IBPS Clerk cheat sheet

Subject-verb agreement: 'one of + plural noun' takes a singular verb (One of the files is missing); 'each, every, either, neither' also take a singular verb.

Either/or and neither/nor: the verb agrees with the nearer subject - 'Neither the manager nor the clerks were informed.'

'Since' takes a point of time, 'for' takes a duration; with 'since' the main clause uses present perfect or present perfect continuous.

Two past actions: the earlier takes past perfect (had + V3), the later simple past - 'The train had left before we reached.'

Articles follow sound, not spelling: an hour, an MLA, a European, a university.

Correlative pairs are fixed: no sooner … than, hardly/scarcely … when, not only … but also, so … that.

Para jumbles: the opening sentence introduces the topic, stands alone, and contains no pronoun or connector pointing backwards; chain the rest using pronouns, synonyms and connectors (however, therefore).

Reading comprehension answers must be traceable to a line in the passage; an option that is generally true but not stated is wrong.

Cloze test: test the blank first for part of speech and collocation, then for meaning.

BODMAS order: brackets, orders (powers and roots), division and multiplication left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.

Percentage: x% of N = xN/100; successive changes a% then b% give a + b + ab/100 with signs applied (+10 then −10 = −1%).

Profit and loss: SP = CP × (100 ± P or L)/100; profit or loss per cent is calculated on CP unless stated otherwise.

Discount: SP = MP × (100 − d)/100; two successive discounts a and b equal a single discount of a + b − ab/100.

Interest: SI = PRT/100; CI = P[(1 + R/100)^T − 1]; for 2 years CI − SI = P(R/100)².

Speed: D = S × T; equal distances at speeds x and y give average speed 2xy/(x+y); relative speed adds for opposite directions and subtracts for the same direction.

Time and work: rates add, so 1/a + 1/b = 1/t and together A and B finish in ab/(a+b) days; efficiency is inversely proportional to time taken.

Alligation: (quantity of cheaper)/(quantity of dearer) = (dearer price − mean price)/(mean price − cheaper price).

Mensuration: circle area πr², circumference 2πr; cylinder volume πr²h; sphere volume (4/3)πr³; triangle area ½ × base × height.

Syllogism: a definite conclusion must be true in every possible Venn diagram; a 'possibility' conclusion needs only one valid diagram.

Valid conversions: All A are B → Some B are A; Some A are B → Some B are A; No A is B → No B is A.

Coded inequalities: chain statements keeping subject order; a ≥ b > c gives a > c, but a ≥ b ≥ c gives only a ≥ c; 'either-or' applies to complementary pairs such as x > y or x ≤ y.

Order and ranking: total = left rank + right rank − 1 for the same person; if the sum exceeds the total, the ranks overlap.

Circular arrangement facing the centre: a person's left is clockwise and right is anticlockwise; reverse both rules when people face outward.

Direction sense: add up the north-south and east-west shifts, then apply Pythagoras to get the straight-line distance from the start.

Blood relations: decode each symbol first, then draw a tree - '+' for male, '−' for female, vertical lines across generations, horizontal lines for spouse or sibling.

Alphabet positions: A = 1 to Z = 26; reverse position = 27 − forward position, with EJOTY (5, 10, 15, 20, 25) as anchors.

RBI was established on 1 April 1935 under the RBI Act 1934, was nationalised in 1949, and is headquartered in Mumbai.

Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to banks against government securities; the reverse repo is the rate at which it absorbs liquidity.

CRR is the cash share of net demand and time liabilities kept with the RBI and earns no interest; SLR is held by the bank itself in cash, gold or approved securities.

Monetary Policy Committee: six members, chaired by the RBI Governor, targeting CPI inflation of 4% within a tolerance band of ±2%.

RTGS settles each transaction individually and in real time with a minimum of ₹2 lakh; NEFT settles in batches with no minimum amount.

Cheque validity is three months from the date on it; a bearer cheque is payable to the holder, an order cheque needs endorsement, and a crossed cheque must be credited to an account.

Regulators: RBI for banks, NBFCs and payment systems; SEBI (statutory, 1992) for securities; IRDAI for insurance; PFRDA for pensions.

Mudra loans: Shishu up to ₹50,000, Kishor ₹50,001 to ₹5 lakh, Tarun above ₹5 lakh; PMJDY (2014) is the flagship zero-balance financial inclusion account scheme.

CPU = ALU + control unit + registers; the ALU performs arithmetic and logic while the control unit sequences instruction execution.

Speed ladder: registers > cache > RAM > SSD/HDD; RAM is volatile and loses data on power-off, ROM is non-volatile and holds firmware such as BIOS.

Memory units: 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 KB = 1024 bytes; 1 MB = 1024 KB; 1 GB = 1024 MB; 1 TB = 1024 GB.

Shortcuts: Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+X cut, Ctrl+V paste, Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y redo, Ctrl+A select all, Ctrl+S save, F5 start slide show in PowerPoint.

Network devices: a hub broadcasts to all ports, a switch forwards frames by MAC address within a LAN, a router forwards packets by IP address between networks.

HTTP uses port 80 and is unencrypted; HTTPS uses port 443 over TLS; DNS resolves domain names into IP addresses.

DBMS: a primary key is unique and never null; DDL (CREATE, ALTER, DROP) changes structure while DML (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) handles data.

Security terms: phishing tricks users into revealing credentials, a firewall filters traffic by rules, and malware covers virus, worm, trojan and ransomware.

Subject-verb agreement: 'one of + plural noun' takes a singular verb (One of the files is missing); 'each, every, either, neither' also take a singular verb.

Either/or and neither/nor: the verb agrees with the nearer subject - 'Neither the manager nor the clerks were informed.'

'Since' takes a point of time, 'for' takes a duration; with 'since' the main clause uses present perfect or present perfect continuous.

Two past actions: the earlier takes past perfect (had + V3), the later simple past - 'The train had left before we reached.'

Articles follow sound, not spelling: an hour, an MLA, a European, a university.

Correlative pairs are fixed: no sooner … than, hardly/scarcely … when, not only … but also, so … that.

Para jumbles: the opening sentence introduces the topic, stands alone, and contains no pronoun or connector pointing backwards; chain the rest using pronouns, synonyms and connectors (however, therefore).

Reading comprehension answers must be traceable to a line in the passage; an option that is generally true but not stated is wrong.

Cloze test: test the blank first for part of speech and collocation, then for meaning.

BODMAS order: brackets, orders (powers and roots), division and multiplication left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.

Percentage: x% of N = xN/100; successive changes a% then b% give a + b + ab/100 with signs applied (+10 then −10 = −1%).

Profit and loss: SP = CP × (100 ± P or L)/100; profit or loss per cent is calculated on CP unless stated otherwise.

Discount: SP = MP × (100 − d)/100; two successive discounts a and b equal a single discount of a + b − ab/100.

Interest: SI = PRT/100; CI = P[(1 + R/100)^T − 1]; for 2 years CI − SI = P(R/100)².

Speed: D = S × T; equal distances at speeds x and y give average speed 2xy/(x+y); relative speed adds for opposite directions and subtracts for the same direction.

Time and work: rates add, so 1/a + 1/b = 1/t and together A and B finish in ab/(a+b) days; efficiency is inversely proportional to time taken.

Alligation: (quantity of cheaper)/(quantity of dearer) = (dearer price − mean price)/(mean price − cheaper price).

Mensuration: circle area πr², circumference 2πr; cylinder volume πr²h; sphere volume (4/3)πr³; triangle area ½ × base × height.

Syllogism: a definite conclusion must be true in every possible Venn diagram; a 'possibility' conclusion needs only one valid diagram.

Valid conversions: All A are B → Some B are A; Some A are B → Some B are A; No A is B → No B is A.

Coded inequalities: chain statements keeping subject order; a ≥ b > c gives a > c, but a ≥ b ≥ c gives only a ≥ c; 'either-or' applies to complementary pairs such as x > y or x ≤ y.

Order and ranking: total = left rank + right rank − 1 for the same person; if the sum exceeds the total, the ranks overlap.

Circular arrangement facing the centre: a person's left is clockwise and right is anticlockwise; reverse both rules when people face outward.

Direction sense: add up the north-south and east-west shifts, then apply Pythagoras to get the straight-line distance from the start.

Blood relations: decode each symbol first, then draw a tree - '+' for male, '−' for female, vertical lines across generations, horizontal lines for spouse or sibling.

Alphabet positions: A = 1 to Z = 26; reverse position = 27 − forward position, with EJOTY (5, 10, 15, 20, 25) as anchors.

RBI was established on 1 April 1935 under the RBI Act 1934, was nationalised in 1949, and is headquartered in Mumbai.

Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to banks against government securities; the reverse repo is the rate at which it absorbs liquidity.

CRR is the cash share of net demand and time liabilities kept with the RBI and earns no interest; SLR is held by the bank itself in cash, gold or approved securities.

Monetary Policy Committee: six members, chaired by the RBI Governor, targeting CPI inflation of 4% within a tolerance band of ±2%.

RTGS settles each transaction individually and in real time with a minimum of ₹2 lakh; NEFT settles in batches with no minimum amount.

Cheque validity is three months from the date on it; a bearer cheque is payable to the holder, an order cheque needs endorsement, and a crossed cheque must be credited to an account.

Regulators: RBI for banks, NBFCs and payment systems; SEBI (statutory, 1992) for securities; IRDAI for insurance; PFRDA for pensions.

Mudra loans: Shishu up to ₹50,000, Kishor ₹50,001 to ₹5 lakh, Tarun above ₹5 lakh; PMJDY (2014) is the flagship zero-balance financial inclusion account scheme.

CPU = ALU + control unit + registers; the ALU performs arithmetic and logic while the control unit sequences instruction execution.

Speed ladder: registers > cache > RAM > SSD/HDD; RAM is volatile and loses data on power-off, ROM is non-volatile and holds firmware such as BIOS.

Memory units: 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 KB = 1024 bytes; 1 MB = 1024 KB; 1 GB = 1024 MB; 1 TB = 1024 GB.

Shortcuts: Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+X cut, Ctrl+V paste, Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y redo, Ctrl+A select all, Ctrl+S save, F5 start slide show in PowerPoint.

Network devices: a hub broadcasts to all ports, a switch forwards frames by MAC address within a LAN, a router forwards packets by IP address between networks.

HTTP uses port 80 and is unencrypted; HTTPS uses port 443 over TLS; DNS resolves domain names into IP addresses.

DBMS: a primary key is unique and never null; DDL (CREATE, ALTER, DROP) changes structure while DML (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) handles data.

Security terms: phishing tricks users into revealing credentials, a firewall filters traffic by rules, and malware covers virus, worm, trojan and ransomware.