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BankSuccess

Strategy to Solve English Section in Banking &


Related Exams.
Most of the banking exam aspirants are facing diculty to score in English section. But English will be the scoring
section if you prepare it properly. The general pa ern of English section in banking examination is as follows.
Reading Comprehension Passage- Mostly 2 passages of 10 marks each
Cloze Test-10 marks
Para Jumble or Sentence ordering-05 marks
Sentence correction-05 marks.
Ideally the whole section can be solved within 22-25 minutes. We will now discuss how to solve the above types of
questions eectively. We will discuss the strategy to solve each type of above questions sets.
1} Reading Comprehension Passage.
Most of the people nds that RC is boring & require much time to solve it. They skip this nally resulting into scoring
low in English section. RC is the best option to get maximum marks in English section. Since every exam contains two
RC passages on dierent subjects like Economics, Philosophy etc. So do not skip these questions, if you solve these
questions eectively you will get competitive advantage over others.
To solve these questions you should have following skills
Vocabulary skills
Use context clues to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
Use structural analysis (such as prex, sux, etc) to determine word meaning semantic knowledge.
Use dictionary to determine word meaning.
Reading speeds
Skimming read quickly for global comprehension.
Scanning read quickly for precise details.
Reading for comprehensive understanding develop an overall understanding, identify relevant details, and
identify the relationships between ideas.
Skipping unknown words.
Critical reading makes inferences by relating the text to past experiences (background knowledge), ask questions,
evaluate and judge the information and the authors opinion.
Monitoring make clarication, summary, question, and prediction.
Syntax knowledge structure of the language.
Grammar skills
Discourse knowledge cohesion and coherence of the text.
Steps to Solve RC Passages->
In order to solve these questions, follow the steps below:
1. Create interest in passage

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First and foremost step is that you should have interest in reading the passage, you must get involved in the passage.
So that you can get essence of the passage. If not, try to pretend it, so that you will involve in passage while reading.
2, Find the theme or story
You should be able to understand the whole passage in one line i.e the passage is about ..subject. Once you do this,
you will know which parts of the passage are most important.
3. Apply your existing knowledge with passage
This part requires that you visualize certain aspects of the passage. Even if you dont understand all of the passage, if
you visualize what you do understand, then you will be able to come to conclusions about the meaning of other parts.
4. Examine the beginning and end
You must focus on the rst few and last sentences of each paragraph; they tend to be the most important to get the
idea of that particular paragraph
5. Coordinate or link parts to one another
Always write main point of each paragraph while reading, and then try to link the paragraphs from these points. So
that you can answer the conclusion based or inference based questions which most of the people are not able to
solve.
6. Keep your eye out for signals
Keep your eye out for paragraph breaks and signal words that indicate the relationship of each paragraph to the next.
For example, the word Likewise is used to point out a similarity between paragraphs.
7. Speed up as the passage continues
As I told you at the beginning of my post, rst & last parts or paragraphs of the passage are most important. Since,
rst paragraph gives you idea about the story of the passage and last paragraph is gives information about what
author tries to convey, conclusion, nal outcomes of the problem etc. So spend the more time on these two parts and
then increase your speed of reading as you continue with passage. Do not get lost in the details. There will be lot of
unnecessary details will be given. You must avoid them.
2} Cloze Test
Close test is one of the easiest questions in the English section. You must have adequate vocabulary as well as
grammar skills to solve these type of questions easily. Those who are not able to clear the sectional cut-o, focus on
this questions. Since these are one of the easiest questions in any bank exam.
Strategy to solve the cloze test->
1) First, slowly read all the text without lling any of the gaps. Read it two or three times until you have a clear
understanding of what the text is about.
2) Then only complete the gaps you are absolutely sure of.
3) Next try and nd out what the missing words in the remaining gaps are. See which part of speech may t in each
gap (article?, pronoun?, noun?, adverb?, adjective?, preposition?, conjunction?, verb?) and pay special a ention to the
grammar around the words in each gap.
Many of the gaps may include the following:
preposition following a noun, adjective or verb. (Example: good at languages)
prepositional phrase. (Example: in spite of )
adverb. ( Example: He moved to London two years ago )
connector. (Example: First, he arrives; then he sits down; nally, he leaves.)

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conjunction. (Example: Although he is ve, he can speak ve languages.


auxiliary verb . (Example: He has won 2 matches)
an article or some other kind of determiner. (Example: I have no time)
a relative . (Example: Bob, who I met two years ago, is my best friend)
a pronoun , either subject or object. (Example : it is dicult to know)
is there a comparative or superlative involved? (Example: shes taller than me)
4) Some sentences may seem to be complete and contain gaps that appear to be unnecessary. If you nd gaps like
this, you will probably need the following:
an adverb. (Example: He is always late)
a modal verb . (Example: They can swim very well)
a word to change the emphasis of the sentence: Shes good enough to be queen
The problems are too dicult
5) A few gaps may demand a vocabulary item consistent with the topic of the text; or a word which is part of an
idiomatic expression (example: Good heavens!); or a word which collocates with another one (example: do a job); or a
word which is part of a phrasal verb (example: I was held up by trac)
6) Read the text again, trying to ll gap as you come to it by imagining what the correct answer should be.
7) Read the text another time, this time chooses the correct answer from the four (sometimes three) answers given.
8) If you are unsure of any given answer, try reading the sentence with each of the four possibilities.
9) Try to eliminate two of the obvious false answers (usually two relatively false answers are given) When stuck
between two answers, go with the one that sounds right.
Hot Tips:
1. Do not stop to answer questions on your rst reading. Since most probably that answer will be correct, because it
is the rst possible answer which comes in your mind.
2. Always think about the overall meaning of the text (i.e., whether the text is negative, positive, etc.) to make sure
that your answer choice ts the context.
3. Trust your intuition. If you feel a word is right instinctively, it probably is correct. Asli Power Dil Me Hoti Hai !
Some useful material
h p://www.bankexam.co.in/uploads/exam_features/1008071281164522Cloze%20test.pdf (h p://www.bankexam.co.in
/uploads/exam_features/1008071281164522Cloze%20test.pdf)
h p://sscintelligent.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/crack-english-score-maximum-trick-to-solve-clozetest-tips-to-scoreinenglish/ (h p://sscintelligent.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/crack-english-score-maximum-trick-to-solve-clozetesttips-to-score-inenglish/)
3} Para Jumble
This is also easy type questions in English section. To solve this question you should be very calm, so that you can get
possible permutation & combination of given sentence so as to form proper sequence
Types of PJ questions
Para-jumbles broadly fall in three categories. In each category, the jumbled sentences are coded with an alphabet
(usually A, B, C and D).
1. 4/5 sentences are given in a random order and you have to unjumble all of them. Toughest of the lot!

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2. The opening sentence + 4/5 sentences are given and you have to rearrange the group of 4/5 sentences, having
been given prior knowledge of the thought that starts o the ow of the discussion.
3. 4/5 sentences + the closing sentence is given and you need to correctly sequence 4/5 sentences so that they ow
into the last sentence.
4. Opening sentence + 4/5 Sentences + Closing Sentence are given. Easiest of the lot. You know where the story
starts and where it ends. You only have to gure out the screenplay in between!
Best approach
1. a) The best approach to solving PJ questions is the free fall one. That is, develop a high reading speed and scan all
4-5 sentences. Try to get a feel of what the passage is about.
2. b) At this point you need to decide whether this particular paragraph is one which you are comfortable with or
not.
3. c) If you decide to go ahead, then scan the answer options. Are they of any help?
-> If , for example the options are,
1. a) BDAC b) BCAD c) CABD d) CBDA
Then you know for sure that this paragraph has to start either with B or C. A quick look at B and C will tell you which
one looks like a be er opening sentence and already your choices will be halved.
-> Similarly, with options,
1. a) BDCA b) CDBA c) DCAB d) ACDB
then we know that it has to end with either B or A. So browse sentences A and B and see if any one of them look like
a concluding sentence.
->There might be other indicators to keep an eye out for. For example if three of the ve options start with A and the
other two with C/B/D there is a good probability that A is the starting sentence.
->If, say, a link CB occurs in more than 2 options then it is something worth paying a ention to.
PJ strategies to save time and increase accuracy
Strategy 1: Once upon a time long ago / and they lived happily after: Identify the opening/closing sentence using
what we discussed above. Either the tone of the paragraph or the option elimination method.
Strategy 2: Wheres the interlock dude? Identify links between two sentences and try to see if that link exists in
multiple answer options (a sure way to know that you are on the right track). A combination of 1 and 2 will take you
home most of the time.
Place your magnifying glass on the following,
Strategy 2a: Make it personal.
Look out for personal pronouns (he, she, it, him, her, you, they). Personal pronouns always refer to a person, place or
thing. Therefore, if a sentence has a personal pronoun without mentioning the person, place or object it is referring to,
mark it in your head and scan the paragraph for the original person, place or object that it refers to.
For example if you go back to the opening jumbled paragraph of this article, the third sentence starts with it. We
now need to gure out what it refers to and the sentence containing the original it will come before this sentence.
Strategy 2b: Look for Poriborton (Change, in Mamata Banerjees tongue).
Certain words called transition words help the author to shift from one thought ow to another. In other words,
they usher in change. Some transition words that appear regularly are hence, besides, simultaneously, in
conclusion, etc. While you practice PJs whenever you come across a transition word note it down. Make a list!
Strategy 2c: Demonstrate!
Look for demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those, etc. Again, if you look at our opening paragraph, the rst

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line starts with for this now we know that we need to gure out what this refers to and the sentence containing
the original this will come before this sentence.
Strategy 3: Main samay hoon!
Sometimes the events mentioned in the paragraph can be arranged in a chronological order making it easy for you to
identify the sequence. Example,
A: Alexander Bain, Sco ish clockmaker, patented the electric clock.
B: The next development in accuracy occurred after 1656 with the invention of the pendulum clock.
C: Clocks have played an important role in mans history.
D: Spring-driven clocks appeared during the 15th century, although they are often erroneously credited to
Nuremberg watchmaker Peter Henlen around 1511.
It is quite obvious by studying the chronology what the sequence should be.
Strategy 4: The Chota Rajan Approach.
Sometimes you will nd that for some terms in the paragraph both the full form and the abbreviation have been used.
For Example IMF International Monetary Fund, Charles Dickens Dickens, Dr Manmohan Singh Dr Singh. In
these cases where both the full form as well as the abbreviation is present in dierent sentences, then the sentence
containing the full form will obviously come before the sentence containing the abbreviation.
Strategy 5: What an Idea Sirji!
If there are two sentences, one containing an idea and another giving examples of the same idea then the sentence
containing the idea should come before the sentence containing the examples. But they need not necessarily be
exactly side by side. Example,
A: Russia possesses the largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in the world.
B: 489 missiles carrying up to 1,788 warheads and 12 submarines carrying up to 609 warheads form a looming threat.
A will come before B in this case, even though there might be sentences in between.
Strategy 6: An article of faith.
It is highly unlikely that the denite article the will be part of an opening sentence. If a/an and the both are used
for the same noun then the sentence containing the will come after the sentence containing a/an.
Tips for beginners
Focus on improving your reading skills. Also try to improve your cognitive ability. For example Go to a random
website article. Go immediately to the second paragraph and after reading it try to guess what the author could have
possibly said in the previous paragraph and the next paragraph. This will help you with a couple of other types of
questions as well which we shall discuss in later articles.
4}Sentence Correction
This is set of questions are generally ask for 5 marks, you must have good grammar as well as expression skills.
Strategy to solve these questions
1) Pahli Nazar- Start solving any SC problem by reading the original sentence in its entirety. Errors often reveal
themselves only when you look at the rest of the sentence. When reading the sentence for the rst time, try to spot
suspicious parts right awaydo not wait for the answer choices to tell you what is wrong with the sentence.
2) Then focus on grammatical part, break the whole sentence into parts or clauses. The analyze subject-verb
agreement part in each clause, whether it is correct or not.
3) Look closely on structure of sentence; many times you can identify the error by just looking on structure of

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sentence. For example, if a sentence begins with a modifying phrase, your rst action should be to check whether the
modier refers to the right subject. Similarly, whenever you spot such words as like, as, more than, or any other form
of comparison, check whether the things compared are logically and structurally parallel.
Some other typical signals include (1) several actions occurring at dierent times, which may lead to errors in verb
tenses; or (2) a subject separated so from its verb that subject-verb agreement error occurs; or (3) the use of it or they,
pronouns often used incorrectly.
4) Understand the overall meaning of the subject, most of the time grammatical aspects of the sentence are correct
but the overall meaning of the sentence is not correct. Then identify the word in the sentence which can be
interpreted in dierent meaning. So that you can spot the error or correct that part of sentence.
5) Compare the option choice and try to spot the dierence among them, eliminate the grammatically incorrect
options.
6) Do not use this sounds good/this does not sound good as a criterion for choosing or rejecting an answer choice.
No ma er how awkward and unnatural an answer sounds to you, if its grammatically correctespecially if all the
others are incorrectits the best.
7) At last, if you nd that the option you selected is changing the original meaning of the sentence then eliminate that
option.
8) Do not select the answer depending upon the length of option. Always think of grammatical & overall meaning
aspect while choosing one among the possible answers.
9) If you think that two options are equally correct then eliminate the option which is having passive expression.
Generally we avoid passive expression unless it is really necessary.
Some useful study material
h p://www.arihantbooks.com/chapterdownloads/G365.pdf (h p://www.arihantbooks.com/chapterdownloads
/G365.pdf)

h p://www.manha anprep.com/gmat/blog/2013/09/23/how-to-solve-any-sentence-correction-problem-part-1/(h p://www.m


/gmat/blog/2013/09/23/how-to-solve-any-sentence-correction-problem-part-1/)
I hope this article will be helpful for many banking aspirants.
ReferencesVarious internet sites & entrance exam preparation forums.
You can reach me at
h ps://www.facebook.com/amolchate7 (h ps://www.facebook.com/amolchate7)
h ps://www.facebook.com/groups/184413941760658/ (h ps://www.facebook.com/groups/184413941760658/)

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5 Comments

Great
h p://www.kajlabros.com
posted November 30, 2014 at 11:21 am by rahul

Reply

Great
h p://www.exambull.com
posted November 30, 2014 at 11:21 am by rahul

Reply

Thank you Sir


posted December 1, 2014 at 7:33 am by Ravi Nagarkar

Reply

Send me An important sir


posted December 1, 2014 at 1:30 pm by Vishal Kamble

Reply

thanks a lot sir


posted December 2, 2014 at 10:15 am by gowri namilax

Reply

NOVEMBER 30, 2014


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