A plan for SBI PO should follow the examination as State Bank of India has defined it in advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09, not a generic "bank exam" routine. This page starts from the official scheme and ends in a weekly routine. The figures are SBI's; the advice is ours and is marked as such.
1. Know what each stage is for
| Stage | What it decides | Marks that reach the final merit |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims (100 marks) | Whether you sit Mains. About 10 times the vacancies go through. | None |
| Mains (200 objective + 30 descriptive) | Whether you reach Phase III, and three-quarters of the final merit | 230, normalised to 75 |
| Group exercise (20) and interview (30) | The last quarter of the final merit | 50, normalised to 25 |
Two consequences, both arithmetic:
- One mark in the group exercise or interview is worth 0.5 in the final 100. One Mains mark is worth about 0.33. Phase III is small in raw marks but heavy per mark.
- Prelims marks vanish after shortlisting. A Prelims score needs to be high enough for your category, and nothing more is gained from it.
2. Know your time per question
Every test has its own timer. Spare time cannot be moved.
| Paper | Test | Questions | Timer | Seconds per question |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims | English Language | 40 | 20 min | 30 |
| Prelims | Quantitative Aptitude | 30 | 20 min | 40 |
| Prelims | Reasoning Ability | 30 | 20 min | 40 |
| Mains | Reasoning and Computer Aptitude | 40 | 50 min | 75 |
| Mains | Data Analysis and Interpretation | 30 | 45 min | 90 |
| Mains | General Awareness / Economy / Banking | 60 | 45 min | 45 |
| Mains | English Language | 40 | 40 min | 60 |
(Seconds per question are our arithmetic.) Prelims is a speed paper: 30 seconds for an English question and 40 for a quantitative or reasoning question leaves no room for a long puzzle that goes wrong. Mains gives two to three times as long per question, and the questions are built to need it. Train on both clocks.
Our advice for Prelims: because there is no sectional cut-off, you are not obliged to attempt a minimum in any test. Inside each 20 minutes, take the questions you can finish in the time available and leave the rest. In a set-based test, one abandoned set costs less than one set that swallows six minutes and still goes wrong.
3. Decide when to guess
The rule: for each wrong answer, one-fourth of the marks assigned to that question is deducted. Every question has five options.
- Blind guess among five: one chance in five of gaining the full marks, four in five of losing a quarter. Expected value zero.
- After ruling out one option: one in four right. Expected value is positive, about 6% of the question's marks.
- After ruling out two: one in three right. Expected value about 17% of the question's marks.
This is arithmetic from the marking rule. It says a guess is worth making only after elimination. Keep a count of "guessed, right" and "guessed, wrong" in your mock log and let your own figures decide how far to push it.
In Mains, remember the sectional minimums. A test in which you attempt too little can fail you by itself, however good the aggregate.
4. Where the Mains marks sit
| Mains component | Marks | Share of 230 | Minutes | Marks per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoning and Computer Aptitude | 60 | 26% | 50 | 1.2 |
| Data Analysis and Interpretation | 60 | 26% | 45 | 1.33 |
| General Awareness / Economy / Banking | 60 | 26% | 45 | 1.33 |
| English Language | 20 | 9% | 40 | 0.5 |
| Descriptive (Communication Skills) | 30 | 13% | 30 | 1.0 |
(Shares and rates are our arithmetic.) Three things follow:
- General Awareness, Economy and Banking carries as many marks as Reasoning or Data Analysis, at 45 seconds a question, with no calculation. Marks there come from what you already know when you sit down. It is the test that most rewards starting early.
- The descriptive paper (30 marks) outweighs the objective English test (20 marks). Many candidates practise the second and not the first.
- Objective English is 40 questions for 20 marks. It still has its own qualifying minimum, so it cannot be ignored, but it is not where extra hours pay most.
5. A four-phase plan
Move between phases on mock results, not dates. For orientation only: the 2026 advertisement came on 18 June, Prelims was on 1 and 2 August, and Mains on 12 September. The next cycle has not been notified, and its dates may differ.
Phase 1: Foundation. Work through the syllabus test by test. Arithmetic first (percentages, ratio, averages, profit and loss, interest, time and work), then data interpretation. Core reasoning types: arrangements, syllogism, inequalities, coding. For English, grammar rules alongside daily reading. Start the daily banking and economy reading habit now and never stop it.
Phase 2: Topic practice. Untimed sets by topic, then lightly timed. Accuracy first. Use topic-wise practice (Pro) or any source that tags questions by topic, so you can see which topic leaks marks.
Phase 3: Sectional timing. Switch to the real timers: 40 English questions in 20 minutes, 30 quantitative in 20, 30 reasoning in 20. Do one test at a time against its clock. Add Mains-length sets: a data set at 90 seconds a question, a hard puzzle at 75.
Phase 4: Full mocks and analysis. Sit full Prelims papers in the real format and spend as long analysing each one as you spent sitting it. In parallel, write one descriptive set a week, typed and timed.
6. Test-by-test tactics
- English Language. SBI's booklet names grammar, vocabulary, sentence completion, synonyms, antonyms and passage comprehension. At 30 seconds a question in Prelims, reading speed decides the score. Read an editorial or a business report daily; it serves comprehension, vocabulary, the descriptive paper and General Awareness together.
- Quantitative Aptitude and Data Analysis. The booklet's samples are dominated by tables. Build mental calculation (percent to fraction conversions, approximation) because no calculator is allowed in Prelims. In Mains an on-screen calculator is permitted for Data Analysis and Interpretation only, so the difficulty there lies in reading the data and setting up the calculation, not in the arithmetic.
- Reasoning. The samples cover classification, analogy, inference, coded operations, data sufficiency and syllogism. Practise choosing which set to start with; that choice matters more in a 20-minute test than raw solving speed.
- Computer Aptitude. SBI folds it into Mains Test I and gives no topic list. Our advice is to cover computer fundamentals lightly and put the hours into reasoning.
- General Awareness, Economy and Banking. The booklet's samples are about KYC and the RBI, sectors of the economy and monetary policy. Keep short dated notes on banking and economic news, and learn the standing basics: what the RBI does, how monetary policy works, types of banks and accounts, common financial terms. Revise weekly.
7. The descriptive paper
Three typed tasks in 30 minutes: an email, a situation analysis, and a report or a precis, 10 marks each. English only, and no spellcheck.
Our advice:
- Type your practice. Ten minutes a task leaves little time to hunt for keys.
- Fix a skeleton for each task (for an email: subject, purpose in the first line, the facts, the action asked for, close) so that the time goes into content.
- Proofread in the last minute of each task. With no spellcheck, errors are yours to find.
- Divide the time before you start, roughly ten minutes a task, and move on when it ends.
8. Phase III
SBI describes the psychometric test as personality profiling, with all questions mandatory, and says its findings go before the interview panel. In 2026 it was taken online in remote proctored mode, with a familiarisation mock link three days earlier, and appearing in it was mandatory.
Our advice: answer the psychometric test honestly and consistently, and do it on a tested computer and connection. For the group exercise and interview, be able to explain your degree, why banking, and current banking and economic issues, which your General Awareness notes already cover. Keep the certificates the advertisement lists ready in the prescribed formats, because candidates without originals are not allowed to attend the interview.
9. A weekly mock-analysis routine
After each mock, log every wrong or skipped question under one tag:
- Concept gap: did not know the idea. Fix: study it, then do ten questions on it.
- Slow method: right, but over the time budget. Fix: learn a shorter method.
- Bad selection: stuck on a set that should have been left. Fix: practise choosing.
- Careless: misread the question or an option. Fix: slow the first read, not the paper.
- Bad guess: guessed without eliminating. Fix: section 3.
Count the tags each week; the largest is next week's work. Compare percentile, not just marks, since shortlisting is by rank within a category. On Pareeksha everyone in a cohort sits the same fixed paper, so the percentile is like for like. See how it works.
10. Free and paid practice on Pareeksha
- Free: a 10-question mini-mock to try the format, and the Daily Dangal quiz.
- Pro: full SBI PO Prelims mocks with the three sectional timers, previous-year papers and topic-wise practice.
The site's SBI PO mocks cover the Preliminary Examination.
What this page does not have
- A target score. SBI has published no cut-off marks in a document we could open, so we do not set a "safe" figure. See the cut-off page.
- A fixed number of months or hours. It depends on your starting point.
- Dates for the next cycle. As of 13 November 2026 no 2027-28 advertisement exists.
- Guidance on what the group exercise will contain. SBI gives its marks but not its format.
- Book recommendations. We do not name publishers.
Related: Syllabus · Exam pattern · Cut-off