutes |
Input - Output | 2-3 | 3-4 minutes |
Miscellaneous Topics like Blood Relations, Direction, Ranking Alphabet Test etc. | 4-5 | 3-4 minutes |
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Time management along with high accuracy is the key to crack a number of competitive exams including IBPS Clerk Prelims. The only way to make the most of the time is improving your mental maths and logical analysis through dedicated practice. This way you can make sure that the 60 minute duration does not prove to be a hindrance to your successful banking career.
*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.