IBPS SO cheat sheet

Syllogism: a conclusion follows only if it holds in every Venn arrangement of the premises; 'some A are B' plus 'all B are C' yields 'some A are C', but never 'all A are C'.

Blood relations: draw a labelled tree and fix gender symbols before answering; 'maternal uncle' = mother's brother, and 'only son of my grandfather' with no other siblings means the speaker's father.

Seating arrangement: for circular facing-centre problems, right-hand neighbour is anticlockwise and left-hand neighbour is clockwise; facing-outward reverses both.

Direction sense: use coordinates with North = +y and East = +x; a left turn is +90 degrees, a right turn is -90 degrees; shortest distance = square root of (dx squared + dy squared).

Coding-decoding: check letter-position shifts first (A=1 to Z=26); if shifts are irregular, test reversal (A to Z mirror gives position sum 27) before assuming word-level substitution.

Order and ranking: total = (rank from top + rank from bottom) - 1; if two people swap ranks, the change in one person's rank equals the gap between them plus one.

Inequality chains: 'A > B >= C' gives A > C and C < A but not C > A; combining requires the same direction, so 'A > B < C' yields no relation between A and C.

Puzzles with multiple attributes: start from the most restrictive clue (a fixed position or a negative clue such as 'X is not adjacent to Y') and eliminate, rather than assigning the most-mentioned person first.

Reading comprehension: locate the keyword from the question stem in the passage, then read one sentence before and after it; the answer must be supported by the text, not by general knowledge.

Error spotting: subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, article use and preposition collocation are the highest-yield checks; a singular subject takes a singular verb regardless of a parenthetical phrase.

Para jumbles: open with the sentence containing a full noun (no pronoun or definite article referring backwards) and close with one containing a concluding connector such as 'therefore' or 'thus'.

Cloze test: identify the part of speech required by the blank first, then use collocation; a blank after 'a' needs a singular countable noun or an adjective plus noun.

Connectors: 'although' signals contrast, 'hence' signals result, 'unless' signals a negative condition; a sentence with two independent clauses joined by a comma needs a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon.

Idioms appear literally wrong but fixed: 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret; 'a bolt from the blue' means a sudden shock; meaning is never derived from the component words.

Sentence improvement: prefer the option that is grammatically complete and idiomatic; reject options that are grammatically correct but change the intended meaning or add information.

Vocabulary in context: prefix and root analysis narrows meaning (bene- good, mal- bad, -cred- believe, -dict- say); choose the option matching the sentence's tone, not the rarest word.

Percentage change: successive changes of a% and b% give a net change of a + b + ab/100 percent; a 20% rise then 20% fall leaves a net 4% decrease.

Profit and loss: profit% is always calculated on cost price unless stated otherwise; selling price = cost price x (100 + profit%)/100, and two articles sold at the same price with equal gain% and loss% always produce a net loss of (gain% squared)/100.

Simple and compound interest: SI = PRT/100; CI = P[(1 + R/100)^T - 1]; the difference between CI and SI for two years equals P(R/100) squared.

Time, speed and distance: distance = speed x time; for a train of length L crossing a platform of length P, time = (L + P)/speed, with speed converted from km/h to m/s by multiplying by 5/18.

Boats and streams: downstream speed = boat + stream, upstream = boat - stream; boat speed = (downstream + upstream)/2 and stream speed = (downstream - upstream)/2.

Time and work: if A finishes in x days and B in y days, together they take xy/(x + y) days; use LCM of days as total work units to avoid fractions.

Averages and mixtures: new average after adding a value v to n items = (n x old average + v)/(n + 1); alligation gives ratio of quantities = (mean - cheaper) : (dearer - mean).

Permutation and combination: arrangements of n distinct items = n!; selections of r from n = n!/[r!(n - r)!]; circular arrangements of n people = (n - 1)!; the probability of an event = favourable outcomes / total outcomes.

Reserve Bank of India: established 1935 under the RBI Act 1934, nationalised 1949; it sets the repo rate under the monetary policy framework adopted in 2016, which targets CPI inflation of 4% with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2%.

Monetary tools: repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow from RBI against securities; reverse repo absorbs liquidity; CRR is the cash reserve held with RBI and earns no interest; SLR is held in approved securities and earns interest.

Money supply: M1 = currency with public + demand deposits + other deposits with RBI; M3 = M1 + time deposits with banks and is the broad money measure most used for policy analysis.

Banking regulation: deposits are insured by DICGC up to 5 lakh rupees per depositor per bank; priority sector lending target is 40% of adjusted net bank credit, with 18% for agriculture.

NPA classification: a loan becomes a substandard asset after 90 days of overdue; doubtful beyond 12 months as substandard; loss assets are those identified as uncollectible by the bank or auditor.

Basel III: minimum common equity tier 1 capital ratio is 4.5% of risk-weighted assets, total capital adequacy 8%, plus a capital conservation buffer of 2.5%, giving 10.5% for Indian banks before additional buffers.

Financial markets: SEBI regulates securities markets, IRDAI insurance, PFRDA pensions; NABARD handles rural credit and SIDBI handles MSME finance; negotiable instruments are governed by the NI Act 1881.

Payment systems: NPCI operates UPI, IMPS, NACH and RuPay; RTGS is for high-value real-time settlement with no upper limit, while NEFT settles in half-hourly batches and has no minimum limit.

Syllogism: a conclusion follows only if it holds in every Venn arrangement of the premises; 'some A are B' plus 'all B are C' yields 'some A are C', but never 'all A are C'.

Blood relations: draw a labelled tree and fix gender symbols before answering; 'maternal uncle' = mother's brother, and 'only son of my grandfather' with no other siblings means the speaker's father.

Seating arrangement: for circular facing-centre problems, right-hand neighbour is anticlockwise and left-hand neighbour is clockwise; facing-outward reverses both.

Direction sense: use coordinates with North = +y and East = +x; a left turn is +90 degrees, a right turn is -90 degrees; shortest distance = square root of (dx squared + dy squared).

Coding-decoding: check letter-position shifts first (A=1 to Z=26); if shifts are irregular, test reversal (A to Z mirror gives position sum 27) before assuming word-level substitution.

Order and ranking: total = (rank from top + rank from bottom) - 1; if two people swap ranks, the change in one person's rank equals the gap between them plus one.

Inequality chains: 'A > B >= C' gives A > C and C < A but not C > A; combining requires the same direction, so 'A > B < C' yields no relation between A and C.

Puzzles with multiple attributes: start from the most restrictive clue (a fixed position or a negative clue such as 'X is not adjacent to Y') and eliminate, rather than assigning the most-mentioned person first.

Reading comprehension: locate the keyword from the question stem in the passage, then read one sentence before and after it; the answer must be supported by the text, not by general knowledge.

Error spotting: subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, article use and preposition collocation are the highest-yield checks; a singular subject takes a singular verb regardless of a parenthetical phrase.

Para jumbles: open with the sentence containing a full noun (no pronoun or definite article referring backwards) and close with one containing a concluding connector such as 'therefore' or 'thus'.

Cloze test: identify the part of speech required by the blank first, then use collocation; a blank after 'a' needs a singular countable noun or an adjective plus noun.

Connectors: 'although' signals contrast, 'hence' signals result, 'unless' signals a negative condition; a sentence with two independent clauses joined by a comma needs a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon.

Idioms appear literally wrong but fixed: 'to let the cat out of the bag' means to reveal a secret; 'a bolt from the blue' means a sudden shock; meaning is never derived from the component words.

Sentence improvement: prefer the option that is grammatically complete and idiomatic; reject options that are grammatically correct but change the intended meaning or add information.

Vocabulary in context: prefix and root analysis narrows meaning (bene- good, mal- bad, -cred- believe, -dict- say); choose the option matching the sentence's tone, not the rarest word.

Percentage change: successive changes of a% and b% give a net change of a + b + ab/100 percent; a 20% rise then 20% fall leaves a net 4% decrease.

Profit and loss: profit% is always calculated on cost price unless stated otherwise; selling price = cost price x (100 + profit%)/100, and two articles sold at the same price with equal gain% and loss% always produce a net loss of (gain% squared)/100.

Simple and compound interest: SI = PRT/100; CI = P[(1 + R/100)^T - 1]; the difference between CI and SI for two years equals P(R/100) squared.

Time, speed and distance: distance = speed x time; for a train of length L crossing a platform of length P, time = (L + P)/speed, with speed converted from km/h to m/s by multiplying by 5/18.

Boats and streams: downstream speed = boat + stream, upstream = boat - stream; boat speed = (downstream + upstream)/2 and stream speed = (downstream - upstream)/2.

Time and work: if A finishes in x days and B in y days, together they take xy/(x + y) days; use LCM of days as total work units to avoid fractions.

Averages and mixtures: new average after adding a value v to n items = (n x old average + v)/(n + 1); alligation gives ratio of quantities = (mean - cheaper) : (dearer - mean).

Permutation and combination: arrangements of n distinct items = n!; selections of r from n = n!/[r!(n - r)!]; circular arrangements of n people = (n - 1)!; the probability of an event = favourable outcomes / total outcomes.

Reserve Bank of India: established 1935 under the RBI Act 1934, nationalised 1949; it sets the repo rate under the monetary policy framework adopted in 2016, which targets CPI inflation of 4% with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2%.

Monetary tools: repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow from RBI against securities; reverse repo absorbs liquidity; CRR is the cash reserve held with RBI and earns no interest; SLR is held in approved securities and earns interest.

Money supply: M1 = currency with public + demand deposits + other deposits with RBI; M3 = M1 + time deposits with banks and is the broad money measure most used for policy analysis.

Banking regulation: deposits are insured by DICGC up to 5 lakh rupees per depositor per bank; priority sector lending target is 40% of adjusted net bank credit, with 18% for agriculture.

NPA classification: a loan becomes a substandard asset after 90 days of overdue; doubtful beyond 12 months as substandard; loss assets are those identified as uncollectible by the bank or auditor.

Basel III: minimum common equity tier 1 capital ratio is 4.5% of risk-weighted assets, total capital adequacy 8%, plus a capital conservation buffer of 2.5%, giving 10.5% for Indian banks before additional buffers.

Financial markets: SEBI regulates securities markets, IRDAI insurance, PFRDA pensions; NABARD handles rural credit and SIDBI handles MSME finance; negotiable instruments are governed by the NI Act 1881.

Payment systems: NPCI operates UPI, IMPS, NACH and RuPay; RTGS is for high-value real-time settlement with no upper limit, while NEFT settles in half-hourly batches and has no minimum limit.