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Tips to Prepare for English Section of IBPS

Published on Sunday, December 08, 2013
This article is written by Javed Zama T S from Kochi. Javed scored 106 marks in IBPS PO. Javed scored 30 out 40 in English section, so I asked Javed to write some tips for my readers. Till now I have talked to many readers who scored above 120 but as Javed scored very high in English and he have strong hold on English Language, I am featuring him here. Javed is from OBC category, you can see his result in below screenshot. Javed didn't share his picture and registration number due to privacy concerns.


IBPS English Tips

English Section is one of the most important sections in Banking exams. It doesn’t require as much time as required for Reasoning or QA in the exams. So scoring maximum marks in English Section will help in securing good overall results.

Mainly this section consists of Comprehensions, synonyms, antonyms, spotting errors and sentence ordering. In this article, I will discuss the methods I followed in preparing these sections.

Comprehension

For comprehensions, we have to read one passage and answer the questions based on that. Here the problem arises when most of the questions are indirect. I started preparation by going through the passages in various question papers available on books and websites. Here the easy way is to read more and more passages and try to answer in a time-frame. First read the passage as a whole and understand the theme or the subject of the passage and have a look on the questions follow. Then carefully re-read every sentence or conversation with the questions asked on the back of your mind. In most cases you will find the answers easily.

Synonyms

Coming to synonyms and antonyms, there are many books with thousands of words and meanings. But I find it impractical to remember all those words, their meaning and opposites. My suggestion is to read a good English newspaper daily, especially the editorials and articles. You will find many commonly used unknown words there. You can find the meaning using a dictionary while reading the paper. By this way you will come to know not only its meaning, but also the context in which those words are used. This will help in remembering the word meanings. I preferred to read ‘The Hindu’, but there are many other good newspapers as well. Also refer to question papers as I found many words are repeated in exams. There are many commonly asked words which you will find in those question papers. If possible try to read some English periodicals and books which you may find useful. But keep in mind to have a dictionary with you whenever you are reading.

Spotting the Errors

Spotting the Error questions are based mainly on simple grammar or on spellings. For this one just need to know the basics of English grammar like tenses and singular/plural usages. For this, practice is a must. Try to answer as many questions as you can. There are many available on popular websites.

To summarize, cracking the English section is not a very difficult job. The basics of grammar along with wide reading will enable one to easily score high marks here. The most important thing is to make use of Newspapers, previous question papers, online portals and books and practicing hard. I started preparing three months before and I strictly adhered to the above practices which helped me in obtaining good marks in the section. All the best to all aspirants.

Books I followed 

  
Book title
Author
Purchase link
English Grammar by Murphy
Cambridge University Press
Word Power Made Easy
Norman Lewis

Objective English by Arihant
Omkarnath

ebook store

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ramandeep singh

Ramandeep Singh is a seasoned educator and banking exam expert at BankExamsToday. With a passion for simplifying complex concepts, he has been instrumental in helping numerous aspirants achieve their banking career goals. His expertise and dedication make him a trusted guide in the journey to banking success.

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