NICL AO Exam 2017 : Study Plan To Crack Prelims

The National Insurance Company Limited conducts the NICL AO exam for the recruitment of Administrative Officers (AO). An Administrative Officer in NICL acts as the First Officer.  Major responsibilities of an AO involve:

• Claim Settlements
• Underwriting
• Risk Assessment
• Supervision of Assistants’ work

The NICL AO 2017 Prelims exam is scheduled to be held on 3rd/ 4th of June, 2017. In this blog post, we bring to you the study plan and preparation strategy to crack the prelims.

The selection procedure consists of three stages, which are:-

• NICL AO Prelims Exam
• NICL AO Main Exam
• Interview.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the exam pattern of the preliminary exam.

There are about 20 – 25 days left before the examination. For those of you who have started preparing, it’s time to put your preparation in the full throttle mode. And for those, who haven’t started preparing yet, don’t worry, we have got your back. 

Using, Oliveboard’s customisable study planner, we have created a plan for you for the next few days. The study plan has been created, keeping in mind the importance of topics in the exam.

In general, while preparing for the exam, you must decide on the following things:-

• Order of attempting various sections
• Time to be spent on each section
• Number of questions to be attempted

Understand that all the 3 things mentioned above are dynamic and would vary from person to person, or sometimes even paper to paper, based on the difficulty level. Attempting a substantial number of mock tests (both sectional & full-length) would help you decide on the above mentioned things. Do remember, the mock tests mentioned in the study plan will serve their purpose only if you analyse them and devote sufficient time to that analysis, instead of simply taking a mock test.

Understand, that the goal is to clear the individual sectional cutoffs first and then to maximise your overall score. Clearing sectional cutoffs requires a basic level of proficiency in each of the sections whereas, for maximising the overall score, one can capitalise on their strengths. 

1. Quantitative Aptitude

The success mantra for this section is ‘practice’. That’s the only thing that will help you achieve the speed and accuracy levels required for acing this section. Prepare a topic wise quick problem solving tips and tricks notebook and practice a lot of questions of each type. Make short notes of things which you think you might forget. Some important topics for this section are:-

• Data Interpretation
• Time and work
• Time and distance
• Age problems
• Percentage
• Ratios proportions
• Profit and Loss
• Partnership
• Boats and streams
• Probability
• Permutation and combinations

2. English Language

The success mantra for this section is undoubtedly, reading! If you are a regular reader of newspaper, your knowledge of English will be sufficient for this section. Work on your vocabulary and learn new words daily to increase your confidence level and thus the chances of scoring high in this section. Important topics for this section are:-

• Reading Comprehension
• Cloze Test
• Spotting Error
• Fill in the blanks
• Parajumbles
• Sentence Improvement

3 simple steps to ace this section are:-

1. Understand grammar rules and bring them in daily use
2. Read a newspaper or any book (for speed reading and making reading long paragraphs comfortable)
3. Practice all type of questions

NOTE: It has been observed that most of the preliminary exams follow a similar pattern of 10 questions of reading comprehension, 10 questions of cloze tests, and 10 questions of sentence improvement or error spotting.

3. Reasoning

Again, to be comfortable with this section, one needs to practice various question types. Important topics for this are:-

• Statements and Conclusions
• Puzzle test
• Coding and decoding
• Input-output
• Classification
• Analogy
• Series test
• Seating arrangement
• Statements and Assumptions

Remember, taking mock tests is a crucial part of any exam preparation as they give you an idea about your preparation level. Also, while attempting mocks you can gauge your strengths and weaknesses. 

Apart from the subject knowledge, your time management skills play an equally important role in the exam. Taking mock tests will also provide you with situation where you can practice making such important decisions, and thus be better prepared for the actual exam.

Once you’ve done all that we’ve mentioned, rest assured that your preparation is complete. Now, the remaining two days should be devoted to light revision and relaxing your mind before the D-day.

 All the best!