1. IBPS CWE PO-MT Exam Structure
  2. IBPS: High priority topics
  3. General Awareness + Banking Awareness
  4. #1: Banking Awareness (Theory)
    1. Minimum Topics from IBPS Banking Awareness theory
    2. RBI
    3. Banks: Basics
    4. Banking services
    5. Rural banking
    6. Bad Loans
    7. International banking
  5. #2: Banking Awareness (Current Affairs)
  6. #3: Economy (Theory)
  7. #4: Economy: Current Affairs
  8. #5: International Affairs (IA)
  9. #6: Polity Current affairs
  10. #7: Misc.GK: Filler topics
  11. #7: Misc.GK: PIN/Award/Sports
  12. Computer Awareness- Topicwise Breakup

IBPS CWE PO-MT Exam Structure

Written Stage: Multi choice Questions (MCQs)

Section 2011,2012 2013 (online test)
  1. Reasoning
50 50
  1. English Language
50 Qs x 0.5=25 marks 40
  1. Quantitative Aptitude (Maths + DI)
50 50
  1. General Awareness (+ Banking Awareness)
50 40
  1. Computer Knowledge
50 20
Descriptive Paper of English 25 -removed-
Total Marks 250 200
Time-limit (minutes) 150 for MCQ+60 for descriptive 120
  • Sectional cutoff? = yes
  • Negative marking?= yes, Minus 0.25% per wrong answer.

Interview stage

  • Minimum qualifying marks in interview =40% for general and 35% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD candidates).
  • The weightage (ratio) of Written: interview = 80:20

IBPS: High priority topics

In the game of chess, if you try to defend every piece, you’ll end up losing every piece. Competitive exams are no different. So in the first round of preparation, you try to get a steel grip over following topics.

Section High priority area
Revision Essential
  1. General Awareness
  1. Banking awareness theory
  2. Economy current affairs
  1. Computer
  1. MS Office 2007 (or 2010 or 2013)
  2. internet related topics
Practice Essential
  1. Reasoning
  1. High level reasoning (Syllogism + assumption/inference)
  2. Sitting arrangement
  1. Quantitative aptitude
  1. BOSMAS/simplification
  2. Data interpretation (DI)
  1. English
  1. Grammar rules + Sentence correction
  2. Daily practice of comprehension + sentence arrangement.

Uske baad, you venture into other areas to enhance your preparation further. In this article, we see the approach for two sections

  1. General Awareness + Banking awareness
  2. Computer Awareness.

Remaining sections, dealt in separate articles.

General Awareness + Banking Awareness

chart IBPS Banking Awareness & General Awareness

IBPS CWE PO/MT Exam of20112012
Banking Banking Theory 18 15
Banking Current Affairs 4 6
Banking Subtotal 22 21
Economy Economy Theory 2 4
Economy Current Affairs 9 7
Economy Subtotal 11 11
IA International Current Affairs 4 5
Polity Polity Current Affairs 2 3
Current Affairs (IA+Polity) 6 8
Misc.GK Misc.PIN 6 3
Misc.Sports 2 4
Misc.Books-Authors 1 1
Misc.filler (Census, Geography, Nuke Reactors, Defense etc.) 2 2
Misc.GK subtotal 11 10
Total 50 50

Each year, more than 30 out of 50 questions came from (Banking + Economy) only. Hence Priority order for study:

  1. Banking: and within banking: Theory >> Current
  2. Economy: and within Economy: Current >> Theory

#1: Banking Awareness (Theory)

  1. Any one Book on Banking awareness (theory) Topics
BOOK MY  REVIEW/COMMENT
  1. Money, Banking and Finance by BSC Publication
  • Cheap, reliable work horse.
  • Not updated after 2009 (only reprinted), but for IBPS level theory, its coverage is sufficient and you can always google for any latest happenings.
  • Doesn’t contain practice MCQs. (Although doesn’t matter because you’ll be using a separate book on papersets anyways)
  1. Principles and Practices of Banking By Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIFB)
  • Written for JAIIB/CAIIB type exams, printing-structure-explanation is professional grade.
  • Few MCQs after each chapter.
  • Doesn’t burden you with lot technical-legal aspects, sticks to conceptual clarity.
  • Not updated after 2008, just reprinted.
  1. Handbook of Banking information by N.S.Toor (Skylark Publication)
  • Written for JAIIB/CAIIB type exams.
  • Most updated information about banking topics, among the given books. (36th Edition released in Jan 2013).
  • But also burdens you with many technical-legal aspects that are not much relevent from IBPS exam point of view.
  • Contains more MCQs than previous book by IIFB.

If you have any similar book from Arihant Publication, Kiran Prakashan etc. that is also fine.  All these books have overlapping content. Remember that you’ve to finish the topics, not the ‘books’.

  1. + Various articles posted on Mrunal.org/economy
  2. Anyone BankPO Paperset for practicing the MCQs
    1. Arihant’s paperset of previous Bank PO exams
    2. Kiran Prakashan’s Paperset for IBPS PO/MT (with FREE CD for computer test)
    3. If you’ve paper set from any other publication, that’ll also work just fine.

Minimum Topics from Banking theory

You’ll have to face banking awareness, not only at the MCQ-stage but also during interview stage. Here is the list of Minimum Topics to be prepared. Don’t do Ph.D on any topic, just get an overview from MCQ point of view. (same advice for all the topics listed in this entire article)

RBI

  1. Origin of RBI. Who is the current governor, whom did he replace?
  2. RBI vs SEBI vs IRDA: Name of their main bosses, Who controls what? NBFCs, MFI, Gold Loans, ULIP, Mutual funds etc.
  3. powers functions of RBI
  4. How does RBI control the money supply?
  5. Open market operations, MSF, liquidity adjustment facility
  6. SLR, CRR, Repo, Reverse repo, bank rate
  7. Priority sector lending: and its subsectors. How do they apply to Domestic bank vs foreign bank?
  8. Currency chest, Mint and press. Who signs coins and currency?
  9. Measures of money supply
  10. Foreign exchange management, components of forex reserves, approx. forex under RBI. Powers under FERA/FEMA, Tarapore Committee on capital account convertibility
  11. Banking regulation act and its recent amendment
  12. Banking reform, Banking License, Narsimhan, BASEL.

Banks: Basics

  1. What is bank? What are its functions? how is it different from an NBFC/NBFC-factor, Post-office savings, Chit Fund, Nidhi etc?
  2. Types of banks: commercial banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks, investment banks, development banks etc.
  3. What is a Scheduled commercial bank?
  4. Public sector versus private sector banks. Where does RTI apply?
  5. IDBI, ICICI, IFCI, SIDBI, EXIM, NHB etc.
  6. Bank nationalization, mergers and consolidations.
  7. Names of chairman/CMD of big banks.
  8. Basic GK related to banks: first commercial bank in India, first bank setup by Indians, origin of SBI/ICICI, subsidiaries of SBI, etc.

Banking services

  1. Assets, liabilities and working capital of a bank.
  2. Demand liabilities vs time liabilities
  3. Banker’s rights (lien). Know your customer (KYC) norms, Adhar Card enabled payment, Money laundering, Benami transections
  4. Types of Bank customers and provisions related to them:
    1. Minor-Guardian, partnership firms
    2. HUF and karta
    3. NRI, PIO
    4. joint account holders
    5. Married Women
    6. partnership firm accounts
    7. public/private companies
    8. trusts and cooperatives
  5. Types of bank accounts and their features:
    1. current account, savings account
    2. term deposit account, fixed deposit,
    3. PPF, senior citizen’s account
    4. NRE-rupee account, FCNR account, RFC, EEFC, escrow account
    5. Allied topic: post office savings account and National savings certificate
  6. Unclaimed/dormant accounts, RBI provision for them, Death of customer, insolvent customer, liquidation, Garnishee orders
  7. Types of negotiable instruments: bank draft, bank check, promissory note, warehouse receipt, Treasury bills etc.
  8. Cheque:
    1. order/bearer/travel/bankers cheque
    2. endorsement, cheque-crossing,
    3. post-dated cheque, what if cheque-date is invalid (31st Feb) or holiday (2nd Oct)?
    4. when Bank should not pay, cheque-dishonor (cheque-bouncing)
    5. MICR, Cheque truncation, new CTS-system
    6. Note refund rule, clan note-policy
  9. demand drafts, telegraphic transfers, safe deposit lockers
  10. ATM: PIN, HWAK, White Label ATM, third party ATM
  11. Debit card, credit card, smart card
  12. Mobile Banking, personal banking, tele-banking, corporate banking
  13. Online banking:
    1. NEFT, RGTS, EFTS, Bankwire, E-commerce
    2. networking among banks: INDONET, BankNET, RBINET, SWIFT, Point of Sale (POS) terminal
    3. core-banking solutions
    4. Electronic signature and Information Technology Act
  14. Loans
    1. different type of loan products,
    2. Subprime lending
    3. mortgage, reverse mortgage, collaterals, stamp duty on loan documents
    4. lien, set-off
    5. Priority sector lending: and its subsectors. How do they apply to Domestic bank vs Foreign bank?
  15. bank guarantee, letters of credit
  16. Banking Ombudman: powers functions, appeal structure and Consumer courts
  17. Bancassurance, cross-selling, universal / narrow / retail banking

Rural banking

  1. RBI vs NABARD
  2. Rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) and budget-2013 allocation for RIDF
  3. financial inclusion and various government schemes associated with it (covered in my economic survey summaries, available on mrunal.org/economy)
  4. regional rural banks, their amalgation
  5. cooperative banks
  6. micro-finance institutions (MFI)
  7. primary agricultural credit Society
  8. Banking correspondent agents (covered in my article)
  9. lead bank scheme, local area banks, service area approach
  10. Kisan credit card, interest subvention on crop-loans

^Almost all of these topics have been covered in my articles on Mrunal.org/Economy

Bad Loans

  1. What is NPA?
  2. Gross NPA versus net NPA
  3. Asset classification under NPA (substandard/doubtful/loss)
  4. Current figure of NPA? Which bank has highest NPA?
  5. Capital adequacy norms, hypothecation
  6. CIBIL and credit rating
  7. SARFAESI Act and its recent amendment
  8. asset reconstruction companies
  9. Debt recovery tribunals.
  10. Lok Adalats
  11. Industrial sickness
  12. Board for industrial and financial Reconstruction

International banking

  1. Bretton Woods
  2. World Bank
  3. IMF: SDR, voting rights
  4. Who are the Main boss of IMF, World Bank, ADB?
  5. BASEL
  6. bank for International settlement
  7. Asian clearing union
  8. Islamic Banking
  9. ADR, GDR, IDR

again, most of these topics have been covered in my articles on Mrunal.org/Economy

Sample questions from previous papers

Observe the following questions asked in previous IBPS PO papers, it’ll give you an idea on what kind of information you should be focusing on, while reading the banking awareness theory.

Q. RBI related

  1. Which of the following is a correct statement?
    1. State Bank of India is the sole authority to issue and manage currency in India.
    2. A nationalised bank is the sole authority to issue and manage currency in India.
    3. A cooperative bank is the sole authority to issue and manage currency in India.
    4. RBI is the sole authority to issue and manage currency in India. None of these
  2. By increasing repo rate, the economy may observe the following effects:
    1. Rate of interest on loans and advances will be costlier
    2. Industrial output would be affected to an extent
    3. Banks will increase rate of interest on deposits
    4. Industry houses may borrow money from foreign countries
    5. All of these
  1. Which of the following is NOT a function of the Reserve Bank of India?
    1. Fiscal Policy Functions
    2. Exchange Control Functions
    3. Issuance, Exchange and destruction of currency notes
    4. Monetary Authority Functions
    5. Supervisory and Control Functions
  2. Interest payable on savings bank accounts is
    1. Not regulated by RBI.
    2. Regulated by State Governments.
    3. Regulated by Central Government.
    4. Regulated by RBI.
    5. Regulated by Finance minister.

Q. Bank Nationalisation / types of banks related

  1. Nationalization of banks aimed at all of the following except
    1. Provision of adequate credit foragriculture, SME & exports
    2. Removal of control by a few capitalists
    3. Provision of credit to big industries only
    4. Access of banking to masses
    5. Encouragement of a new class of entrepreneurs
  1. Axis Bank is a
    1. Public Sector bank
    2. Private Sector Bank
    3. Co-operative Bank
    4. Foreign Bank
    5. Gramin Bank

Q. Banking services

  1. Which of the following statements is true?
    1. Banks cannot accept demand and time deposits from public.
    2. Banks can accept only demand deposits from public
    3. Banks can accept only time deposits from public
    4. Banks can accept both demand and time deposits from public.
    5. Banks can accept demand and time deposits only from government.
  2. With reference to a cheque which of the following is the ‘drawee bank’?
    1. The bank that collects the cheque
    2. The payee’s bank
    3. The endorsee’s bank
    4. The endorser’s bank
    5. The bank upon which the cheque is drawn
  1. Which one of the following is a retail banking product?
    1. Home Loans
    2. Working capital finance
    3. Corporate term loans
    4. Infrastructure financing
    5. Export Credit
  2. A money deposit at a bank that cannot be withdrawn for a preset fixed of time is known as a
    1. Term deposit
    2. Checking Account
    3. Savings Bank Deposit
    4. No Frills Account
    5. Current Deposit

Q. online banking related

  1. An ECS transaction gets bounced and you are unable to recover your money from your customer. Under which Act criminal action can be initiated?
    1. Indian Penal Code
    2. Negotiable Instruments Act
    3. Criminal Procedure Code
    4. Payment and Settlements Act
    5. Indian Contract Act
  1. Upper limit prescribed for RTGS transaction is
    1. Rs. 1 lac
    2. Rs. 2 lacs
    3. Rs. 5 lacs
    4. Rs. 50 lac
    5. No upper limit is prescribed
  2. NEFT means
    1. National Electronic Funds Transfer system
    2. Negotiated Efficient Fund Transfer System
    3. National Efficient Fund Transfer Solution
    4. Non Effective Funds Transfer System
    5. Negotiated Electronic Foreign Transfer System

Q. ombudsman related

  1. Mr. Rajendra had filed a complaint with Banking Ombudsman but is not satisfied with the decision. What is the next option him for getting his matter resolved?
    1. Write to the CMD of the Bank
    2. File an appeal before the Finance Minister
    3. File an appeal before the Banking Ombudsman again
    4. File an appeal before the Dy. Governor RBI
    5. Simply close the matter as going to court involves time and money
  1. Banking Ombudsman Scheme is applicable to the business of
    1. All scheduled commercial banks excluding RRBs
    2. All scheduled commercial banks including RRBs
    3. Only Public Sector Banks
    4. All Banking Companies
    5. All scheduled banks except private banks

#2: Banking Awareness (Current Affairs)

for this, you’ve to keep an eye on the newspapers + monthly current affairs in magazines. Main focus areas:

  1. RBI’s monetary policy and key rates
  2. Any committee made by RBI/government for Banking sector. Who is its chairman and what is the purpose?
  3. Any new directives to banks by RBI/Finance Ministry
  4. Person in News: Any new appointments in RBI/Big Banks, Any Indian being appointed in foreign banks
  5. Banking license, entry of foreign banks.
  6. When a big bank launches a new product
  7. Government schemes associated with financial inclusion/pension/insurance:  swabhiman, swavalamban etc.

Important: Whenever you come across above info, Note them in a separate diary/file and revise multiple times.

Observe the sample questions from previous IBPS PO exams, this will give you an idea on what type of information to focus on, while reading current affairs.

  1. Finance Ministry has asked the Reserve Bank of India to allow common ATM’s that will be owned and managed by non-banking entities hopping to cut transaction costs for banks. Such ATM’s are known as
    1. Black Label ATM’s
    2. Offsite ATM’s
    3. On site ATM’s or red ATM’s
    4. Third party ATM’s
    5. White label ATM’s
  2. The committee on review of National Small Saving Fund (NSSF) was headed by
    1. Dr. C. Rangarajan
    2. Mr. U.K. Sinha
    3. Dr. Y.V. Reddy
    4. Mrs. Shyamala Gopinath
    5. Dr. Usha Thorat
  3. Who is the chairman of the committee constituted by RBI to study Issues and Concerns in the Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) Sector?
    1. YH Malegam
    2. Dr KC Chakraborty
    3. C Rangrajan
    4. M Damodaran
    5. Smt Usha Thorat
  4. Which of the following states became the first state in the country to launch RBI’s e-payment system for commercial tax payers?
  5. Andhra Pradesh
  6. Kerala
  7. Gujarat
  8. Maharashtra
  9. Karnataka
  1. As per revised RBI Guidelines, Provision on secured portion of loan accounts classified as Doubtful Assets for more than one year and upto 3 (three) years is to be made at the rate of
    1. 15%
    2. 20%
    3. 40%
    4. 25%
    5. 30%
  2. Which of the following banks is headed by a woman CEO
    1. Bank of Baroda
    2. HDFC Bank
    3. Central Bank of India
    4. Punjab National Bank
    5. ICICI Bank
  3. Who among the following has been appointed as a director on board of Bank of America-the first non-American on the board of the one of the largest financial institutions in the world?
    1. Azim Premji
    2. Ratan Tata
    3. Mukesh Ambani
    4. KV Kamath
    5. Chanda Kochar

Enough of Banking awareness, let’s move to next topic:

#3: Economy (Theory)

Although in previous IBPS exams, within economy they gave more emphasis on current affairs over theory portion. But still, You must get a good grasp over basic concepts of economy. Because of following reasons

  1. For the interview / group discussion stage of banks/IIMs/State PCS/UPSC exam, you’ll have to prepare current affairs related to Economy, particularly downfall of rupee, current account deficit, petroleum pricing, FDI etc.
  2. For that ^that, you’ll have to read newspapers and news columns, but those people write articles with assumption that reader already knows the basic theory! So, if you don’t know the theory, you’ll find those articles boring/difficult to grasp=> shallow answers during interview/GD=low marks=no selection or lower rank.

Source:

  1. Mrunal.org/economy
  2. NCERT Textbooks (click to download for free)
    1. India’s Economic Development Class 11
    2. Macroeconomics Class 12
    3. NIOS Material on Economy:  if you’ve time and mood.
  3. If you’ve Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (TMH Publication), read it. IF you don’t have it, then there is no need to specifically buy the book only for IBPS.
  4. Google as and when necessary.

Here is the list of minimum topics that should be prepared from Economy Theory / static portion

Basic

  1. Basic terms: GDP, NDP, GNP, NNP, recession, purchasing power parity etc.
  2. Three types of Economies: Capitalism, Socialist, communism + LPG reforms of India
  3. human development index
  4. millennium development goals

Indian Economy

  1. Planning commission, National development Council, five-year plans, main targets of 12 five-year plan.
  2. 14th Finance commission and who is its chairman?
  3. Inflation: types, impact, various terms associated with inflation WPI, CPI, their new series, who calculates what?
  4. IIP, industrial licensing, definition of  MSME, items reserved for SSI,
  5. public sector undertaking, disinvestment

Finance

  1. Money market vs capital market: functions, who supervises them?
  2. Commercial bills, Treasury bills, certificate of deposit, commercial paper
  3. Derivatives, options-futures, currency swaps,
  4. underwriting, factoring
  5. debt vs equity: IPO-shares, stocks, debentures, bonds, mutual funds (+NAV), G-sec
  6. venture capital, angel investor
  7. SEBI: functions, who is their main boss?
  8. Stock Exchange: BSE, NSE, SENSEX, Dollex etc.
  9. Credit rating: CRISIL, Moody, S&P etc.
  10. participatory notes, QFI, FII
  11. FDI and its limits in various sectors, FIPB
  12. PAN card and DEMAT account
  13. external commercial borrowing (ECB), ADR, GDR, IDR

Budget

  1. Taxation:
    1. direct vs indirect. taxation powers of union and state
    2. tax deduction at source
    3. tax slabs
    4. negative list in service tax
    5. PAN Card, E-filling of tax returns
    6. Basics of VAT, GST
  2. types of budgets: surplus, deficit, balanced
  3. votable vs non-votable items
  4. Finance Bill and appropriation Bill
  5. cut motions: policy cut, economy cut, token cut
  6. general budget versus railway budget
  7. revenue versus capital expenditure
  8. standing committees of Parliament
  9. types of deficits, FRBM targets
  10. fiscal deficit and its impact on economy
  11. Consolidated fund, contingency fund, public account

Insurance

  1. Types of insurance
  2. Nationalization, LIC, GIC etc.
  3. IRDA: chairman, power-functions
  4. NPS, EPFO, ESIC, social security
  5. pension-insurance reforms, FDI
  6. Bancassurance

Foreign trade

  1. current account, capital account, balance of trade, balance of payment
  2. rupee convertibility
  3. currency devaluation, appreciation
  4. GATT, WTO
  5. FERA, FEMA
  6. NEER, REER

Sample questions from previous papers

  1. Financial inclusion means provision of
    1. Financial services, namely, payments, remittances, savings, loans and insurance at affordable cost to persons not yet given the same.
    2. Ration at affordable cost to persons not yet given the same.
    3. House at affordable cost to persons not yet given the same.
    4. Food at affordable cost to persons not yet given the same.
    5. Education at affordable cost to persons not yet given the same.
  2. When the rate of inflation increases
  3. purchasing power of money increases
  4. purchasing power of money decreases
  5. value of money increases
  6. purchasing power of money remains unaffected
  7. amount of money in circulation decreases
  1. When there is a difference between all receipts and expenditure of the Govt. of India, both capital and revenue, it is called
    1. Revenue Deficit
    2. Budgetary Deficit
    3. Zero Budgeting
    4. Trade Gap
    5. Balance of payment problem
  2. Which of the following is not considered a money market instrument?
    1. Treasury bills
    2. Repurchase Agreement
    3. Commercial Paper
    4. Certificate of Deposit
    5. Shares and bonds

^as you can see, from theory very easy questions have been asked. Hence just get an overview, don’t spend too much time on Economy theory portion. Now moving to:

#4: Economy: Current Affairs

  • Main focus should be on Union Budget 2013 + Economic survey.
  • The summary of all Economic survey chapters=available on Mrunal.org/economy. And in those summaries, I’ve also included various government schemes, organizations, even the Human development index.
Budget-2013 “Numbers” related to Economy
For Budget-2013, you don’t have to prepare each and everything, just focus on following areas

  1. Chindu’s Budget speech: (click me). look for major announcements e.g. We are working with RBI and NABARD to bring all other banks, including some cooperative banks, on Core Banking solution and e-payment systems by 31.12.2013.
  2. Major highlights of Budget-2013 (click me)
  3. Income tax slabs
  4. peak rates of excise, service tax and custom duty
  5. Negative list of Service tax.
For “Numbers”, prepare following

  1. latest Estimates of GDP
  2. IIP, WPI, CPI: highest lowest in recent times.
  3. Repo rate, CRR, SLR, Bank rate: highest lowest in recent times.
  4. Rupee vs dollar: highest lowest in recent times.
  5. fiscal deficit, current account deficit
  6. latest FDI limits in various sectors
  7. top-5 items in export and import
  8. excise, service tax, income tax, custom duty (highest to lowest in terms of income to government)

For remaining current affair related matters e.g. US/EU economic problems, measures taken by government to boost investment/GDP, curb current account deficit / gold consumption etc.

  1. Economy section under any one Monthly current affairs magazine AND/OR
  2. economy related news within monthly updates of Competitionmaster.com
  3. +keep a habit of reading English newspaper on daily basis, it’ll help you in reading comprehension, general awareness and interview.

Observe the sample questions from previous IBPS PO exam, it will give you an idea of what type of information you should be focusing on, while reading magazine/newspaper for economy current affairs.

Q. US/EU related

Almost all the major economies of the world had reacted sharply on the issue of the USA’s ceiling limit on its debt. Why was the issue so important for other nations, which otherwise was an internal matter for the USA?

  1. The Senate’s decision on the issue might have caused the US dollar to weaken further or get strengthened in international markets.
  2. Weakening of the dollar might have pushed up Euro and other major currencies up and some European countries which were already in trouble would have faced a new crisis.
  3. Debt limit was directly related to liquidity position of banks in USA.

answer choices

  1. Only (A)
  2. Only (B)
  3. Only (A) and (B) both
  4. Only (B) and (C) both
  5. All (A), (B) and (C)

Q. Foreign Trade related

  1.  The present Foreign Trade policy of India will continue till
    1. December 2012
    2. March 2013
    3. March 2014
    4. June 2013
    5. December 2014
The Govt. of India recently decided to lift the four-years- old ban on export of wheat. What was the reason for the same?

  1. India had a bumper crop of wheat during last two years. Hence it has excess stock of wheat.
  2. As per the Food Security Act, India is bound to provide 10 million tones of wheat to World food grain stock every year. India defaulted last year. This year it does not want to be one.
  3. As advised by the Supreme Court of India, the money received from export should be used to pay subsidy to the farmers.

Answer Choices

  1. Only(B)
  2. Only (A)
  3. Only (C)
  4. Both (A) and (B)
  5. All (A), (B) and (C)

Q.Govt schemes

  1. Which of the following schemes of the Govt. of India has provided electrically to 99000 villages and total 1.7 crore households uptill now?
    1. Kuti Jyoti
    2. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana
    3. Bharat Nirman
    4. PURA SEWA
  1. Which of the following schemes is launched to provide pension to people in unorganized sectors in India?
    1. Swabhiman
    2. Jeevan Dhara
    3. Jeevan Kalyan
    4. ASHA
    5. Swavalamban

Q. Government Policies to boost investment/GDP

  1. The Govt. of which of the following states has agreed to give captive mines of iron- ores to all the companies who are willing to establish plants there?
    1. West Bengal
    2. Odisha
    3. Jharkhand
    4. Bihar
    5. Karnataka
  2. POSCO is in the process of establishing its plants in India. What does the letter ‘P’ denote in the name POSCO?
    1. Popular
    2. Pallin
    3. Pohang
    4. Paradeep
    5. Peterburg
  1. In order to attract more foreign exchange the Govt. of India decided to allow foreign investment in LLP firms. What is full form of “LLP” as used in this reference?
  1. Local Labour Promotion
  2. Low Labour Projects
  3. Limited Loan Partnership
  4. Longer Liability Partnership
  5. Limited Liability Partnership

Enough of Economy, let’s move to next topic.

#5: International Affairs (IA)

For CDS, CAPF, IBPS= “international-affairs’ is a common topic. Even at interview stage, you might come across questions from here. The Cost: benefit is quite good, if you focus on the right areas.

Although IA+Polity current had less questions than Misc.GK in previous IBPS PO Exams, but I put them at higher place in this priority order. Why?

  1. The cost: benefit of IA+Polity current is higher than Misc.GK (in terms of amount of data to be memorized, to solve one MCQ in the actual exam.)
  2. You’ll have to prepare current affairs related to IA+Polity for the interview anyways, while Misc.GK loses significance @interview stage.

Reference source for IA

  1. International Affairs section under any one Monthly current affairs magazine (PRatiyogita, CST etc) AND/OR
  2. Monthly updates of Competitionmaster.com
  3. +keep a habit of reading English newspaper on daily basis, it’ll help you in reading comprehension, general awareness and interview.

Areas to focus?

  1. PIN (Persons in news) : election of new PM/Prez. in any country. Heads of main international organizations.
  2. Places in news: where some summit/controversial event happened.
  3. Recent summits of ASEAN, SAARC, G-8 etc. Location and theme.
  4. bilateral visits and agreements
  5. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, new Schemes related to NRIs
  6. Any recent controversies: Snowden, Wikileaks, Syria, Egypt etc.

^Don’t do Ph.D, just focus on persons/places in news and main reason(s)/features.

Observe the following questions that were asked in previous IBPS PO exams, it’ll give you an idea on what type of information you should be focusing on, while reading about international affairs.

Q. Bilateral visits

  1. The Home Minister of India was recently on a visit to Bangladesh, where both the countries signed a Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP). What are the major points of this agreement?
  1. The plan will help in resolving the long-pending border dispute between both the nations.
  2. The head count of the people living in enclaves on the border will be completed within next six months’ time.
  3. India assured that no BSF Jawan will open fire on the people crossing the borders unless there is an attack on them.

answer choices

  1. Only (A)
  2. Only (B)
  3. Only C
  4. All (A), (B) and (C)
  5. Both (A) and (C)
  1. The President of India was recently on a visit to South Korea and Mongolia. During her visit some agreements were signed by both the countries. Which of the following was a common area on which India signed agreements with South Korea and Mongolia both?
  1. Peaceful use of Nuclear energy
  2. Export of edible oil toSouth Korea and Mongolia
  3. Providing technical help to become self-sufficient in production of food grains
  4. Willingness of both the countries to support India’s bid to have permanent seat in UN Security Council
  5. To hold Olympic games in 2022 in New Delhi jointly with South Korea and Mongolia

Q. Controversy related

  1. Which of the following was the issue over which India decided to vote against Sri Lanka in the meeting of one of the UN governed bodies/agencies?
    1. Violations of human right in Sri Lanka
    2. Allowing China to establish a military based in India ocean
    3. Issue of subsidy on agricultural products in the meeting of the WTO
    4. Allowing part of Sri Lanka to become an independent country governed by LTTE
    5. Sri Lanka’s claim to become a permanent member of UN Security Council
  2. The president of which of the following countries was accused of violation of “War Powers Act” of his country when he decide to attack Libya with other NATO countries in June 2011?
    1. USA
    2. France
    3. Germany
    4. Spain
    5. Italy
  1. What was the reason owing to which Enrica Lexie, an Italian ship was detained by the Port Authorities in Kerala and was brought to Cochin port for inspection and search?
    1. It was carrying objectionable material
    2. It was involved in sea piracy
    3. It was detained as the crew killed two Indian fishermen
    4. The ship started sailing without making payments of iron ore it loaded
    5. It was detained as it was dumping nuclear waste in deep sea

Q. International Places in News

  1. The 10th Basic Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change was organized in February 2012 in
    1. Tokyo
    2. Beijing
    3. Manila
    4. Moscow
    5. New Delhi
  1. The Golden Jubilee of Afro-Asian Rural Development organization was organized in which of the following places in March 2012?
    1. Dhaka
    2. Tokyo
    3. Cairo
    4. Kuala Lampur
    5. New Delhi

Q. International Persons in news (PIN)

  1. Angela Merkel was recently in India to receive Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for the year 2009. What has been her contribution to international politics which made her the ‘Best Choice’ for the award?
  1. She played a major role in restarting negotiations between Russia and USA on ‘START’.
  2. She initiated ‘Health Care Reforms’ in Germany and solved problems related to ‘future energy development.’
  3. She played a crucial role in negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon’ and Berlin declaration.

Answer choices

  1. Only (B) and (C)
  2. Only (A) and (B)
  3. Only (C)
  4. Only (A) and (C)
  5. None of these
  1. Who among the following was the Chief Guest at the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas function held in January 2012?
    1. Kamla Persad — Bissessar
    2. Ram Baran Yadav
    3. Lakshmi Mittal
    4. Salman Rushdie
    5. Benjamin Netanyahu
  2. Which of the following countries recently conferred its Highest State Honour on Late Mrs Indira Gandhi for her contribution in its ‘Liberation war’?
    1. South Sudan
    2. Bangladesh
    3. Bhutan
    4. Slovakia
    5. Croatia
  1. Yingluck Shinawatra won recently held election to become first PM of
    1. Myanmar,
    2. S.Korea
    3. Thailand
    4. N.Korea
    5. none of Above

#6: Polity Current affairs

In past exams, 2-3 questions appeared from polity related current affairs. but still cost-benefit is good, just pay attention to key areas within newspaper, magazines and you’ll be able to solve those MCQs effortlessly.

Areas to focus (Don’t do Ph.D, just keep an eye on following topics)

  1. PIN: new CM (particularly North East and those who won multiple times), New CAG/EC/CJI etc.
  2. SC judgments/ scams / controversies
  3. Bills/amendments/acts
  4. committees, scams

Observe the questions from past exams

Q. Polity current: controversy related

The Lokayukta of which of the following States had submitted a report on illegal mining of iron ore in the State?

  1. Andhra Pradesh
  2. Tamil Nadu
  3. Karnataka
  4. Odisha
  5. None of these
  1. Which of the following agencies/ organizations recently gave ‘go-ahead’ verdict to India’s one of the most controversial project of inter linking rivers? (some of the rivers are international rivers)
    1. UN Food and Agriculture Organization
    2. World Meteorological Organization
    3. International Court of Justice
    4. Central Water Commission
    5. Supreme Court of India

Polity: persons/places in news

  1. Who among the following has become the chief Minister of a State in India for third consecutive term?
    1. Tarun Gogoi
    2. Nitish Kumar
    3. J Jayalalitha
    4. Mamta Banerjee
    5. None of these
  1. ‘Gorkhaland Council’, which was recently in news, is a body set up for administration of which of the following Districts?
  1. Siliguri
  2. Bagdogra
  3. Malda
  4. Darjeeiing
  5. Gangtok

Polity: Acts/bills/amendments related

  1. Which of the following acts is vogue in India is against the thinking of raising school fee as per demand of the market forces?
    1. Prevention of Corruption Act
    2. Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act
    3. Sharda Act
    4. Right to Education Act
    5. MG National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
  1. As per the provisions in the Food Security Bill – 2011, per month how much food grain should be given to each person of the target group?
    1. 5 kg
    2. 7 kg
    3. 9 kg
    4. 10 kg
    5. 20 kg

#7: Misc.GK: Filler topics

  • If you’re preparing for CAPF, CDS, State PCS or SSC, you’ll definitely come across good number of questions on geography, census, defense, and science-tech. But for IBPS, they’re only using these topics as filler material. Hence cost: benefit = not good and therefore I put them under Misc.GK.
  • But still while you’re reading newspaper/magazine, doesn’t hurt keeping an eye on following. Here are samples from previous IBPS PO exams.
 GEOGRAPHY CENSUS
  1. The world’s highest “Rail Bridge” is being constructed in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. This bridge will be on which of the following rivers?
    1. Jhelum
    2. Chenab
    3. Indus
    4. Ravi
    5. None of these
  1. Which of the following statements containing results of India’s recent Census is not correct?
    1. Kerala has about 94% literacy, the highest in India.
    2. The sex ratio in India is 940.
    3. Male literacy is lower than female literacy in seven most developed states.
    4. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous State in India.
    5. The population of India has increased by 181 million during the decade 2001-2011.
DEFENSE SCI-TECH/NUKE
  1. ‘Akula-11’ Class ‘K-152 Nerpa’ was inducted in Indian Navy recently. These are
    1. Aircrafts
    2. Radar System
    3. Submarines Missiles
    4. Warship
    5. Submarines
  1. As per newspaper reports, India is planning to use ‘SEU’ as fuel in its 700 MV nuclear reactors being developed in new plans. What is full form of ‘SEU’ as used here?
    1. Safe Electrical Units
    2. Small Electrical Units
    3. Slightly Enriched Uranium
    4. Sufficiently Enriched Units
    5. Safely Enriched Uranium

#7: Misc.GK: PIN/Award/Sports

Finally the most bogus headache topic.

Previous IBPS PO Exams: 2011 2012
Misc.PIN (persons in news, awards) 6 3
Misc.Sports 2 4
Misc.Books-Authors 1 1
Misc.filler (Census, Geography, Nuke Reactors, Defense) 2 2
total 11 10

Source of preparation

  • I’ve published Person in News compilation PIN 2014  click me
  • Copy paste it in MS Word file
  • Goto library, read whatever competitive magazine you get (CST, Pratiyoigta, Chronicle, Wizard) and note down important names/details. You can also use list given by competitionmaster.com for example click me for June 2013

Observe the sample questions from previous exams:

Person in News (PIN)/Awards

  1. Which of the following awards was conferred upon Late Mario De Miranda (Posthumously) in January 2012?
    1. Padma Vibhushan
    2. Bharat Ratna
    3. Kalidas Samman
    4. Saraswati Samman
    5. Padmashri
  2. Which of the following films was not directed by Manikaul, who died recently?
  1. 3 Idiots
  2. Ghashiram Kotwal
  3. Uski Roti
  4. Dividha
  5. Ashadh Ka Ek Din
  1. Ranbir Kapoor was awarded Best Actor in 47th Filmfare Award Function for his performance in
    1. No One Killed Jessica
    2. Stanley Ka Dabba
    3. 7 Khoon Maaf
    4. Rockstar
    5. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Books-Authors

Who among the following is the author of the book ‘Birbasan’?

  1. Mahashweta Devi
  2. Taslima Nasreen
  3. Sunil Gangopadhyay
  4. Vikram Seth
  5. Kiran Desai
Who among the following is the winner of Man Booker Prize 2011?

  1. Andrea Levy
  2. Nicola Barker
  3. TomMcCarthy
  4. Linda Grant
  5. 5) Philip Roth

Sports: Location

  1. National Table Tennis Championship was organized in January 2012 in
    1. Mumbai
    2. Delhi
    3. Hyderabad
    4. Luck now
    5. Jaipur
  1. The 5th Asian Indoor Athletics Championship was organized in February 2012 in
    1. Bangladesh
    2. India
    3. Qatar
    4. China
    5. South Korea

Sports: Winner/loser

  1. Who among the following Indian Lawn Tennis player won a Doubles of Australian Open 2012?
    1. Mahesh Bhupati
    2. Kamlesh Mehta
    3. Leander Paes
    4. Samoa Mirza
    5. Achanta Sarath Kamal
  2. Japan won the women’s Football World Cup 2011 by defeating
    1. England
    2. Germany
    3. Argentina
    4. USA
    5. China
  1. What among the following was the Captain of the Australian Team which played 5 Test matches against India in January 2012 and won all of them?
    1. Ricky Pointing
    2. Michael Clarke
    3. Nathan Lyon
    4. Stuart Clark
    5. Andrew Symonds
  2. Who amongst following won the Wimbledon Men’s final 2011, which was also his first Wimbledon Title?
    1. Rafael Nadal
    2. Novak Djokovic
    3. Robert Bruce
    4. Lleyton Hewitt
    5. None of above.

Computer Awareness- Topicwise Breakup

Topic IBPS CWE PO/MT 2012 2011
MS Office 15 6
OS/software basics 5 8
Internet/network 14 13
virus/security 1 3
hardware 6 14
programming 6 5
database 3 1
total 50 50

^For 2013’s exam, there will be only 20 marks from Computer awareness.

Priority areas:

  1. Within MS Office: Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Important: IBPS asks questions about MS-offce 2007 and onwards (i.e. tabs-interface.) Good news is NIOS material covers that portion.
  2. Internet, Email, Webpage related
  3. Within hardware: types of computers, hardware used in networking & internet

Reference?

  • IF you already have a book for Computer awareness from Kiran, Arihant etc. well and good. Revise it often and solve the mock questions given in it.
  • If you don’t have any book, there is no need to specially purchase any book because the (free) NIOS study material for computer awareness is available for free. Click me to Download.
  • Solve the computer awareness questions from previous years’ Bank PO questions papers.

Let’s look at some sample questions from previous years’ IBPS PO papers

MS Office

To find the Paste Special option, you use the Clipboard group on the tab of PowerPoint.(1) Design(2) Slide Show(3) Page Layout(4) Insert(5) Nome In Power Point, the Header & Footer button can be found on the Insert tab in what group ?

  1. illustrations group
  2. Object group
  3. Text group
  4. Tables group
  5. None of these
The letter and number of the intersecting column and row is the

  1. cell location
  2. cell position
  3. cell address
  4. cell coordinates
  5. Cell contents
______ in Excel allows users to bring together copies of workbooks that other users have worked on independently.

  1. Copying
  2. Merging
  3. Pasting
  4. Compiling
  5. None of these

OS/Software basics

Which of the following software could assist someone who cannot use their hands for computer input?

  1. Video conferencing
  2. Speech recognition
  3. Audio digitizer
  4. Synthesizer
  5. None of these
____ software creates a mirror image of the entire hard disk, including the operating system, applications, files, and data.

  1. Operating system
  2. Backup software
  3. Utility programs
  4. Driver imaging
  5. None of these
What is the name given to those applications that combine text, sound, graphics, motion video, and/or animation ?

  1. motionware
  2. anigraphics
  3. videoscapes
  4. multimedia
  5. maxomedia
You can keep your personal files/folders in

  1. My folder
  2. My Documents
  3. My Files
  4. My Text
  5. None of these

Internet/Email/Networks

____ allows users to upload files to an online site so they can be viewed and edited from another location.

  1. General-purpose applications
  2. Microsoft Outlook
  3. Web-hosted technology
  4. Office Live
  5. None of these
Fourth-generation mobile technology provides enhanced capabilities allowing the transfer of both ____ data, including full-motion video, high-speed Internet access, and videoconferencing.

  1. video data and information
  2. voice and nonvoice
  3. music and video
  4. video and audio
  5. None of these
The method of Internet access that requires a phone line, but offers faster access speeds than dial-up is the  connection.

  1. cable access
  2. satellite access
  3. fiber-optic service
  4. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
  5. modem
A USB communication device that supports data encryption for secure wireless communication for notebook users is called a

  1. USB wireless network adapter
  2. wireless switch
  3. wireless hub
  4. router
  5. None of these

Security

____ is a form of denial of service attack in which a hostile client repeatedly sends SYN packets to every port on the server using take IP addresses.

  1. Cybergaming crime
  2. Memory shaving
  3. Syn flooding
  4. Software piracy
  5. None of these
A person who uses his or her expertise to gain access to other people’s computers to get information illegally or do damage is a

  1. hacker
  2. analyst
  3. instant messenger
  4. programmer
  5. spammer
______are attempts by individuals to obtain confidential information from you by falsifying their identity.

  1. Phishing trips
  2. Computer viruses
  3. Spyware scams
  4. Viruses
  5. Phishing scams

Hardware

Different components on the motherboard of a PC unit are linked together by sets of parallel electrical conducting lines. What are these lines called?

  1. Conductors
  2. Buses
  3. Connectors
  4. Consecutives
  5. None of these
Which part of the computer is used for calculating and comparing ?

  1. ALU
  2. Control unit
  3. Disk unit
  4. Modem
  5. None of these
Reusable optical storage will typically have the acronym

  1. CD
  2. DVD
  3. ROM
  4. RW
  5. ROS
Which ports connect special types of music instruments to sound cards?

  1. BUS
  2. CPU
  3. USB
  4. MIDI
  5. MINI

Programming

A(n) _____ language reflects the way people think mathematically.

  1. cross-platform programming
  2. 3GL business programming
  3. event-driven programming
  4. functional
  5. None of these
A(n)  program is one that is ready to run and does not need to be altered in any way.

  1. interpreter
  2. high-level
  3. compiler.
  4. COBOL
  5. executable
  1. A set of rules for telling the computer what operations to perform is called a ___
    1. procedural language
    2. structures
    3. natural language
    4. command language
    5. programming language
  1. A detailed written description of the programming cycle and the program, along with the test results and a printout of the program is called
    1. documentation
    2. output
    3. reporting
    4. spec sheets
    5. Directory

Database management related

____ is used by public and private enterprises to publish and share financial information with eachother and industry analysts across all computer platforms and the Internet.

  1. Extensible Markup Language (EML)
  2. Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)
  3. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
  4. Sales Force Automation (SFA) software
  5.  None of these
Grouping and processing all of a firm’s transactions at one time is called

  1. a database management system
  2. batch processing
  3. a real-time system
  4. an on-line system
  5. None of these
This first step in the transaction processing cycle captures business data through various modes such as optical scanning or at an electronic commerce website.

  1. Document and report generation
  2. Database maintenance
  3. Transaction processing start-up
  4. Data Entry
  5. None of Above

The approach to Maths, reasoning and English has been discussed in separate articles, click on the following links:

  1. [Studyplan] IBPS CWE PO/MT: Quantitative Aptitude, Maths, Data Interpretation (DI), Speed Maths
  2. [Studyplan] IBPS CWE PO/MT: Reasoning, topicwise analysis, priority topics, syllogism, assumption-inference, sitting arrangement, Non-Verbal, data sufficiency
  3. [Studyplan] IBPS CWE PO/MT: English, Grammar, Comprehension, Sentence Arragenment