The IBPS SO Law Exam is ideal for applicants who want to work as a Law Officer (Scale I) in a bank. IBPS conducts the SO Exam to recruit Specialist Officers. A Law Officer is an integral part of a bank. They offer legal advice and handle various legal issues related to the bank.
An IBPS Law Officer advises the bank on how to comply with different laws such as RBI Notifications, the Banking Regulation Act, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, Contract Laws, the Companies Act, 1956, and so on.
IBPS SO 2021 Notification
The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection will release the IBPS SO 2021 notification on its official website, www.ibps.in. It is held at various locations across India. The mode of examination is online. According to the IBPS calendar, the IBPS SO Prelims exam will be conducted on December 18, 2021, and December 26, 2021, and the Mains exam will be held on January 30, 2022.
IBPS SO Exam Dates 2021
| Activity | Tentative Dates |
| IBPS SO Notification 2021 | To be Notified |
| IBPS SO Online Registration Starts From | To be Notified |
| Last Date to Apply Online for IBPS SO | To be Notified |
| Download of call letters for Online examination – Preliminary | To be Notified |
| Commencement of IBPS SO Preliminary Exam | December 18, 2021December 26, 2021 |
| Result of IBPS SO Online exam – Preliminary | To be Notified |
| Download of call letters for Online examination – Mains | To be Notified |
| Commencement of IBPS SO Mains Exam | January 30, 2022 |
| Conduct of Interview | To be Notified |
| IBPS SO 2021 Final Result | To be Notified |
The exam is scheduled tentatively for December 2021. This implies that you have approx 8 months to prepare. But, before starting with the IBPS SO preparation strategy, you must know certain technicalities of the exam like IBPS SO previous year’s vacancies, eligibility criteria, IBPS SO exam pattern for both prelims and mains. You should also have a clear understanding of the IBPS SO syllabus.
For your better understanding I have mentioned all these details here.
IBPS SO Law Officer Vacancies 2021
The number of vacancies for 2021 will be announced in the notification. According to our exam experts, the Notification is scheduled to be issued in October 2021. Last year, there were 50 vacancies for the IBPS SO Law Officer post. The following are the vacancy information for the year 2020:
| S.No. | Name of Post | No. of Vacancies |
| 1 | Agriculture Officer (Scale-I) | 485 |
| 2 | Marketing Officer (Scale-I) | 60 |
| 3 | Law Officer (Scale-I) | 50 |
| 4 | Rajbhasha Adhikari (Scale-I) | 25 |
| 5 | IT Officer (Scale-I) | 20 |
| 6 | HR/Personnel Officer (Scale-I) | 7 |
| Total | 647 |
IBPS SO Law Officer Eligibility Criteria 2021
To not let your efforts go in vain it’s important to check the eligibility criteria before starting any exam preparation. For IBPS SO Law Officer, the eligibility criteria are given below.
Nationality / Citizenship: A candidate must be either –
- A Citizen of India or
- A subject of Nepal or
- A subject of Bhutan or
- A person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar), Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India, provided that the candidate belonging to countries above shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.
| Name of thePost | Age | Educational Qualifications(from a University/ Institution/ Board recognised by Govt. Of India/ approved by Govt. Regulatory Bodies) |
| Law Officer (Scale I) | Min- 20 YearsMax-30 YearsA candidate must have been born not earlier than 02.11.1989 and not later than 01.11.1999 (both dates inclusive) | A Bachelor’s degree in Law and enrolled as an advocate with Bar Council No prior experience is required |
IBPS SO Law Officer Exam Pattern
The exam pattern for IBPS SO Law Officer has the Professional Knowledge section included in the Mains exam.
So, it is important for you to know the full exam pattern along with the exam syllabus before starting with the exam preparation. This will help you to know the weightage of each section and what all you will be required to study. After the analysis of the exam pattern, you can devise a strategy accordingly. For your reference below is the exam pattern for both IBPS SO Law Officer Prelims and Mains.
Prelims Exam Pattern
| Serial No. | Section | No. of Questions | Total Marks | Duration |
| 1. | Reasoning | 50 | 50 | 40 min |
| 2. | English Language | 50 | 25 | 40 min |
| 3. | General Awareness with Special Reference to Banking Industry | 50 | 50 | 40 min |
| Total | 150 | 125 | 120 min |
Mains Exam Pattern
| Name of the Test | Number of Questions | MaximumMarks | Medium ofExam | Duration |
| Professional Knowledge | 60 | 60 | English & Hindi | 45 minutes |
IBPS SO Law Officer: How to Approach the Syllabus?
According to the IBPS Calendar, your exam will be in December 2021. You have 8 months to prepare for the written exam. For a systematic approach towards covering the syllabus, I have divided your preparation into four parts.
PART 1: As you are a law graduate, you should have the basic knowledge about the subject. In the mains exam professional knowledge is required to clear the exam. Read the relevant books and materials to study for the professional paper of law.
The professional knowledge section has the highest weightage in the written exam. Important topics include Banking Regulations, Compliance, and Legal Aspects, Relevant Law and Orders related to negotiable instruments, securities, foreign exchange, Prevention of Money-laundering, Limitation Act, Consumer Protection Act, SARFAESI, Banking Ombudsman Scheme, Laws and Actions with a direct link to Banking Sector, Bankers Book Evidence Act, DRT Act. Hence, study well and go through all your graduation books to excel in this section.
PART 2: General Awareness section of law officer exam consists of 50 marks and it includes questions from major topics like Current Affairs, Banking Awareness, GK Updates, Currencies, Important Places, Awards, Headquarters, Books and Authors, Prime Minister Schemes, Important Days and more. To cover these topics you can study from BeePedia. BeePedia is a weekly and monthly general awareness capsule that covers every minute details about the latest update.
Go through the BeePedia of the last six months and keep a tab on the current happenings of the upcoming months.
PART 3: To prepare for the reasoning section, cover all the logical questions, facts, conclusions, and judgment. Reasoning requires conceptual clarity and practice. The more you practice, the better you will get. Take mock tests to know where you stand in your preparation. Practice tests of varying difficulty levels – begin with easy and progress to difficult.
To improve your results, practise problems involving simplification/approximation, number sequence, and data interpretation. Improve the calculation pace by memorising tables and practising mental math.
To excel in this section and how to score full marks, watch the video below.
PART 4: The English Language section has 50 questions worth 25 marks. Make a habit of reading News Articles, Journals, Magazines, Newspapers to improve vocabulary and English grammar.
Questions in this section include topics like Cloze Test, Reading Comprehension, Spotting Errors, Sentence Improvement, Sentence Correction, Para Jumbles, Fill in the Blanks, Para/Sentence Completion. Devise a study plan in such a way that the most important topics are covered. Strictly follow this plan and stick to it.
Every day, practise pronunciation, use, and meaning of words. It will help you increase your vocabulary. Remember to practise grammar problems such as Antonyms, Synonyms, Vocabulary, Basic Grammar, and Sentence Correction. If you come across any new or unusual words while reading, make a note of them and look them up in online/offline dictionaries to find out what they mean. Try to increase your reading speed when reading newspapers.
Tips for IBPS SO Law Officer Exam
The first tip for IBPS SO Law Officer preparation before the exam is to keep your cool and stick to your strategy. After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses and categorizing the topics accordingly, you must build the strategy. When making a schedule, remember to leave time for revision and mock exams. Following this step will be a big aid in your IBPS SO Law Officer preparation.
Use the IBPS SO Law syllabus 2021 to help you devote time and energy to each topic based on its difficulty level. Much better, you can use a priority matrix to construct an accurate timetable and study plan.
Priority Matrix
| Matrix 1 Easy and Important Topics | Matrix 2 Fairly Easy Topics but can be Studied Later |
| Matrix 3 Important Topics but Quite Difficult | Matrix 4 Difficult Topics |
Solving previous year’s IBPS SO question papers is without a doubt one of the best ways to study for the upcoming exam. To analyze your performance in the upcoming exam, you can attempt all of the IBPS SO Law Officer question papers here.
The most important thing to remember during preparation is to set aside time. You should practice answering questions at home in the same way you will in the exam. Since the exam is 120 minutes long (Prelims) and 60 minutes long (Mains), you must divide the time wisely among all sections. However, don’t forget to include revision time in your schedule.
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