SBI Associate PO 2014 Guide

SBI Associate Bank Exam for recruitment in State Bank of India Associate Banks is generally held once a year. Following Banks are recruiting from SBI PO Associate exam as an Scale I officer in the basic pay scale of 14500.

• State Bank of Mysore
• State Bank of Hyderabad
• State Bank of Travancore
• State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur
• State Bank of Patiala

For the year of 2014 SBI Associate Vacancy is out , the details of which was already communicated on our job blog site as and when vacancy came out. The following is the link for the Advertisement of SBI Po Associate Bank recruitment 2014.

SBI Associate PO online Application Link

The exam is scheduled in the month of November 2014, the final date shall be communicated later on in the admit card of respective candidates who have successfully applied for SBI Associate Bank PO 2014.

The total number of Vacancy is 2986. With just over one month for the exam let us focus on how to prepare and crack the SBI Associate Bank PO exam 2014 in smart way.

SELECTION PROCEDURE :
Phase-I Examination consisting Objective Tests for 200 marks and Descriptive Test for 50 marks.
The Objective Test will be online. Immediately after the online Objective Test,

Descriptive Test will be administered. Questions relating to Descriptive Test will be available on computer (Online) and candidates will have to write the answers on the answer sheet (Offline) provided to them on Paper/Pen mode.

(i) Objective Test: The Objective Test with 2hours duration consists of 4 Sections with 50 marks each (Total 200 marks) as follows:

a) Test of English Language (Grammer, Vocabulary, Comprehension etc.)
b) Test of General Awareness, Marketing & Computers
c) Test of Data Analysis & Interpretation
d) Test of Reasoning (High Level)

The candidates are required to qualify in each of the Tests by securing passing
marks, to be decided by the Bank.

(ii) Descriptive Test: The Descriptive Test with 1 hour duration (50marks) will be of
“Test of English Language (comprehension, short précis, letter writing & essay)”.
The candidates are required to qualify in the Descriptive Test by securing passing marks,
to be decided by the Bank.

Descriptive Test paper of only those candidates will be evaluated who have
scored qualifying marks in the Objective Tests and are Placed adequately high
as per total marks in objective test.

(b) Phase-II Group Discussion (20 marks) & Interview (30 marks)

The aggregate marks of candidates qualifying in both the Objective Tests and Descriptive
Test will be arranged in descending order in each category. Adequate number of
candidates in each category, as decided by the Bank will be called for Group Discussion
and Interview. The qualifying marks in Group Discussion & Interview will be as decided
by the Bank.

Following are the point wise tips which will help candidates to sail through the exam with ease.

• First of all get the study materials for the exam, buy a book with previous years solved papers of SBI PO as well as book containing chapter wise solutions.
• Get previous 6 months back dated banking magazine from the date of exam , here try to e the magazine from the month of April to November, as the tests are now conducted online there is a good chance that General Awareness , marketing and Computer questions are asked from very recent past.
• For First week try to solve the mock papers or previous year papers in strictly exam environment and check your score as where you stand. If your score is
• Less Than 60 -- Needs vast improvement in all areas
• Score above 60 and below 80 -- Needs improvement in poor scoring areas
• Score Between 80-100 -- You are near but a quick polish is require to score a bit more. Focus on sectional cutoff by attempting all the section equally with target of 20 Plus in each subject and total of 110 Plus
• Score above 100 -- You have very good chance of cracking the exam, just keep the momentum with you by improving your weak areas and focus on scoring above 25 in each subject, with total of 120 Plus

Now, one is aware where they stand with respect with the pattern and exam score, for next one month one needs to do improvement in the weak areas, subject wise and chapter wise practice will make you score well in the main exam.

One can take a mock test after 15 days of such preparation to see how much they score and still in which areas they are lacking.

Now with two week for the exam its the time to start improving your speed by solving mock practice papers on the pattern of SBI Associate PO exam 2014, and focusing on remembering the current affairs, marketing and computer papers so to score heavily in this paper and target should be to get around 40 for a big step towards qualifying the Phase I.

Subject wise tips to crack SBI Associate Bank PO exam 2014

English Language (Grammer, Vocabulary, Comprehension etc.)  : First hurdle is comprehension with is about 10-12 marks with word meaning part consisting of 4-5 marks as antonym / synonym which are relatively easy to score if one reads the lines well and comprehend the meaning of the paragraph they are likely to get the correct answer of same.

Next question is of arranging the line of a paragraph in orderly manner so as to form a correct paragraph , this question is also a major scoring question as if one gets it correct then they are likely to get perfect five. The tips here is that , first read all the lines carefully then try to find the first and last line and next the related line which can be one above another or vice versa. Then again read the whole line and start arranging in orderly manner. In the end one just needs to cross verify by going through the order in which they have arranges the lines.

Further , question are of fill in the blank words which are also good scoring questions if one has practiced well the grammar and vocabulary. Also consistent reading of newspapers helps in scoring well in English section.

General Awareness, Marketing & Computers  : This sections consists of three parts

General Awareness / Current Affairs with banking knowledge - Questions in this section can be around 20 in numbers, by reading the previous six months of any banking magazine can help you score around 15 marks. ( Some recommended books for General Awareness and Current Affairs for SBI Associate PO exam : Book 1 , Book 2 )

Marketing of banking products - This section consists of marketing question of bank and banking related products which are mostly logical in nature and can be answered with ease by reading the question well and eliminating the wrong options. 15 number  of question can be in this part. By reading any marketing related book can be very useful to score in this part. (Some recommended books for Marketing awareness for SBI Associate PO exam : Book 1 , Book 2 )

Computer awareness  This part also consists of 15 questions approximately , and by reading a computer related book for banking exam can be very much useful to score well in this section too.
( Some recommended books for Marketing awareness for SBI Associate PO exam : Book 1 , Book 2 )

Remembering from the web sites like www.gkforbankexam.blogspot.in can be very useful as this blog, provides regular updates on GK, Marketing and Computer questions especially for banking exams.

Data Analysis and Interpretation :- In this section , there are several diagram based questions in which one needs to find out the answer from the data given, the questions are like find the difference or percentage or change over previous year so on. Here also if one practice hard he has got the good chance of scoring well in this section. 

For weak students who are not able to score more than 15 in this section : they need to practice hard section wise from the any previous year solved books and after that , solve the model papers to check your improvement.

Those who are scoring above 20 in this subject also needs improvement on the weaker section , they can make those chapters from the book in which they have scored less , then move to mock test papers.

Those who are scoring above 25 , in 40 minutes in this section , are on the right track , they just need to manage the time so as to solve the maximum question in the stipulated time frame , also they just need to polish a bit more by regularly solving mock test papers and analysing the wrong answers.

Initial one can practice from R S Agarwal book, then focus on the diagram part such as pie chart or bar graph , line graph or data sufficiency for scoring maximum.

Reasoning High Level : This section is a bit difficult in SBI exam as compared to other bank exams of the same level, they also rightly mention that question in the reasoning shall be of high level so one needs to practice really hard to score above 25 in this section in 40 minutes of time.
            Here also R S Agarwal or Arihant books can be very useful in initially building the concept and later on move to mock papers to increase your speed. The questions in this section are like, persons sitting in round circle, people living on different floor with different designations, venn diagram, input output, blood relation , series completion, answer from the passage. Hence if one is well verse of these questions, there is every chance to score above 30.
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Above we have analysed the SBI Associate Bank PO exam with detailed analysis of how to prepare subject wise and how to score maximum marks. Even if you are having doubts regarding any query do revert back , just by posting your query in the comments section , we shall be happy to solve your queries within short span of time.
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SBI Associate Bank Admit Card Download Link