Career in Bank PO

A Bank Probationary Officer ( PO) is a first stepping stone in any bank. A Bank PO can be asked to do anything till the completion of his/ her probation period. Once the employee has been confirmed in service he/ she can be given routine work like posting, passing, scrolling or advances or anything that is related to banking.

For most banks, the minimum requirement is a Bachelor’s degree. The cut- off percentage and other qualifications required vary from bank to bank and are usually mentioned in the bank’s notification. Almost all the banks across India — including those in the private sector — keep needing probationary officers and conduct exams from time to time to recruit them. In most of the banks, you are required to clear the cut- off in every section — that is, you need to secure the minimum marks mentioned in the bank’s notification.

Tips on Cracking Bank PO Exam

Hard work and time management can help you crack the entry - level test for the Bank PO Exam. A Bank PO aspirant should start preparing for the exams in the final year of college. The candidate should be well- versed in Mathematics up to Class X and a good grounding using NCERT books should be useful. Speed is important in answering more questions in a limited time. So candidates should build speed through mental calculations and elimination of options. Hard work and dedicated effort of four to six months should be good enough for cracking most of the exams.

Most candidates find the Reasoning section to be tough because they don’t teach it in schools/ colleges. It will be important for them to practice these questions much more. This is also important to clear the sectional cut- off even if you score well in other sections. In the English section, strong vocabulary and good grammar fundamentals are essential to do well. The level of difficulty in this section is normally not very high and it can therefore be a scoring section. The questions in the General Awareness section are more likely to be from current affairs. Candidates must cultivate a habit of diligently reading a national newspaper daily.

Test Pattern of Bank PO Exam

The exam essentially comprises four sections: English, Reasoning Ability, Quantitative Aptitude and General Awareness / Clerical Aptitude. Apart from these, a few banks also include questions on Computer Awareness, Banking Awareness and Marketing Aptitude in their written tests. The test comprises 200 to 225 questions with five options in each. The duration of the objective- type part normally varies between two hours and two and a half.It has negative marking for incorrect answers. Such answers attract one- fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question in Bank PO Exam in India.