How to Start IBPS PO English Preparation 2024, Expert Tips

IBPS PO English Preparation 2024: The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) announced that they will conduct the IBPS PO 2024 Prelims and Mains exams on 19th, 20th, October and 30th November 2024. So, candidates need to start preparing as soon as possible. Many find the English section of the IBPS PO 2024 exam hard. They struggle with grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. But if you prepare well from the start, even if you are from a Hindi medium background, you can do well. Lots of Hindi medium students have succeeded this way. This article will give you practical tips to ace the English section of the IBPS PO 2024 exam.

Structured Approach to IBPS PO 2024 English Section Preparation

• In the first two months, focus on laying a strong foundation. Learn basic grammar, expand vocabulary, and practice reading comprehension regularly. Identify weak areas through practice tests and work on improving them steadily.
• During months three and four, dive into specific topics like reading comprehension and error detection. Allocate time for each topic and practice different question types to become proficient.
• In the last two months, take practice tests regularly to get used to exam conditions. Analyze your performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and focus on improving them. Review and consolidate your knowledge while refining your test-taking strategies for the exam day.

1. IBPS PO English Preparation – How to Start from Scratch

1.1. Understand the Pattern for Both Prelims and Mains

While you prepare for IBPS PO English Section, the first thing you need to know is the pattern and weightage of different topics in prelims as well as mains. So, first let’s understand the pattern of the English Section in IBPS PO for both Prelims and Mains:

Parameters	Prelims	Mains
No. of questions	30	35
Marks	30	40
Time Allotted	20 mins	40 mins

As you can see, there is a slight difference between the prelims and the mains exams, with regard to the number of questions but there is a stark difference between the time allotted for the English section in both the sections. The reason for this is the rise in the difficulty level of the exam.

The prelims exam tests you more on your speed and has comparatively easier questions.  The mains exam, on the other hand, thoroughly tests you on your understanding of the subject. Having said this, let us now dive into the weightage of some major topics for the examination. Knowing the weightage of the different topics will give us insight into the topics we need to focus more on.

Topic	Weightage in Prelims	Weightage in Mains
Reading Comprehension	7-10	17-20
Para Jumbles	0-5	0-7
Grammar (Error detection, phrase replacement, sentence joining, etc.)	10-13	7-13
Fillers (Fill in the Blanks and Cloze tests)	5-12	0-7
Vocabulary (word usage, word interchange, etc.)	0-5	0-5

1.2. Develop the Aptitude

Remember your school days that how you all started? Was it with the Grammar rules? No, we were introduced first with the stories, poems, etc. so that we can build a basic understanding of the text. And this can be developed only if you Read Something on a regular basis – it can be novel, fiction, course-book, anything! Because once you have got the gist of the text, the rest of the things will gradually fall in place.

1.3. Read Newspaper

Here we are especially stressing on reading newspapers because it can help you fetch some extra marks in other sections as well. Not only you get updated with current affairs, but the Editorials in them also help you in solving Reading Comprehension. The best way is to read and summarize it in your own words. This benefits in two ways:

• Summarizing in your own words will prepare you for Descriptive English – Essay writing
• You’ll have crisp notes to revise before the exam

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1.4. Brush up your Basics

Yes, it is never too late to start from scratch. Go through basic grammar rules – trust us they are not many that you cannot learn or revise. Grab the Best English Language Book for exam preparation and go through it! Revise it every week so that you don’t forget them. And why worry when you can count on us for classes? Just attend the Grammar Basics Course on Oliveboard website and take your preparation to the next level. 

1.5. Vocabulary Building

This is something of utmost importance, but we hardly pay heed to it. Most of the questions will be solved in one go only if you are good at vocab. Because if you don’t understand the meaning of it, you won’t be able to understand its context and the whole thing might just turn upside down. To avoid getting into such circumstances, keep updating your vocab.

The best way to do it is to jot down anything that you find new – it can be during reading any text or giving the test. If there’s a word that you are not sure of, just note it down. Search for its meaning, synonyms/ antonyms, also its correct usage when used in a different tense. But don’t settle there! Make a few sentences on your own to finally get a hold of it. You must follow our FlashCards and Daily Vocab Quizzes to level up your preparations. Most importantly, with these FlashCards and Daily Vocab Quizzes, you get to learn a lot of new words and to retain them in an effective manner.

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2. IBPS PO English Preparation – Practice these on a Daily Basis

2.1. Reading Comprehension

Practice at least 2 Reading Comprehension daily. The daily practice will surely increase your reading speed as well as accuracy in answering the questions. Practicing from previous year question paper is an added advantage.

2.2. Cloze Test

Cloze Test is considered as one of the scoring topics in the English Language section in almost all bank and government exams, like SBI PO, IBPS PO, EPFO Asst., etc. It tests the candidate’s knowledge of comprehension in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and its usage.

2.3. Word meanings, Idioms, and Phrasal Words

You can find few questions from them in Reading comprehension, Cloze Test, Fillers, Match the Following, Correct Usage, Meaning (Same or Opposite), etc. Try to learn 10 of each every day and make a note of it separately. Download Free Ebook of 100 Important Verbal Phrases.

Similarly, you can go on practicing One Word Substitution, Synonyms/Antonyms, Misspelt Words, Fillers, etc.

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2.4. Descriptive English 

It’ll come in the IBPS PO Mains exam. The only way to prepare this section is to practice, practice, and practice. Reading different texts will help you gather information about a particular topic but in the end, it is the practice that’ll help you get command on writing anything within a set time-frame. That’s the reason we recommend summarising important articles in your own words once you are done reading them. IBPS PO Descriptive writing will involve Essay/ Precis/ Comprehension that you’ll have to complete within 45 minutes. Emphasis will be on comprehension and analysis. Here’s the Free Ultimate Guide for Descriptive English to take help from!

2.5. Practice in a Time Bound Manner

Preparation and Practice must go together. Once you have prepared a topic, go on practicing it but in a time-bound manner. The IBPS PO Topic tests will help you do exactly that! You can follow it up with IBPS PO English Sectional Test to practice all the topics together.

3. IBPS PO English Syllabus: Important Topics

Here are IBPS PO important topics for the English Language includes the following:

1. Cloze Test.
2. Sentence Correction.
3. Para Jumbles.
4. Fill in the Blanks.
5. Reading Comprehension.
6. Spotting Errors.
7. Sentence Improvement.
8. Para/Sentence Completion.

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Be it Prelims or IBPS PO Mains, practicing Mock Tests is the only way to test your preparation. Attempt the IBPS PO Free Mock Test provided on Oliveboard. This will provide you the actual exam-like scenario and on the exam day, you will see the difference it has made in your preparation.

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How to Start IBPS PO English Preparation 2024 – FAQs