IBPS Clerk Mains Pattern & Syllabus

IBPS Clerk Mains 2015 will  be conducted on 2nd and 3rd January 2016. Many of you have already started your preparation for mains attempt without waiting for the IBPS Prelims resultWe wish you all the best for prelims results. 
As promised in our previous article on IBPS Clerk Mains pattern and syllabus  we will do a series of articles on how to crack individual sections of IBPS Clerk Mains to boost your preparation.
Today we will do a comprehensive analysis of General Awareness section of IBPS Clerk Mains 2015. This analysis will enable you to understand the how questions are divided among various topics of GA, how many questions you should attempt to clear sectional cutoffs and finally tips on how to prepare for General Awareness section of IBPS Clerk Prelims.
IBPS Clerk Mains – Division of Questions among various topics of GA section 
A total of 40 questions will be asked for 40 marks from the following topics:
TopicNo. of Questions
Current Affairs20-26
Banking Awareness12-18
Static5-10
1. Current Affairs 
The current affairs section will carry maximum marks in GA section of IBPS Clerk Mains 2015. This section will cover current affairs of last 3-4 months. The questions will be of following type: (these questions are from previous year’s)
  • What is the budget of Mars mission of India? – 450 Crore
  • Venue of Next SAARC summit? – Islamabad
  • Where is the venue of next Hockey world cup? – India
  • Venue of next G20 Summit – Turkey
  • Shanti swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Physical Sciences 2014 -Dr.Pratap Raychaudhuri
  • SAARC summit 2014- Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Nobel Prize was given to May Britt Moser and Edward Moser in which field? – Medicine
Current affairs will be asked from the following topics:
  • National Current Affairs
  • International Current Affairs
  • Sports Current Affairs
  • Defence Current Affairs
  • Banking Current Affairs
  • Economic Current Affairs
  • Business Current Affairs
  • Current Affairs RBI
  • Current Affairs Yearbook
  • Person in News/Awards
2. Banking Awareness 
This section is broadly divided into:
  • BANKING THEORY
  • BANKING CURRENT AFFAIRS
Majority of questions are asked from Banking theory. It has the following kind of questions:
  • Insurance regulator in India? – IRDA
  • In FEMA,M stands for- Management
  • Full form of EMV – EuroPay, MasterCard, Visa
  • In MICR middle 3 digits represent? – Bank
  • RTGS full-form – Real Time Gross Settlement
  • MMID full form – Mobile Money Identifier
  • CBS full form – Core Banking Solution
  • ULIP full form – Unit-linked insurance plan
Banking Current affairs has the following kind of questions:
  • Validity of Kishan vikas patra – 100 months
  • What is the new name of MCX? – Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd’, abbreviated as ‘mSXI’
  • Payment bank working capital – 100 Crore
  • Jandhan yojna’s objective? – Financial Inclusion
  • Share of state government in RRB – 15%
  • What is the exchange date for pre 2005 Notes? – 1st Jan 2015
  • Rupay card is developed by? – NPCI
3. Static 
Static GK can be asked from anywhere and has the least weight-age in GA section. Following kind of questions can be asked:
  • Vishwanathan Anand is related to? – Chess
  • What is the capital of Austria? – Vienna
  • United Nations day? – 24th October
  • Capital of Afghanistan- Kabul
  • Currency of Bhutan- Ngultrum
Preparation Tips to crack sectional cutoff General Awareness section IBPS Clerk Mains 2015: 
  1. The expected cutoff for GA section of IBPS Clerk Mains 2015 will be 12-15, owing to higher competition. 
  2. To clear sectional cutoff for GA section, keep your focus on Current affairs and Banking Awareness.
  3. You need to attempt 70-80% questions in above sections with 90% + accuracy to comfortably clear sectional as well as overall cutoff.
  4. To prepare for current affairs, read magazines like pratiyogita darpan. You can also use any other current affairs magazine like CST, Chronicle or Wizard.  Focus on the following topics within the magazines:
    1. News & Events
    2. Current Affairs
    3. Vividha- Compendium
  5. Also start reading newspapers like ET and/or FT for keeping updated with economy and banking related news.
  6. Go to a library and get past 3-4 months of newspapers and magazines.
  7. Prepare your notes by writing down any useful piece of information you find in papers/magazines.
  8. Keep asking yourself questions  about the information that you have written down.
  9. Important topics to lookout for :
    • Banking structure of India
    • Banking Terms
    • Organizations:RBI; NABARD; Planning Commission; 5 year plans; Finance Commission; World Bank
    • Economic/ Financial terms & concepts: GDP; GNP; PPP; HDI; Inflation; WPI; CPI; IIP; SLR; CRR; Repo rate; Reverse Repo; Bank rate; Mutual Funds, Open Market Operations; Money supply
    • Acts, Committees & legislations: Budget 2015; Economic Survey 2015, Railway Budget 2015; Companies Bill 2013
    • Banking services: Assets, liabilities and working capital of a bank; NEFT; RTGS; Banking Correspondence agents;Bancassurance; Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
    • Rupay Card
  10. While reading about organizations, you should try to understand the functions, jurisdictions, name of key current and past persons in positions of responsibility, geographical location etc.
  11. While reading about economic terms and concepts, understand how they change, who changes them and how they are used in the economy.
  12. Similarly while reading acts and legislations, understand when they were passed, what did they replace, what was the major change and emphasis and how did they affect the various sectors of economy.
  13. Do not fret about the Static questions. There will just be 5-10 questions, that too of easy to moderate difficulty. Attend ONLY those questions about which you are 100% sure.
  14. In all you should attempt 28-34 questions in GA section to clear sectional as well as overall cutoff for IBPS Clerk Mains 2015.
  15. After increasing your general awareness, give mock tests for GA section to check your preparation level.

Friends this is it for preparation tips for General Awareness section of IBPS Clerk Mains. If you have any questions/query regarding GA section, please ask them in the comments section below.
We will post about the next section tomorrow based on your demand. So do not forget to comment which topic from IBPS Clerk Mains you want the tomorrow’s post about. We eagerly await your comments and queries.

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