How to prepare for both Bank & SSC exams simultaneously

If you are a government job aspirant, then you must be preparing for recruitment exams conducted by SBI, IBPS, RBI or SSC. Bank and SSC exams are one of the most sought-after exams as they are the biggest contributors from the Public Sector in generating employment opportunities. There is a cut-throat for these exams as millions of candidates appear every year for these exams.

Many of you who want to try their luck in both of these alluring opportunities must be wondering how to prepare for bank and SSC exams simultaneously. This post features strategies to streamline your bank & SSC preparation.

Banking and SSC selection process

Banking exams are conducted by SBI and  IBPS  for PO and Clerical positions and by RBI for Grade-‘B’ position, while SSC conducts CGL (Combined Graduate Level) and CHSL (Combined Higher Secondary Level) examinations. Candidates who qualify in the Preliminary exam (in banking) or Tier-I (in SSC CGL) are subsequently called for the Main examination (in banking) or Tier-II (in SSC CGL) and those who make it to final level appear for a GD-PI session in bank recruitment. There is no interview in SSC examination anymore.

Bank and SSC exam syllabus

To prepare simultaneously for both bank and SSC exams, it is essential that you know the syllabus of both the exams and the difference between them.

Here are some details:

Section-wise strategy

Let’s analyze each topic and formulate a strategy.

Quantitative Aptitude

• Develop a good command over basic concepts. For this, you can enroll for CL’s classroom program for Bank and SSC or the correspondence program for the same.
• In banking exams, questions are primarily asked from Data Interpretation (DI), Average, Square & Cube Roots, Percentage, Approximation, etc. On the other hand, SSC CGL (Tier-I & II) features questions from Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry to Trigonometry.
  Read the question twice before you go ahead and start solving.
• To increase speed and number of attempts, learn short-cuts and tricks for lengthy questions. Avoid risky short-cuts, they may prove fatal for your score.

English Language

• In any banking exam, your comprehension skills will be tested in Reading Comprehension, Jumbled Sentences, Cloze Test, Fill in the blanks, Error Spotting/Correction. However, SSC CGL (Tier-I & II) focuses on the English Grammar part. So you need to have your basics right!
• Reading can improve your comprehension skills and vocabulary. Go through newspapers, journal, biographies, etc. Alternatively, you can look check out CL’s e-books packs for English for bank and SSC to get the best knowledge of the subject.
• Since this section can help you boost your score, so make your best effort to maximize your score. You can enroll for CL’s sectional tests or even try solving free English Cloze Test to know your strong and weak areas and work upon them.

Reasoning Ability

• There is a significant difference in the pattern and difficulty level of this section. While in an SSC CGL Tier I exam, reasoning questions are quite easy, the case is exactly opposite with banking exams. You can also look up e-book Packs on Reasoning Ability for best study.
• Banking exams emphasize on Seating Arrangements, Syllogism, Puzzles, Input-Output, Analytical Reasoning, etc. In order to attempt more questions in lesser time, you need to be sharp enough to deal with the questions. SSC CGL Tier-I covers both verbal and non-verbal questions.
• Practice, strategize and achieve with CL’s sectional tests and for bank and SSC exams.

General Awareness

• As far as SSC exams are concerned, you should go through topics like History, Geography, Polity, Science, General Knowledge and last one year’s current affairs. You can find e-book Packs for all these subjects here.
• For banking exams, you need to focus on current affairs of last 6 months and Banking Knowledge.
• The best way to stay updated with current affairs is to keep an eye on the current affairs, who’s who, appointments, sports and recent changes or reforms in the Banking industry. Some bank exams give weightage to Marketing and Computer Knowledge.
• Also, you could try solving these free GK papers.

Success Tips

1. Know the paper pattern and previous year’s cut-off
2. Take mock tests regularly – The Topper’s recommend the CL’s Bank & SSC test series
3. Go through previous years’ papers
4. Devise exam taking strategy

Stay focused and dedicated towards your goal. Prepare well without any fear of failure. Stay positive and success will follow.

Keep practicing!

All the very best from Team CL