Bank Exams

How to Prepare for PO Exam

The job of Probationary Officer (PO) is the entry level managerial position in any bank. The job profile of PO involves General Banking, administration work and any other work assigned by the bank management from time to time. The selection for the posts is usually done through a written test and an interview. The notification for the post is published in the leading dailies in India and in the Employment News weekly. The candidates who have an eye on the posts are advised to regularly read the weekly or visit our site. .As said earlier the candidates are selected on the basis of written test & interview. Almost every bank has same pattern of written test. It consists of objective test & descriptive test. The Objective Test generally carries about 200 250 marks the duration of 2 3 hrs. The question paper consists of the questions from Reasoning Aptitude, General Awareness, English Language & Quantitative Aptitude. There will be negative marking for each wrong answer. The Descriptive Test is of 1hr duration and generally the questions are of essay type and there will also be a test on English comprehension. Candidates who want to appear for the examination have to keep in mind the following points. 1. Reasoning Aptitude:In this section, questions are basically of diagrams, analysis, statements etc. You should show presence of mind & carefully attempt the questions by using your sense of logic and reasoning capacities. You can brush through and solve previous years question papers to get a hang of the format. General Awareness: For preparing this section, the best is to read the newspaper daily & find out the current affairs in banking sectors, global business, money markets and also other general knowledge subjects like politics, sports etc. English language: This section covers questions on English grammar. Vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms etc. The simple grammar book is sufficient for preparation. Quantitative Aptitude:In this paper, the questions on some mathematical problems of Xth Std will be asked from the topics like algebra, profit and loss, percentage etc. Being thorugh with Class Xth maths book will help to get good marks in the paper.

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Books for Indian Banks PO Exam Preparation: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. R. S. Agarwal series on arithmetic, reasoning and Basic English. BSC series of reasoning and English. Bank PO Exam Preparation by Aditya Publications. Quantitative Aptitude for competitive exams from Abhijit Guha. High School English Grammar and Composition Wren and Martin. Banking Service Chronicle Monthly. Pratiyogitha Kiran Monthly.

Common interview questions

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Why are you interested to join our bank? What are your hobbies and interests? Do you read books? Name the book you have read recently? Tell us something about your time management skills? Who is the CMD of our bank? What is the mission and vision of this bank? What is the role of World Trade Organization? How this organization controls world business?

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

Discuss the highest and lowest points in your resume? Talk about your biggest achievements till date? How will you take care of high profile customers? Can you assure us your regularity and honesty to keep secrets of your designation? What is the difference between operating profit and net profit? What is payees account and joint account? Can you tell us the product categories this bank has? Name any three categories and with which departments these products are associated? Hope the bank policies and regulations are clear to you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I understand from your resume, you have a prior experience of 3 years in a lucrative share broking firm. Why do you wish to change your previous job? Can you briefly tell us about the banking regulatory authority of this country? Banking job is a different from your previous job. How do you plan to achieve this different nature of work? Name any 5 leading banks in your city? Can you explain what do you understand by fraud and embezzlement in banking parlance? Have you worked in a deadline and target oriented environment previously? How would you deal with a situation where one of the top-notch customers of your employer-bank feels aggrieved? How will you achieve the daily reconciliation of cash transaction? How do you keep yourself updated with the latest amendments to banking regulations? What are your salary expectations from the job? Tell us about your background? Why do you want to work in a bank? Do you have any kind of job experience or is it your first job? From which institute you have completed your academic qualifications? Have you scored any special diploma in bank management? What is your biggest strength and weakness? Are you familiar with bank vocabulary? Differentiate between a customer and a potential customer? How will you motivate your staff or team to work hard to obtain desired results? What is your method to handle disputes between management and staff? How do you maintain a balance sheet? What is the difference between a ledger book and a balance sheet? What is PLR voluntary? How does a bank fix PLR voluntary? Explain the types of profits a bank earn from its customers and stock marketing? What do you understand from general banking staff? Describe the difference between fixed deposit and draft?

Role of Po in Banks
A Bank Probationary Officer (PO) is the starting level managerial position in any bank. In any bank, all the officers at the level of General Manager, Chairman and Managing Director, etc are the ones who have started their careers at the level of this position only. The promotions for the officers are given based on their performance. To rise to the upper level positions, exhibiting the suitable talent is necessary. The senior level positions involve the duties like planning, marketing, budgeting, processing of loan, investment management decisions, etc. The General Banking, administration work and other duties those are required from time to time are performed by the officer. A Bank PO would be expected to perform all kinds of banking duties until the end of the probationary period. These include accounting, finance, marketing, billing as well as investment related work. He has to handle the daily customer transactions like passing a cheque, cash management, draft issuance, etc. The PO will report to his immediate senior officer who will closely monitor and evaluate the performance of the PO for a certain duration.The bank PO also works on other domains such as loan department, mortgage and finance divisions of the bank. The officer also handles customer complaints and address their queries and doubts. Good communication skills and tactful handling of customers are the necessary qualities required for a PO.

He is promoted to the position of Assistant Manager after his confirmation in the position. He is ready to work anywhere in the country as per the service rules of all the public sector bank. The probationary period of the PO generally involves working in each department usually for a period of three to four months each. This puts him in command over all the aspects of the bank he or she is going to work for the next 30 to 35 years.

Private bank Jobs or Public Bank Jobs

People who want to make a career in the banking sector are often perturbed by the fact that whether they are applying for a private bank or public sector bank. There are lot of differences between the two types of banks. The private sector banks conduct the recruitment mainly through campus placements in the leading educational institutes across the country. However, they also advertise the vacancies in newspapers and websites. The nationalized banks are currently going on a major recruitment drive and are recruiting large numbers of people at various levels. The examinations for these posts are held at national level at various centres across the country. A major difference between the two types of banks is in public sector Banks you are assured of a more secure job than in private sector banks. Private sector banks tend to be very performance based and if you are unable to meet targets, there is every chance for you to be removed from the job. Public sector banks on the other side provide their employees considerable lengths of time to pick upon the nuances of the jobs and are rarely fired unless the employee is considered totally unfit for the job. Moreover these jobs offer a lot of perks to their employees. These include steady income, pension benefits, availability of loans at lower interests and higher interest for deposits. On the other side, in spite of some drawbacks the private sector banks offer higher salaries than public sector banks. Even though every private banking organization has its own set of rules they tend to be more flexible than public banks. This ensures faster growth and greater pay hikes which are often performance based. Whereas the pay structure in public sector banks are lesser and the pay hikes tend to be gradual. Growth in the organization is usually according to the level of seniority. This means in spite of good performance, one cannot always expect a promotion if he or she does not have the right seniority level in terms of time. Hence, both the private and public sector bank jobs have their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore a person needs to prioritize their needs, skills, preferences before choosing the type of bank he or she wants to work. To conclude, a job in public sector bank means, almost a secure job for a lifetime. On the other side, the job in private sector bank do not have the job security and liable to be removed at any time on ones career if he can not deliver the results

MBA Degree in Banking Sector

The Banking and Finance Industry in India has undergone a lot of changes over the last two decades. There is a lot of emphasis on recruiting the highly trained professionals who can integrate well into daily working life of the bank. Banking and Financing results in development of even the remotest area of our country. These two related areas have to look forward a lot for the countries future welfare. The strength of our economy lies in the hands of Banking and Financing. An MBA graduate plays a vital role in Banking and Financing. The Indian banking sector has been growing at a rapid pace of 7% since the start of this decade. According to growth forecasts it is predicted that by the end of 2014, the industry would require a minimum of 1.7 million managerial people while the current available workforce is only around 1 million. That means a deficit of 0.7 million people. This clearly indicates the need for further professionals in the Banking Sector. Considering the rapid progress Indias Economy is making, there is a huge demand for MBA degrees in banking sector. Finance has become a key aspect of banking today. A commerce graduate can enter this segment but the higher levels of management are usually occupied by people having an MBA degree with Finance as a major subject.

A commerce graduate may be good in Accounting but he or she is generally weak in financial management which comes from logical analysis of financial data. An MBA degree with specialization in Banking helps the candidate much better to understand the job responsibilities of a Bank with respect to customer. This also tends to increase the net worth of that individual and he is able to undertake the related responsibility with respect to his specialization. Furthermore an MBA degree equips you with hard skills such as economics, finance, marketing, operations, management, and accounting. And also soft skills of leadership, teamwork, ethics, and communication that are very important for effective management in any organization.