General & Banking Awareness Exam – Topics to Prepare

Ever thought of answering questions from a subject that gets updated everyday?If not, then get ready to prepare for General knowledge a.k.a General awareness that has become an integral part of all competitive tests including IBPS bank exams.Since candidates have to qualify in each section, every part is equally important.

With the IBPS common exams, round the corner let us see the GA section & the type of queries asked in detail.

See below for the kind of questions likely to be asked in general awareness paper as part of upcoming bank exams?

* What is the full form of NPA?

* How many public sector banks does India have?

* What is the current base rate fixed by RBI?

* Who is the chairman of State Bank of India?

* How to denote ‘account payee’ on a cheque?

PO & clerk written examinations have included a section ‘General Awareness with special reference to Banking Industry’

Apart from the regular GK you can also expect questions about banks, economical indicators, trade etc say common PO exam attendees.

Topics to cover in banking awareness:

1. Visit rbi.org.in & look for the current base rate, savings rate, repo rate etc., Questions about RBI, its governor, recent rate hikes will be asked.
2. Latest technologies used in banking (Internet, Mobile & SMS banking)
3. Names of banks chairman/MD, RBI governor & important financial organizations
4. Terms used in banking field (like NEFT, RTGS, Repo rate, NPA etc.,)
5. Money instruments (cheque,DD,ATM,debit, credit cards etc) & how, when to use them.
6. Five year plans,recent developments in banking sector,mergers,Indian economy, policy decisions (newspapers & GK books will cover this)
7. Of the 50 questions, atleast 20 would be related to banks.

General awareness: This is a vast subject but we have listed some must-read topics based on previous papers.

1. Names of popular people,govt. departments,building,rivers,projects
2. About the functioning of government (who reports to whom, job role etc.)
3. Population of India (poverty line,planning commission,census etc.,)
4. Recent news of importance (Lokpal,RTI,Telecom policy,CAG,CWG etc.,)

Get some books

The biggest problem while preparing for general knowledge/ awareness papers is – new details are added every second.Rather than searching those info yourself, it is always better to have atleast few guides or books from which you can know the basics.

Few books related to banking knowledge are available on Internet, which can be bought by paying in cash/ netbanking or debit/credit cards.

* Banking awareness guide – Rs.119 – Buy online
* General awareness (latest edition GK material)  – Rs.155 – Buy online

Prepare notes: You may have a good GK book & newspapers but it wont be possible to read them again during the final preparatory stage.Here are some tips that would help you to plan.

• Take notes while reading for the first time itself by writing hints & short sentences.
• Make sure its understandable as you wouldn’t want to see a note that is hard to recollect at the time of revision.
• Glance through them everyday to avoid forgetting.

Start now: It can be very hard to memorize the dates, famous persons, abbreviations, definitions & numbers – all in one day.

Preparation for general & banking awareness tests must be an ongoing activity.

Incase you have not begun, allot 1-2 hours daily from today to read the materials & transfer them onto your scribble book.