An interview with Vivek Pratap (Cleared IBPS PO & LIC AAO)

Oliveboard Interview – Vivek Pratap

At Oliveboard, we strive to provide the best online learning material to the exam aspirants so that they are updated with the latest pattern, ready for higher difficulty level and are able to follow an effective time management strategy in the exam. Time and again our users have proved their mettle by getting selected in various banking, government and MBA exams.

Recently, we got a chance to talk to Mr. Vivek Pratap who cleared both IBPS PO 2015 and LIC AAO 2016 right in his 1^st attempt. Here is an excerpt from our talk :-

 

Hello Vivek! First of all, congratulations for getting through both IBPS PO and LIC AAO in your first attempt. How is the feeling?

Thank you. These two were the only exams that I appeared for and now after having cleared both of them, it really feels amazing.

 

Tell us a little about yourself.

I belong to Patna, Bihar and I did my BE in Mechanical Engineering from BIT Deoghar (Jharkhand). I graduated in 2015 with 7.13 GPA.

 

You graduated as an engineer. What made you prepare for banking and insurance exams?

I feel engineering provides you all the skills necessary to excel in any field. Moreover, I always found Public Sector Bank jobs better and more secure and hence started my preparation for these exams after I graduated.

 

Kindly share your strategy for preparation so that the future aspirants can benefit from it. 

I had Arun Sharma’s Reasoning book and Quantum CAT by Sarvesh K Verma for Math, that I used to solve on and off during my college days. I never referred to any other books for Math and Reasoning. The questions in these books are of CAT level but these questions helped me solve the questions in the exam that were of higher difficultly levels.

For General Awareness, I used to read the regular monthly capsules released by popular websites. For English, I just read newspapers regularly.

Apart from all these, I took regular mock tests for IBPS PO and LIC AAO by Oliveboard. I routinely took each and every test and reviewed the solutions of all the questions that I had got wrong. The tests not only helped me in time management but also got me acquainted with the exact pattern of IBPS PO and LIC AAO.

 

What are the features of Oliveboard Mock Tests that you found useful?

I had taken both the IBPS PO and LIC AAO Test Series and I can vouch for the fact that OB Mock Tests are as close to the actual exam as it can get. Another feature of Oliveboard that I really liked is that mock tests are available in all 3 levels- Easy, Moderate and Difficult. This makes the aspirant ready for any level of actual exam. Even though my GA section was weak, I was able to score 50.7/100 Marks in IBPS PO only because I had practiced extensively through the mock tests.

I have already recommended it to many of my friends who are preparing for exams like IBPS PO, LIC AAO, SIDBI etc.

 

Where are you posted now and when did you get the LIC AAO results?

I am currently posted as a PO in Indian Bank at Salem, Tamil Nadu since August 1^st, 2016. I got my LIC AAO results on 7^th September 2016.

 

So now since you have also cleared the LIC AAO exam, which job are you finally choosing?

I am leaving the PO job at Indian Bank and will be joining LIC.

 

What makes you choose the job at LIC over the PO job at the bank?

There are many reasons. First of all, the work pressure at the bank is more than that of in LIC (as far as I know). Also, most of the branches of Indian Bank are in South-West India (for example, Tamil Nadu alone has 1000 branches while Bihar has just 60 branches of Indian Bank). So getting a transfer to North India (where I belong to) is difficult. Whereas,  LIC generally posts its employees in and around their native zone.

Also, though the promotion at LIC is slower than that at the public sector banks, the initial salary is higher.

So do you have to pay any bond amount for leaving the job?

I am joining the second batch at LIC (January 17^th, 2017). I have to observe the notice period of 3 months before that and have to pay around Rs. 1,35,000 as the bond amount.

Click here to take FREE IBPS PO Mock Tests | FREE LIC AAO Mock Tests.