Exams

NIACL AO 2018- GENERAL PREPARATION TIPS AND OTHER DETAILS

December 24, 2018

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Announcements! Notifications! Examinations! This part of the year is crammed up with more and more notifications, each month! Your hands must be feeling full with continuous opportunities coming your way. Is it a good thing? Certainly YES!! Should we just jump off to it? Certainly NO!! You can’t go on to decide in a rush,which examination to go for and which form to fill. It takes a bit of patience and thought, if you really have to give your time and energy to a particular examination.There has been a list of numerous exams continuously coming in,out of which the recent one is – NIACL Administrative Officer.

So, what should be the next step probably ? To read about the details of the notification,to know about the examination and then maybe go on with filling the form for it and deciding the preparation plan and strategy? Ofcourse, YES! So, let’s get to it!

The recent notification that has been released is NIACL AO (Generalist & Specialist) Recruitment 2018.

(NIACL stands for New India Assurance Co.Ltd and AO stands for Administrative Officer.)

NIACL VACANCIES & OTHER DETAILS:

NIACL has released 312 vacancies in the ‘Generalist’ and ‘Specialist’ categories. New India Assurance Co. Ltd has been an old and trusted government organization and its recruitment is one of the most awaited opportunities which give a chance to secure one’s career once and for all. The recent vacancies are for SCALE I post which surely gives it a strong reason to be opted for. Needless to say that a job at an insurance company of the likes of NIACL is as dignified and secure as any of the bank jobs.

To read about NIACL AO complete details and notification,click here.

To be able to decide if any examination is good to be opted for or worth preparing, you need to know each and every detail about it along with the pattern of the examination which would help you gain an idea about how to plan and strategize for it. It has the usual pattern as we have in the bank exams and is conducted in three different phases –

Preliminary Examination

Mains Examination

Interview

Interview would then be followed by the fourth and final stage of selection.

Phase I – Preliminary Exam consists of the pattern similar to any banking examination, consisting of three sections – English Language , Quantitative Aptitude & Reasoning Ability, which would be of total 100 marks.

Phase II – Mains Exam again consists of 4 sections – English Language , Quantitative Aptitude, General Awareness & Reasoning Ability in case of ‘Generalist’ category and for the ‘Specialist’ category an additional section to assess the technical abilities is included.

The mains exam is also followed by a ‘ descriptive paper’ to assess your writing skills.It would be of 30 minutes worth 30 marks ( Letter – 10 marks / Essay – 20 marks).

Phase III (Interview) – Both the stages are further followed by the third and last stage of assessment – Interview. It has to be given equal importance, as this is the final step to your success.

THE NEWS!What’s different this time?

NIACL has introduced the sectional timings on the lines of IBPS and SBI, matching up to the difficulty level of all other exams.

GENERAL TIPS FOR NIACL EXAM:

Most of the competitive examinations are almost similar when it comes to the subjects and the paper pattern. The good part is, if you are going to attempt for the Generalist category, you do not need to change your preparation plan to a large extent if you are a job aspirant and have been preparing since few months / years (for some) in the field of banking / insurance.

Let’s move on and get into the details of each section:

GENERAL TIPS FOR NIACL AO ENGLISH LANGUAGE

For most of us, English is like a horror movie whose ghost keeps on haunting us. What needs to be kept in mind is that English is as much a normal subject as others are. Once, you start loving the subject and stop fearing it, it will be a cakewalk for you! Get it into your daily routine as your mother tongue and see the magic in few days! Some basic points you need to remember are –

KEEP OUT THE FEAR

Until and unless you keep the fear out of your mind, you will not be able to get comfortable with the subject, ever!

READ AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!

Unless you get this into your habit, just as brushing your teeth, you are not going anywhere! As soon as you see the morning paper-get hold of it and just start reading. Reading the newspaper, is not only going to improve your English language, but also your knowledge of current affairs! So keep going.

NOTE DOWN WORDS

Wherever you spot a completely new word, which you might have seen for the first time, or WORSE CASE-you aren’t able to even pronounce it– get hold of a highlighter and mark it!

(It highlights your weak points, where you really need to work!)

TRY TO PRACTICE EXERCISES.

Last but not the least- Get hold of good books, and start practicing language exercises that will give an edge over everyone. You can also test your learning and improve further.

GENERAL TIPS FOR NIACL AO QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE

The NIACL AO Quant section consists of similar topics as in any banking examination, therefore no special preparation or mention is needed. Some basic things to be followed –

NIACL AO Quantitative Aptitude is another important section as in most of the competitive exams. Students with a non-mathematics background may face a bit of difficulty in this section, but it is also one scoring section, where you can find a certain number of approachable questions which an average student may also find easy to attempt. Moreover, it covers mostly 10th level syllabus which almost everyone has studied. What is needed is, some practice which gives you an idea about the difficulty level and also confidence to attempt any kind of question in the actual exam scenario.

“Practice” is the key to nailing the QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE section. It not only makes you strong in your weaker areas, but also helps you in realizing your strong areas, with the help of which you can ace this section.

You come to know which type of question you need to attempt / devote your time to and which type of question you DO NOT have to attempt/waste your time on, as in the actual exam scenario, you do not have time to think and then realize later that you were not supposed to attempt that particular question.

“Knowing the syllabus” is the second most important step towards performing well in any section. NIACL AO QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE covers many topics which are mentioned in the syllabus covered by IBPS in most of its exams, consisting of questions from Arithmetic, number system, quadratic equations, simplification, probability, DI etc.

Depending on the exam scenario, you cannot afford to waste even a second there, which means you need to be fully prepared before you enter the exam hall.

“Segregate” the easier and difficult chapters and accordingly make a plan with the timeline of how much time to be given to each chapter in a day.

The difficulty level of this section also depends majorly on the time taken to solve a particular question. That’s what you can improve by practice and reduce the time consumed to a great extent.

Learn some shortcut methods which can give you an edge over others, and help you solve certain time-taking questions in less time. Practice those short-cut methods well on a regular basis, as you tend to forget things once you get out of practice.
Learn all the important formulae from all chapters, by heart.
Learn all tables, squares, cubes, common percentages and their fractional and decimal equivalents, which will help you well in tackling the calculative questions in as less time as possible.
Also,find good and trustworthy online / offline material to study and practice.

As it is an exam for a scale-I post, therefore you need to keep in mind that you can not an easy level in the exam.Thus, your preparation has to be of similar level which has to match up with the caliber that the examiner must be expecting out of you to select you for a respectable position in an esteemed organization.

GENERAL TIPS FOR NIACL AO REASONING ABILITY

Reasoning ability is comparatively a difficult and time-consuming section which requires a lot of understanding and an ability to apply logic as swiftly as possible. This section requires a lot of smart work with hard work. This section is a combination of LOGIC and REASONING .

So, you need to sharpen your logic taking help of your natural ability to reason well in the pressurised exam scenario. Some important topics asked in this section that are common for both Prelims and Mains are –

– Syllogism

– Coded Inequalities

– Seating Arrangement Puzzles

– Data Sufficiency

– Input- Output

– Blood Relation

– Order and Ranking

– Alphanumeric Series

– Statement & Assumptions/Cause & Effect

Certain points that you need to keep in mind are-

Divide the chapters according to the difficulty level – Easy / Moderate / Difficult.
Divide the time you have according to your strength and weakness.
Divide the questions according to the probability of your attempting them the least / most accordingly.
Remember not to ignore the easier topics, while practicing the tougher ones.
Keep a track of what you are doing.
Keep a stopwatch while solving a puzzle and try to invent ways to reduce the time in the next attempt.
Try to use least amount of paper space while solving a question, especially a puzzle.It will help you when you appear in the actual examination.
Do not get stuck on a question / puzzle if you cannot manage it in sometime and mark it for review to return to it later, if you feel it can be done for sure. By getting stuck, you are eating up your time meant for other questions.
PRACTICE and only practice can save you in the actual exam.

GENERAL TIPS FOR GENERAL AWARENESS

As ‘general’ as it may seem by the name, it is as much complex as you can think of. General Awareness is not a very easy nut to crack, if you are not consistent with your efforts to stay in touch with the daily news. General Awareness includes everything from current affairs to your general knowledge which includes static GK. Some basic points to be taken care of are –

- STAY UPDATED – Read newspaper daily. Try to at least read all the headlines covered in a newspaper, preferably English ( Will help build you English Language as well).
- JOT DOWN THE DAILY NEWS – Reading daily news won’t be enough sometimes, so “ precaution is better than cure”. Always maintain a diary where you record all the daily news on a daily basis. You can do that from various online websites.

NOTE DOWN ALL THE STATIC GK – Having all information in one place saves your time and energy and keeps you concentrated and calm at the last moment. You will not have to run and rush for things at the last moment.
Static GK that needs to be studied is –
IMPORTANT DAYS
IMPORTANT EVENTS
CAPITALS & CURRENCIES (Specially the ones in news)
IMPORTANT NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS and THEIR HEADQUARTERS
NATIONAL PARKS / DAMS / RIVERS
AIRPORTS / STADIUMS
RECENT SUMMITS
BOOKS & AUTHORS
SPORTS
ECONOMY / FINANCE
HISTORY/SCIENCE/ GEOGRAPHY

These are some of the important things which form an important part , regardless of which examination you are planning to appear for, specifically mains exam. If you stay consistent and planned with your efforts and do not get distracted midway, you are surely going to gain marks in this section. GENERAL AWARENESS can be considered easy as this is one section which you can study in advance and be assured of whatever that is going to come in the exam. You do not have to make/ change your strategy on the spot. Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude are such sections where your pre-planned strategy may fail as soon as you encounter a tougher section than what you were prepared for. Thus, General Awareness is one such section where you can make use of your time in the most easy and fruitful way.If you know the answer, you will answer it,if you do not have any idea about the question being asked, you can just skip it and move ahead, which means you can be accurate in this section and not risk your marks.

To get DAILY GK UPDATES Click here . If you wish to have a much better compiled version for weekly revision click here.

To get monthly GK capsules for a detailed revision click here.

These were some general tips for the common topics that come in both the exams, i.e. Generalist and Specialist category both. The basic things that may help you with faring well in the examination are –

DON’T LOSE HOPE – Do not get distracted and hamper your preparation halfway.
GIVE TIME TO YOURSELF – Leave some time apart from studying to your ownself to reflect on your weaker and stronger areas.
PRACTICE YOGA / MEDITATION – To perform well without getting panicked is possible only when you keep your mind cool, calm and composed which will come only if you meditate / do yoga.
HAVE SELF-CONFIDENCE – Do not wait for outer support. BE THE SUPPORT you want for yourself. Keep yourself mentally intact, energetic and confident.
AVOID TAKING RASH DECISIONS – While in the exam hall, do not attempt questions in a rush and choose your questions wisely.
BE ACCURATE & AVOID NEGATIVE MARKING – Increasing the count of attempted questions is never going to help and you may just end up getting even lower marks than expected due to negative marking.So, “Think before you hit SAVE & NEXT”.