Competition among applicants for getting a job in a bank is becoming increasingly tougher with each year. More qualified candidates are applying for the various bank positions, and the requirements for consideration are constantly raising. It is very important to fully master all banking exam sections to win the job. English is one of the major sections that you need to prepare thoroughly. Thus, you need to know these English Bank Exam Tricks.
Usually, the English banking exam section consists of 3 major categories. The list includes a grammar section, a vocabulary section, and reading comprehension sections. You therefore need to train your English reading, writing, speaking and as well as your analytical skills. Now, we will discuss some of the best English Bank Exam Tricks that can help you to study correctly and efficiently for bank exams.
The English banking exam section may be the easiest part for some, and with the proper preparation it should be. However, passing these tests requires thorough preparation. 
Let us begin by looking at some of the key tips regarding the English banking exam tests.
Top English Bank Exam Tricks You Must Check Out Today
- You need to prepare fully for the 3 major sections of the English exams. It is thus important that you brush you skills up on English language and grammar as well.
- The English questions are pretty simple. However you may encounter some tricks and you may therefore need to think critically to pass the tests. The pattern in which the questions are set may change from time to time.
- You may not have enough time to tackle all the questions in the tests. Therefore you need to manage your time well during the exam. You need to answer about 25 to 30 questions in only 20 minutes. This may not be enough time especially if you are slower. It is thus important to increase your speed to ensure that you tackle all questions.
- The elimination rule may require you to ignore some questions. It is always recommended to first go through each question. Decide the best questions that you can answer effectively . Eliminate some of the questions that tend to be difficult for you.
- Spend more time reading and analyzing the basic Grammar rules to get ideas on how to tackle some of the topics in the English section. Mastering the basic rules in the English section can help you score about 5 to 10 marks.
- While answering the comprehension section, take some time to read through the essay. Begin by tackling the factual and the vocabulary based tests as you head to the main idea tests.
- You could choose to handle the cloze tests in the first few minutes of your exam. However if your Grammar is weak, you may take longer answering the questions hence consuming more time. You could instead, attempt the cloze test in the last minutes.
Additional Recommendation
The Telegraph newspaper is a great recommendation for all those who need to improve on their written and spoken English skills. Improve your vocabulary each day by reading newspapers, important documents or articles and learning new words each day as well.
How to prepare for the grammar section
To pass the grammar section of the tests, you need proper knowledge on the various grammar rules. This includes mastering many of the points of basic high-school English grammar which may include;
- The different parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, prepositions and adverbs.
- The active and passive voice speech. You should know the differences between them and the rules of using them as well.
- There are various tenses and you must learn how and when to use them.
- The use of a, an, and the articles.
- Writing sentences in singular and plural.
- Mastering the degrees of comparisons
- Use of phrases and idioms.
Reading newspapers or articles is essential to understanding how the various rules are applied in different contexts. You can also go through some of the past papers to get an idea of the type of questions to expect in your exams.
Simply emphasize on topics such as error spotting, improving sentence structure, summarizing paragraphs, replacing phrases and para completion. You can read different 
genres and varying styles of writing including classic literature, some science fiction, blog articles, essays and biographies to sharpen your grammar skills. You should pay much attention on the number of words used in every sentence to know the appropriate sentence length, know how sentences are structured and improve on sentence punctuation and spelling as well.
Preparing for the comprehension test section
You may not have enough time to read and answer all the comprehension questions. It is therefore important that you work on your speed and be able to quickly process the information discussed in the essay. Here are more English Bank Exam Tricks on how you can quickly prepare to answer the comprehension tests in the English bank exam.
In order to learn to read faster and understand every piece of information on the comprehension tests, you need to take some time to read English newspapers, journals, articles or novels. Frequently reading English written essays improves your speed in reading and comprehending the information.
As you read the essay you should also learn to develop some analytical skills as you highlight the key parts of the essay and understand the message on the context. You can ask a friend to help you out in case you encounter any problem in understanding some parts of comprehension. You could also discuss with your fellow candidates and get time to learn some new concepts from them to improve your understanding. Your friends should help notice some of the mistakes that you may make while reading the essay and help you correct the errors as well. Reading together can be an ideal solution by asking your friends some of the challenging questions you may have encountered while preparing for the comprehension tests.
It is also important to focus on both story and fact-based tests as any of these tests may feature in your forth coming exams.
How to study for the vocabulary tests
Vocabulary tests may be tough especially if you cannot perfectly communicate in the English language. You need to do thorough preparation and have a strong vocabulary to effectively tackle all questions in the vocabulary section. The best way to prepare for these tests is emphasizing on reading English books and newspapers as you write down the new words that you come across. Take time to learn the meaning of the new words jotted down and how these words are used in various scenarios. You could as well get some examples from the internet on the use of the new words in sentence structure forms. You can also use flashcards and advanced dictionaries to learn the meaning of the challenging words and phrases used.
The key point is simply growing your English vocabulary and ensuring that you understand every phrase used in various essays or articles that you read. Reading more books and being careful to identify all challenging terms is a great way to improve your chances of passing your English bank exams and eventually getting recruitment in the banking sector.
Preparing for verbal ability English exams
The verbal ability section consists of tests in para jumble format where you will need to rearrange the poorly structured sentences in an orderly manner. You may be given a range of 4 to 6 sentences to rearrange so that they make sense.
You therefore need to make thorough preparations on sentence structures and how to correctly use the various parts of speech. Reading English books and newspapers or article blogs and essays may be ideal to see how different sentences are structured in various paragraphs and how the content flows.
Practice more questions on the para jumble formats to get an idea how these questions are tested. You should also work more on your vocabulary as this will also help you tackle all questions correctly. You can go for group discussions to get answers to the challenging questions that you are not able to answer.
How to prepare for descriptive English tests
The descriptive test is only available in the IBPS PO exam and mainly features 2 sections; the essay part and letter writing sections. You therefore need to be conversant with the latest social, political, economic and the cultural issues as some of these tests may require you to give descriptions on some of the events that have occurred recently. Familiarize yourself with the different formats of letter writing. You should also prepare more on questions related to the banking sector. Develop better writing skills and habits as well. Your ideas should flow systematically from one paragraph to the next without conflicting ideas. To come up with properly written essays and letters you need much practice. You can make a target of training on writing official and business letters each day for effective preparations.
General English Tips that Can Help You Prepare for Your Test
As mentioned earlier on, the banking English tests may be challenging and you need to prepare enough to effectively tackle all the questions in the tests. Consider the general tips discussed here to study for your forth coming exams.
Developing a reading habit
I know it may be hard to develop intensive reading habits but you need to understand that it is the only way to pass your exams. If you develop a positive attitude towards reading then it will be easy to make proper schedules on the specific time that you will be committing yourself to serious studies. Your mind will also adjust to your reading schedules making it easy to grasp ideas as you revise for your exams. Make a timeline on the specific topics that you need to cover within a given period. This is ideal to commit yourself fully to your reading schedules.
Make use of past revision examinations papers
It is important that you get an idea on how the English language tests are examined and what to expect as well. Accessing the revision materials and some of the past English examination papers may thus be the only way to know the areas that you should emphasize on while preparing for your exams. You can do the revisions in a group of 2 or more candidates preparing for the same tests. This would be ideal to help you handle the challenging questions. Your friends will also share their ideas on some new concepts that you would need to familiarize with. There are quite a series of mock banking tests that you can freely access from the internet.
Prepare early
Reading the last few days before sitting for your final test may not be a good strategy. You will not effectively tackle all the English related topics you that need to prepare for. Get enough time to prepare for your tests. You can even begin as early as a month or 2 before. The time frame would depend on your ability to easily capture concepts. Make proper schedules specifying the given topics that you will be studying at the various times. Stick to the schedules. Ensure that all difficult sections are emphasized and handled on time before you can sit for your exams.
Do not spend too much time on the same topic
Focusing on the same topic each time may not be a good reading habit. This will consume much of your reading time learning the same concepts. However, it could leave most of the challenging topics unsolved. Learn to improve your time management. Schedule appropriate time slots for each topic that you need to prepare for. The English tests require you to read and write on a regular basis. Learning new words and phrases should be part of your daily schedule as you revise for your exams.
The English banking section tests may not be challenging if you do thorough preparations on all the challenging topics that you are not familiar with. This list of English Bank Exam Tricks should thus be useful to help you prepare fully for your forthcoming English bank tests.