1. IBPS Reasoning: Internal breakup
2. Booklist for IBPS Reasoning Preparation
3. Priority#1: Sitting Arrangement
4. Priority#2: High level Reasoning
5. Priority#3: Non Verbal Reasoning
6. Priority#4: Input output
7. Priority#5: filler topics

IBPS Reasoning: Internal breakup

Reasoning Area	topic wise breakup	2011	2012
Diagram/Arrangement type	Direction based test	1	0
	Sitting Arrangement	12	18
	subtotal Chart based reasoning	13	18
Conventional Reasoning	Dictionary based arrangement	2	0
	Input-Output	5	4
	Data sufficiency	5	5
	subtotal conventional reasoning	12	9
High Level Reasoning	Syllogism	5	7
	Assumption-Reasoning	10	6
	Subtotal High Level Reasoning	15	13
Non Verbal	Non-verbal reasoning	10	10
Final Total		50	50

High priority areas for IBPS Reasoning

1. Sitting Arrangement
2. High Level Reasoning
3. Non-Verbal Reasoning

Because in both years, nearly ~40 out of 50 reasoning questions came from these three areas only. Then the only question is how to approach these areas efficiently within given time.

Booklist for IBPS Reasoning Preparation

SOURCE	COMMENT
RS Aggarwal’s Modern Approach to verbal and non-verbal reasoning (S.Chand Publication)	Trusted work horse for all bank, LIC, CAPF, PSU, RBI level exams.
MK Pandey’s Analytical Reasoning (BSC publication)	Not an essential book. But his chapters and explanations for high level reasoning= thorough and useful.
BankPO papersets (Arihant / Kiran )	IF you are left with free time after going through above books! Although you should go through sitting arrangement, high level reasoning and non-verbal portion of such papers.

Priority#1: Sitting Arrangement

Topic and chapter number	RS Aggarwal	MK Pandey
Sitting arrangement	6	20
blood relations	5	20
Data sufficiency questions related toSitting arrangement/blood relations	17	7

Here, they’ll give you a big paragraph describing

1. How people are sitting in a round table / rectangular table or living in a building. + Additional information like car-brands owned by them, their professions, age, educational qualification etc.
2. family members and their relations
3. Ranking of students’ weight, height, marks etc.

Then you’ll have to solve 5-7 questions based on the description.

Practice is essential because

1. if you make the wrong diagram of sitting arrangement/family relation then all 5 answers will come out wrong=#epicfail through negative marking
2. You must solve all 5-7 questions of the given set in one round only. Sometimes people do 3 questions and leave 2 questions pending, hoping that they’ll solve it at the end of exam. But when they come back to same case when barely 10-15 minutes remaining before the exam finish. And still they have to wade through entire description one more time just to solve those two questions=> double majoori, time waste, more chances of making mistakes. Avoid that situation. Try to clear all MCQs of the given set at once.  Same advice for Reading comprehension and Data interpretation.

The same “arrangement” question can be asked in data sufficiency format as well.

Observe following Data-Sufficiency Question “set” from previous IBPS exam

Instructions:

1. Give answer (1) if the data in Statement I and II are sufficient to answer the question, while the data in Statement III are not required to answer the question
2. Give answer (2) if the data in Statement I and III are sufficient to answer the question, while the data in Statement II are not required to answer the question
3. Give answer (3) if the data in Statement II and III are sufficient to answer the question, while the data in Statement I are not required to answer the question.
4. Give answer (4) if the data in either Statement I alone or Statement It alone or Statement III alone are sufficient to answer the question.
5. Give answer (5) if the data in all the Statements I, II and III together are necessary to answer the question.

Sitting Arrangement	Among six people P, Q, R, S, T and V each lives on a different floor of a six storey building having sixfloors numbered one to six (the ground floor is numbered 1, the floor above it, number 2 and so on and the topmost floor is numbered 6). Who lives on the topmost floor? There is only one floor between the floors on which R and Q live. P lives on an even numbered floor. T does not live on an even numbered floor. Q lives on an even numbered floor. Q does not live on the topmost floor. S lives on an odd numbered floor. There are two floors between the floors on which S and P live. T lives on a floor immediately above R’s floor.
Circular Table	Are all the four friends viz. A, B, C and D who are sitting around a circular table, facing the center? B sits second to right of D. D faces the center. C sits to immediate right of both B and D. A sits to immediate left of B. C is not an immediate neighbor of A. C sits to immediate right of D. D is an immediate neighbour of both A and C. B sits to the immediate left of A. C sits to the immediate right of B.
Blood Relation	How many daughters does W have? B and D are the sisters of M. M’s father T is the husband of W. Out of the three children which T has, only one is a boy.

Priority#2: High level Reasoning

Topic	RS Aggarwal	MK Pandey
Assumption, Inference, cause-effect	section II Logicchapter 2 to 6	1 to 6, 9 and 10
Syllogism:to learn the UPUN method, click me	section II Logicchapter 1	11

• Study the theory, solve all questions given in those books. More than sufficient.

Sample Questions from previous IBPS Exam

Assumption-Inference

1. Farmers found using chemical fertilizers in the organic-farming area of their farms would be heavily fined. Which of the following statements is an assumption implicit in the given statement? (An assumption is something supposed or taken for granted.)
   1. Chemical fertilizers harm the crop.
   2. A farm’s area for organic and chemical farming is different.
   3. Farmers who do not use chemical fertilizers in the chemical farming area would be penalized as well.
   4. All farmers undertake both these kinds of farming (chemical as well as organic) in their farms.
   5. Organic fertilizers are banned in the area for chemical farming.
2. Small brands are now looking beyond local grocery stores and are tying up with Supermarkets such as Big Bazaar to pull their business out of troubled waters. Which of the following can be inferred from the given information? (An inference is something that is not directly stated but can be inferred from the given information)
   1. Merchandise of smaller brands would not be available at local grocery stores in the near future.
   2. Smaller brands cannot compete with bigger ones in a supermarket set-up.
   3. There is a perception among small brands that sale in a supermarket is higher than that of small grocery stores.
   4. Supermarkets generate more revenue by selling products of bigger brands as compared to the smaller ones.
   5. Smaller brands have always had more tie-ups with supermarkets as compared to small grocery stores.

Cause-Effect Questions from IBPS-2011

1. It has been reported in recent years that a very large number of seats in engineering colleges in the country remain vacant at the end of the admission session. Which of the following may be the probable cause of the above effect?
   1. There has-been a considerable decrease in hiring of engineering graduates due to economic slowdown in the recent years.
   2. Students have always preferred to complete graduation in three years, time instead of four years for engineering.
   3. The Govt. has recently decided to provide post- qualification professional training to all engineering graduates at its own cost.
   4. There has always been a very poor success rate among the engineering students.
   5. None of these
2. The condition of the roads in the city has deteriorated considerably during the first two months of monsoon and most of the roads have developed big potholes. Which of the following can be a possible effect of the above cause?
   1. The municipal corporation had repaired all the roads in the city before the onset of monsoon with good quality material.
   2. A large number of people have developed spine-related injuries after regularly commuting long distances by road within the city.
   3. The municipal corporation has been careful in choosing the contractors for repairing roads in the past.
   4. People always complain about potholed roads during the monsoon months.
   5. None of these

Syllogism Questions from previous IBPS Exams

Instruction: For the following Q1 to Q4, answercodes are

1. if only conclusion I follows.
2. if only conclusion II follows.
3. if either conclusion I or conclusion II follows.
4. if neither conclusion I nor conclusion II follows.
5. if both conclusion I and conclusion II follow.

Question Statements (for Q1 and Q2):

1. All gliders are parachutes.
2. No parachute is an airplane.
3. All airplanes are helicopters.

Q1. Conclusions:	I.No helicopter is a glider.II.All parachutes being helicopters is a possibility.
Q2 Conclusions	I.No glider is an airplane.II.All gliders being helicopters is a possibility.

Question Statements (for Q3 and Q4)

1. No stone is metal.
2. Some metals are papers.
3. All papers are glass.

Q3. Conclusions:	I. No glass is metal.II. At least some glasses are metals.
Q4 Conclusions	I. All stones being glass is a possibility.II. No stone is paper.

Priority#3: Non Verbal Reasoning

• Within RS Aggarwal’s book, do chapter 1, 2 and 3 from Non-verbal reasoning section.
• In previous IBPS PO/MT exams, they did not ask questions on reflections-mirrors, dice-cube, paper-folding/paper cutting. Hence you may avoid those chapters. (Although those chapters are important for SSC CGL Tier I).
• Do not live in overconfidence that “non-verbal is easy and doesn’t require any preparation.” Do maximum practice at home, else you’ll end up spending more than 30 minutes in just those 5-10 non-verbal questions only=less time for other sections=poor scoring.

Priority#4: Input output

A Bank PO exam is incomplete without questions on input output (sequential tracing). Last two years, constantly 4-5 questions appeared. Must be prepared.

Topic and chapter	RS Aggarwal	MK Pandey
input-output	7	13 to 16

Priority#5: filler topics

In LIC, SSC, ACIO type exams, under the reasoning section, you definitely find direct questions on

1. Analogy, Sequence, Series
2. Dictionary
3. Coding-Decoding
4. Dictionary Based Arrangement
5. Maths/Symbol Based Inequalities
6. Direction Sense Test.

But in IBPS, they try to increase the complexity by asking same topics from data-sufficiency point of view.

To accurately answer such data-sufficiency questions, you should first practice basic questions (ie.non-data sufficiency, direct questions) from the relevant chapters. And then try data-sufficiency questions from….

Topic and chapter number	RS Aggarwal	MK Pandey
Data sufficiency	17	7

That way, you’ll figure out, what statements are essential to answer a given data-sufficiency problem.

Sample questions from previous IBPS Exams

Instruction: Each of the questions below consists of a question and three statements numbered I, II and III given below it. You have to decide whether the data provided in the statements are sufficient to answer the question.

Data Sufficiency on	IBPS Question
Coding-Decoding	How is ‘go’ written in a code language? ‘now or never again’ is written as ‘tom ka na sa’ in that code language. ‘you come again now’ is written as ‘ja ka ta sa’ in that code language. ‘again go now or never’ is written as ‘na ho ka sa tom’ in that code language. Answer Only I and III Only II and III Only I and II All I, II and III are required to answer the question None of these
Direction Sense Test	Towards which direction is village J from village W? Village R is to the west of Village Wand to the north of Village T. Village Z is to the east of Village J and to the south of Village T. Village M is to the north east of Village J and North of Village Z. Answer Only III Only II and III All I, II and III are required to answer the question Question cannot be answered even with all I, II and III None of these

Eligibility Tests

Preparation source:

Topic and chapter	RS Aggarwal	MK Pandey
Eligibility Test	18	12

• In Eligibility test question set, you’re given a big paragraph with conditions e.g. select candidate if more than 60% marks and 3 years’ experience etc. Then you’re given 3-5 questions that contain profiles of candidate, and you’ve to decide whether to select them, reject them, refer case to higher official etc.
• although 2011 and 2012’s paper didnot have these type of questions but just to be safe, you should practice a few sets from this topic as well.

For more on IBPS PO/CWE related articles and study plans, visit Mrunal.org/IBPS.