7 Day Study plan for IBPS IT Specialist Officer Exam

This article is about the study plan one could follow for upcoming IBPS Specialist Officer exam on 8 & 9 February, 2014. Aspirants can modify this study plan according to their convenience.

7 Day Study plan for IBPS IT Specialist Officer

This study plan could be followed from 1 February, 2014 to 7 February, 2014. I am writing specifically for IBPS IT Officer post. Other post's aspirant should plan accordingly in professional Knowledge section.

Follow whatever book you have now. It is the time to give special efforts to revision & focusing on important topics.

This is the least effort one should give towards revision. If you are not a working professional, then you can dedicate your whole day about 8-12 hours for preparation & revision.

Syllabus for IT Officer professional knowledge can be found here. CLICK HERE

Study Material & practice MCQs for IBPS IT Specialist Officer Professional knowledge section can be found here. CLICK HERE

For English section, plan according to your confidence about your Grammar skills.

DAY 1

• Professional Knowledge: DBMS, All the PDFs, notes, practice MCQs you have- 2-3 hours
• Numerical Ability:  Basic Numerical calculations practice, number series- 1 hour 30 minutes
• Reasoning: Completing number and alphabetical series, Coding and decoding- 2 hour

DAY 2

• Professional Knowledge: Data Communication & Networking, Network Security, All the PDFs, notes, practice MCQs you have- 2-3 hours
• Numerical Ability: Profit & loss, percentage calculations- 1 hour 30 minutes
• Reasoning: Relations and ranking, Simple arithmetical reasoning, Analogies / decision making- 2 hours
• English: Passage completion practice- 30 minutes

DAY 3

• Professional Knowledge: Operating System, All the PDFs, notes, practice MCQs you have- 2 hours
• Numerical Ability: Time & Work, Speed & Distance problems: 2 hours
• Reasoning: Classification, odd one out, Assumption, Conclusion problems - 2 hours

DAY 4

• Professional Knowledge: Data Structures, Software Engineering, All the PDFs, notes, practice MCQs you have- 2 hours
• Numerical Ability: Fraction, Ratios, Average problems, Factoring( LCM, HCF)- 2 hours
• Reasoning: Syllogism, Input/ Output problems Practice- 3 hours

DAY 5

• Professional Knowledge: Computer organization + Hardware (Microprocessor), Compiler, All the PDFs, notes, practice MCQs you have- 2-3 hours
• Numerical Ability: Mensuration, Simple & Compound Interest problems- 1 hour 30 minutes
• Reasoning: Data Sufficiency, DI problems- 3 hours
• English: Revise basics of Grammar- 30 minutes

DAY 6

• Professional Knowledge: Web Technologies, Programming Languages (basics only), All the PDFs, notes, practice MCQs you have- 1-2 hours
• Numerical Ability & Reasoning: Basic Calculation practice & attempt random questions from MCQs, BODMAS-2 hours
• English: Have a look at some Synonyms, antonyms. Just a reading of about half an hour.
• Solve: 2 FULL LENGTH practice papers of 2 hours each- with time limit

DAY 7

• Professional Knowledge: Revise everything you have studied till now, questions that you have marked as important, follow your instincts in this section- 3-4 hours
• Numerical Ability & Reasoning: Practice as usual, Topics that you think you are weak in, practice more questions- 2-3 hours
• English: Solve a few questions from the PDFs that you have & the previous papers- 1 hour
• Solve: 2 FULL LENGTH practice papers of 2 hours each- with time limit

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Tips for IBPS IT Specialist Officer exam- How to clear the exam?

From last few weeks, I've been active on many Facebook forums for IBPS IT Specialist Officer. However, I see many candidates posting queries like how to clear the IBPS IT Specialist Officer exam, how many questions to attempt in each section, what was cut-off last year etc. So, I've written this article with purpose of answering all those questions in one place asked by those aspirants.

How many questions will be asked? ‘blah blah’ section will consist of how many marks?

Seriously, if you are asking this question when only 10 days are left for the exam, you really need to think again about what you have been doing since filling the application. DON'T ask such type of questions. If you are smart, you will eventually find every relevant detail regarding the marking scheme in the IBPS SO notification.

It is already written on page number 7 of notification. English section will contain 50 questions for 25 marks.
Professional Knowledge section will contain 50 question for 75 marks.

What was the cut-off last year? How many vacancies may be there?

I've written a separate article on Last year's IBPS SO cut-off in detail.

How many questions should I attempt to clear the exam?

My answer is as many as you can. However, you shouldn't tick those answers which you are not sure about. You should not force yourself into ticking wrong answers because this may lead to many negative answers which in turn will reduce your score. Just focus & try to give as many correct answers as you can.

What is the Syllabus for Professional knowledge section of IT Officer?

This is something that everyone searches about because it is not written in the notification. Basically, for every Specialist Officer post, syllabus of Professional Knowledge is the syllabus of their respective graduation or post graduation subject.

However, for IBPS IT Specialist Officer, I've written the minimum predictable syllabus based on previous IBPS IT SO CWE-I & II papers. It can be read in this post.

Should I prepare upto GATE level?

Of course not. The questions asked in IT Officer exam are very basic in nature. You should just prepare the basic concepts of everything.

For example, they are not going to ask you to solve a question Quine McCluskey procedure because every one knows it takes a lot of time to solve these questions. But the may ask why is this procedure use? What does this procedure involve? etc.

From where can I find more study material? More practice MCQs?

There is plenty of study material is available in files section several Facebook forums. I find IBPS SO ( Specialist officer 2014-2015) forum quite good for finding study material. Also I've uploaded study material & Practice MCQs.

IBPS IT Specialist Officer Study Material	Download from here
IBPS IT Specialist Officer practice MCQs	Download from here

What will be the cut-off this year?

No one can predict what is going to be the cutoff this year. It all depends on the questions asked by IBPS & the candidates who attempt those questions. Don't take any type of tension in speculation of cut-off. Also, stay away from such Social elements (friends, co-workers, enemies, anybody) until the exam who give such predictions because the only thing this may do is disturb your focus towards preparation.

Concluding with following points:

• Prepare for the exam with full dedication.
• Don't underestimate any section while preparing. The paper is designed to assess in every section otherwise it may affect your score.
• You can read some tips for Aptitude section from here.
• Don't go for more & more study material. First complete what you have with you & give plenty of time to revision in your schedule.

Hope it helps.

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Tips to improve performance in IBPS Online Quantitative Aptitude tests

Friends, there are many of us who are smart enough to solve Quantitative Aptitude Section or say Numerical Ability sections of various papers with 100% accuracy [Given the test is pen-paper based & no time constraints]..BUT the main purpose of the Online Aptitude test is to check your ability to solve those questions within the given time limit with maximum accuracy.

Most of the bank exams mainly IBPS & other Competitive exams are conduct online these days. You may have the ability to solve the numerical questions but this 'Online' thing may become a hurdle in your success unless you make a strategy to face it.

So here are some tips that will help you improve your performance in IBPS Quantitative Aptitude (or Numerical Ability) tests:

• Practice: Practice as much online tests as you can. Choose the same format of online test that you may be facing in the real exam. The more you practice, the better your score will be.
• There are a lot of Numerical ability tests available online. You just have to google about it.
• A good book: Buy a good book of quantitative Aptitude to improve your basics. Most of the questions asked in these exams are of not more than 10th class level. I suggest R.S. Agarwal Quantitative Aptitude book & M. Tyra Quicker Maths which contains some Vedic Mathematics tricks.
• Basic Calculations: Practice basic calculations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentage increase, fractions etc on daily basis. I know it sounds silly for a pro(in school time) in Mathematics but it is a necessary thing to do to improve your score.
• Try mental maths. Numerical Ability section in IBPS exams is designed to make you rely on quicker mental calculations otherwise its hard to get a very good score. The less paper you use for calculations, the better you could score.
• Prepare questions of every type. Example- Just because there was no question on Boat & streams last year, you should NOT leave the topic. 
• Do not pay attention to anything else while attempting the test. Just Concentrate on the test. [For boys- ladkiyaan paper ke baad bhi dekhi ja sakti hain]
• Leave the questions for reviewing later which you feel could take more time to solve than estimated but you know how to solve them..
• Don't panic if you can't solve the question. Just move on & try to solve another one.
• DO NOT try attempt the questions about which you have no idea how to solve. After completely attempting the paper, if time permits (that too after revision), you could give these questions a try.
• Allot time to numerical Ability section. IBPS exams are basically of 2 hours. So 40 minutes to solve Numerical Ability section of IBPS Papers should be the maximum limit. 
• Get comfortable with the negative marking concept. Do not mark the answer unless you are very sure about its correctness. Most of the candidates get over-confident & mark too many answers that reduces their score.
• You should keep track of your performance in these Online Practice Aptitude tests. Make a diary & write down the marks you get in every test. You will eventually notice improved performance if you have taken the steps mentioned above.
• Read the instructions carefully before attempting the test. You may have given the test many times but you never know when they are going to change the rules.
• Get 7 hour sleep daily. Keep a good mood while attempting test.

I hope these tips help you to score more in the Numerical ability section of IBPS & other exams.

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