How To Prepare For English In Bank Exams

Amongst the other subjects that are decisive for candidate’s performance in bank exams, be it Probationary Officer or Clerical, English forms an important part of the squad. While this paper is generally considered easy by the candidate, the tricky questions makes all the answers seem to be correct. It is therefore essential that the candidate takes this paper seriously and know the basics of the language before jumping on sample papers or previous year’s paper. The English paper will have 50 questions carrying 1 mark each making a total of 50 marks.

Detailed syllabus for English in bank exams
English paper in bank PO exam or bank Clerical exam judges the candidate in the following arena viz comprehension; prepositions, correct/ incorrect, fill in the blanks (using verbs, preposition, articles etc), Para jumbles, sentence corrections, Synonyms, Antonyms, Grammatical errors, idiom & phrases, questions on passage, one word substitution, general grammar and questions on passage. The standard of the questions will be of 10+2 level.
Descriptive part of the test reviews a candidate’s writing abilities and includes 4-5 questions in areas including essay on current topics, summary writing, and reading comprehension. The duration of descriptive part is normally one hour.

Preparing for English exam

• Pay attention to the grammatical mistakes as they can change the meaning of the sentence. It is advisable that the candidate spends some time in learning the usage of grammar.

• Another blunder made by the candidate in bank exam is the spelling mistakes. The best way to avoid this mistake to re-check the paper and make sure that there are no such errors in the paper.

• Make sure that while putting down your thoughts and ideas on paper, the sentence formation is correct. The candidate should improve his/ her way of speaking good English to perk up sentence formation.

• The candidate should make a habit of reading English newspaper on a regular basis especially the editorial part as it helps in improving comprehension skills and better understanding of the language.

• Reading newspapers also helps in improving vocabulary; the candidate should note down the difficult words and look up for their meaning in dictionary.

• Read good grammar books of 10th level like Wren and Martin and practice sets for English language on a regular basis. Check your score, go through the questions in which you faced difficulty, and practice them accordingly.

• The next important part in English is comprehension which helps you to score better in the subject. There are around 15 questions based on a paragraph which can be easily solved once you understand the paragraph.

• Fill-in-the-blanks section is another section wherein you can score by just improving grammatical skills. There are 10 questions in a paragraph where you have to fill-in-the-blanks in the sentences and 5 questions on conventional fill-in-the-blanks type questions).

• Finding errors in a sentence requires good understanding of the English grammar and regular practice.

• For descriptive part, practice writing skills by writing short notes on any day to day topics to develop your skill of sentence formation and proper usage of grammar.