IBPS Clerk flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Since vs for

'Since' precedes a point of time (since 2010, since Monday); 'for' precedes a duration (for five years). With an action still continuing, both pair with present perfect or present perfect continuous.

No sooner ... than

'No sooner' is always followed by 'than', never 'when' or 'then', and its clause takes inverted past perfect: 'No sooner had he left than it rained.'

One of + plural noun

In 'one of the + plural noun' the verb agrees with 'one' and stays singular: 'One of the boys is absent.' A following relative pronoun, however, takes the plural verb.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that places two contradictory words side by side in one phrase, such as 'deafening silence' or 'bitter sweet', creating an apparent paradox.

Para jumble opening sentence

The sentence that introduces the topic, stands independently, and carries no pronoun or connector referring backwards; identifying it first fixes the sequence of the paragraph.

Frugal

An adjective meaning economical or thrifty in spending. It carries a positive sense of careful saving; its antonym is 'extravagant' or 'wasteful'.

Successive percentage change

The net change for successive a% and b% is a + b + ab/100. Two 10% increases give a 21% rise, while a 10% rise then a 10% fall gives a 1% fall.

CI minus SI, two years

For two years, compound interest exceeds simple interest by P(r/100)². On ₹10,000 at 10% per annum the difference works out to ₹100.

Average speed, equal distances

When equal distances are covered at speeds x and y, average speed = 2xy/(x+y), the harmonic mean. It is not the arithmetic mean (x+y)/2.

Alligation rule

Quantity of cheaper / quantity of dearer = (dearer price − mean price) / (mean price − cheaper price). It solves mixture and weighted-average problems in one step.

Sum of first n naturals

The sum of the first n natural numbers is n(n+1)/2; the sum of their squares is n(n+1)(2n+1)/6 and of their cubes is [n(n+1)/2]².

Successive discounts

Discounts of a% and b% equal a single discount of a + b − ab/100. Selling price after a discount d% is marked price × (100 − d)/100.

Work rate additivity

If A finishes a job in a days and B in b days, together they take ab/(a+b) days, because their rates 1/a and 1/b add up to the combined rate.

Circular seating facing centre

When people face the centre, a person's left is clockwise and the right is anticlockwise. Reverse both rules when the group faces outward.

Order and ranking formula

Total persons in a row = (rank from left + rank from right) − 1, provided both ranks belong to the same person. If the sum exceeds the total, the ranks overlap.

Syllogism possibility rule

'Some A are B' rules out only 'No A is B'. A definite conclusion must hold in every valid Venn diagram, while a possibility conclusion needs just one diagram.

Coded inequality chain

Combine statements into one chain with subjects in matching order: a ≥ b > c gives a > c, but a ≥ b ≥ c gives only a ≥ c.

Blood relation coded symbols

Decode each symbol into a relation before drawing anything. Use '+' for male and '−' for female, vertical links across generations, and horizontal links for spouse or sibling.

Reverse alphabet position

A letter's reverse position equals 27 minus its forward position, so A is 26, E is 22 and Z is 1. This speeds up coding-decoding and series questions.

Direction sense displacement

After a series of turns, net displacement is the straight-line distance from start, obtained by applying Pythagoras to the total north-south and east-west shifts.

Repo rate

The rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to commercial banks against government securities. Raising the repo makes borrowing costlier and tightens liquidity in the system.

Cash Reserve Ratio

The share of net demand and time liabilities that a bank must hold as cash with the RBI. CRR balances earn no interest and are fixed by the central bank.

Statutory Liquidity Ratio

The portion of net demand and time liabilities a bank must maintain in cash, gold or approved securities with itself, rather than with the RBI.

RTGS transfer

Real Time Gross Settlement moves each payment individually and instantly, with a minimum of ₹2 lakh. Settlement is gross, meaning no netting across transactions.

Cheque validity period

A cheque remains valid for three months from the date written on it. Beyond that it is stale and returned unpaid; post-dated cheques are payable only from their date.

MPC inflation target

The Monetary Policy Committee has six members and is chaired by the RBI Governor. It targets CPI inflation of 4% within a tolerance band of plus or minus 2%.

SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, a statutory regulator of the capital market established in 1992, protects investors and supervises exchanges and intermediaries.

RAM vs ROM

RAM is volatile working memory and loses its contents when power is switched off. ROM is non-volatile and stores firmware such as the BIOS used during booting.

Router vs switch

A router forwards packets between different networks using IP addresses. A switch forwards frames within one local network using MAC addresses.

Primary key

A column or set of columns that uniquely identifies every row of a table. It cannot hold null values, and a table may have only one primary key.

HTTP vs HTTPS

Plain HTTP uses port 80 and sends data unencrypted. HTTPS runs HTTP over TLS on port 443, encrypting traffic between browser and server.

Ctrl+Y shortcut

In MS Office applications, Ctrl+Y redoes the last action that was undone with Ctrl+Z. In PowerPoint, F5 starts the slide show from the beginning.