IBPS SO is a national level entrance exam for the selection of professionals for specific departments. Several job roles like that of the IT Officer, Law officer, HR, Agricultural field officer and Marketing officer are filled up through this exam. Owing to the specialized nature of the posts, only candidates with the relevant qualification are going to be eligible to apply. The exam has three stages which are the prelims, mains and provincial allotment of the post. The exam pattern, syllabus and the types of questions in IBPS SO is slightly different from that of the IBPS PO and clerk since it is a specialized position. While you can get somewhat overlapping of the syllabus in the prelims the mains for both the exams have a completely different syllabus.

We have shared some tips and suggestions which will help you with preparing the technical section or the professional section for IBPS SO. The mains paper is entirely dedicated to it and in other words, we have shared tips for the preparation of the IBPS SO Mains exam.

Exam pattern of IBPS SO Technical Section

Once you qualify the prelims of IBPS SO, you are eligible to appear for IBPS SO mains. The mains exam has one paper that is dedicated to the specific post for which you are applying. This means, there is no common paper for all and depending on the post the questions and the relevant syllabus will vary. All these sets of question papers are known as the professional knowledge test. There are 60 questions to be done in 45 minutes and the maximum marks are 60. However, for the post of Rajbhasha Adhikari, there are 45 object type questions and 2 descriptive questions that have to be completed in a total of 1 hour. The total marks is 60. For all the posts, there is 0.25 negative marking in the objective type questions for every wrong answer.

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Syllabus for IBPS SO Technical section

Since the requirements, educational qualifications are different for the posts for which the recruitment is done through IBPS SO, and hence the syllabus is different too. The plus side is you have to prepare the syllabus that is relevant to the post for which you are applying. But it also means, the vacancy is very limited and the competition is high and hence your preparation should be exceptionally good. The following are the syllabuses for the different technical sections or related posts for which you apply:

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When you are familiar with the relevant syllabus of your post, you will find it much easier to make a preparation strategy accordingly.

General tips for preparing IBPS SO Technical section

Since the technical section is specially dedicated to the knowledge relevant to the specific post, subject-wise tips may not be always possible. However, keeping in mind certain generic tips will help you to minimize the time and effort needed to finish the syllabus-

• Make sure you are thoroughly familiar with the marking schemes and exam pattern of the technical section so that you can smartly attempt the paper. When you know the pattern of questions and the topics from which the majority number of questions are asked, you will be able to determine the more important parts of the syllabus that have to be studied and also the sections that you can skip if you are hard-pressed for time.
• Revise as many times as you can especially for the important topics. This means you have to begin the preparation well ahead of time so that you can complete the entire syllabus and have enough time for the revision too. Irrespective of the post for which you are applying, start the preparation at least 3 months before the exam and make sure you dedicatedly study every day.
• Make a proper time table which can be followed realistically for the preparation plan. Include frequent and short break times to make the study plan more interesting. The key is to follow this routine very strictly until the exam commences.
• Maintain a diary or notebook where you record your daily progress and also note down topics that you could not cover on a specific day even if you had planned to. This will help you determine the days when you need to put extra effort into the preparation and also for the days when you can relax a bit.
• Avoid last-minute cramming which only leaves the person confused and can even affect your previous preparations. It will also make you more anxious when you will not be able to remember anything from the topics you crammed last minute and overall have a negative effect on your exam.
• Go through the last year’s question papers of your specific post and attempt speed tests frequently so that you are able to complete the paper in time with better accuracy.
• Time management is very important in the preparation for IBPS SO technical section. The syllabus may be relevant to your academic years but it is nevertheless huge for all the posts and to revise all of them multiple times, you must dedicate at least 9+ hours to your daily studies.
• Make a record of your scores and analyze the performance in the mock tests. Attempt as many mock tests as you can and evaluate your performance to determine whether you have progressed at all.
• To be selected, you must meet the minimum cut-off marks required which is the total of your prelims and mains. To reduce your stress during the mains, you must ensure that your prelims score is extraordinarily good. The cut-off varies between 110-125 out of 210. If you secure 90+ marks in prelims, you can easily acquire the cut-off by correctly answering approximately 50% of the questions in the technical sections. These are calculations that should be done to make sure your preparation strategy is up to the mark.
• Once you get the paper, dedicate a couple of minutes to reading the entire paper thoroughly and marking the questions you are sure about and the questions which are easy enough to solve. Start attempting the paper with these questions as it will boost your confidence and motivate you to attempt the more complex sections.
• Skip questions which you are not very confident with as there is negative marking and trying to attempt as many questions as possible also increases the chances of mistakes and resultant negative deductions.

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Recommended books for IBPS SO technical section

For IBPS IT Officer-

• IBPS IT Officer Guide- Disha Publication
• Computer for Competitive Exams: Fundamental of Computer with MCQs: Fundamentals of Computer with Multiple Choice Questions 1st Edition by RPH Editorial Board
• Objective Computer Awareness for General Competitive Exams 1st Edition by R Pillai

For IBPS Law Officer-

• Law Officer Guide with Practice Sets
• IBPS Specialist Officer CWE LAW Officer Online Exam Practice Work Book by Kiran Prakashan

For IBPS Marketing Officer-

• Marketing officer exam guide with practice sets
• CWE-IBPS Bank-Marketing Specialist Officer Exam: Complete Book by Priyanka Prakashan

For Agricultural Field Officer-

• CWE-IBPS Bank Agriculture Field Officer Exam Complete Book by Priyanka Prakashan
• Agricultural Officer Exam Guide

For HR/Personnel Officer-

• HR Officer exam Guide with Practice Sets

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The technical section of IBPS SO is challenging as it does not match the syllabus of any other banking exam and is solely dedicated to your academic year syllabus. However, with the right approach to the preparation strategy, you can ace the paper. We hope the generic tips shared by us will be helpful to all aspirants and wish the best of luck to all of you for the upcoming IBPS SO 2020 exam.