NIACL or New India Assurance Company Ltd. is one of the most celebrated employers among all the government job aspirants, especially for the ones who aim to get into the insurance sector. For some, entering into the insurance sector possibly is a choice, for the rest it might be a calculated move, looking into the various benefits and facilities that an insurance job has to offer. NIACL released the notification for the post of AO (Administrative Officer) (Generalists & Specialists) in December 2018 and for the prelims exam , that was recently held on 30th January, the results have been declared. The next step after this should be preparing oneself for the mains which will further be followed by the final ‘interview’ stage. The NIACL AO Mains exam is scheduled to be held on 2nd March and all those who managed to succeed in the prelims phase should get the ball rolling and not waste their time in further contemplating on their prelims performance. As the prelims result has been declared, you are not left with much time to prepare and your strategy should be preparing yourself for the upcoming challenge of the NIACL AO mains exam otherwise after this, you will not be left with enough of it to plan or strategise over anything.
NIACL AO Mains Preparation Strategy: General Tips
NIACL AO Mains is round the corner and all the aspirants who appeared in the ‘NIACL AO Prelims’ must have got a hint of what to expect in mains as far as the level of the questions is concerned and thus plan their next move in order to ensure 100% success.The next step will be your big step towards your journey of becoming an ‘Administrative officer’. Maximum chances of becoming an officer rely on the NIACL AO Mains phase. Thus, you need to make an effort and push yourself to make a decision that may transform your life in future. The process of making a decision involves broadly four phases:
1.Preparation – Gathering information, analysing your skills, time available.
2.Decision- Planning your preparation, sketching a practical plan of strategy.
3.Implementation- Following and sticking to the plan.
4.Consequences- Success / Failure – depends on the magnitude of efforts put in the process.
When you enter this preparation-cum-revision phase, it is equally important to be optimistic as well as strong enough to face failures, if you have to. Although, you should be putting maximum efforts to prevent the stage of failure. Before you start your preparation, you need to be well-aware of the NIACL AO Mains exam pattern. After you are done with compiling all the details, start making a step-by-step plan according to the various subjects keeping the amount of time available at hand.
NIACL AO Mains Subjects/ Sections
1.Reasoning Ability
2.English Language
3.General Awareness
4.Quantitative Aptitude
5.Descriptive Test
It is always beneficial to divide your plan into various steps , so that you are able to give equal attention to each and every subject / section in a proper manner.
NIACL AO Mains Reasoning Ability – General Preparation Strategy
Reasoning Ability is a topic that tests your reasoning skills which for the major part comes naturally to a person as his/her‘s inherent ability. You cannot change something that is naturally ingrained in you, BUT you can always try to make it better and stronger. Thus, reasoning is one of those skills that require practice. ‘Reasoning Ability’ is comparatively a difficult and time-consuming section which requires a lot of understanding and ability to apply logic as quickly as possible. This section requires a lot of ‘smart work with hard work’. Before you plan and start your practice, first, let’s look into the common topics that are asked in the examination.
Some important topics asked in NIACL AO Mains ‘Reasoning’ section are –
– Syllogism
– Coded Inequalities
– Seating Arrangement Puzzles
– Data Sufficiency
– Input- Output
– Blood Relation
– Order and Ranking
– Alphanumeric Series
– Statement & Assumptions/Cause & Effect
All these topics are different from each other, thus require different kind of attention and varying amount of practice. Some of the easier topics may require lesser time as compared to the complex ones. Therefore, to overall master this section, you need to follow some common tips as follows –
- Divide the time according to your strengths & weaknesses – once you are able to identify your strong and weak points,which you should have by now, you should be able to divide the time accordingly as per the requirement.
- Divide the chapters according to the difficulty level – Easy / Moderate / Difficult.
- Equal attention: varied time duration – You need to pay equal ‘attention’ to all topics but in different ways. It is not necessary that all topics will need equal amount of time, thus you need to decide well that which topic needs how much time.
- Divide the questions, according to the probability of your attempting them the most / least accordingly.
- Less paper: more work –Try to use least amount of paper space while solving a question, especially a puzzle.It will help you to a great extent while appearing in the actual examination. Too much paperwork would create a lot of confusion at the last moment.
- Practice puzzles – Give ample amount of time to puzzles. These days, there are various kinds of puzzles being asked in the examination and you need to be well prepared for any kind of pattern, old or new.
- Keep a stopwatch – Whenever you practice a puzzle, always keep a stopwatch by your side that will help in tracking your improvements and speed.
- Practice , practice till you succeed – There is nothing better than giving enough time to your practice. Only regular practice can save you from the storm of ignorance and let you discover new ways each day to go about the same question.Make the best use of the time that is left with you till the mains examination.
NIACL AO Mains General Awareness – General Preparation Strategy
‘General Awareness’ is not at all ‘general’ as it may sound, but holds quite a special place when you plan to appear for any bigger/smaller examination. ‘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 unlike other sections, where you do not know what surprise awaits you.
This section is as important as any other section, maybe more as it might be a scoring section and can act as a booster to your exam performance. How to do it?
- What to cover – The most important step in boosting your performance is knowing ‘what all you need to cover’. Try to compile all things and make a plan accordingly.
- Stay updated – Read newspaper daily. Try to at least read all the headlines covered in a newspaper, preferably English .
- Go through all your notes – When it comes to GK, it is really important to go through all that you have compiled till date and make it permanent in your memory. Except current and daily happenings and events, Static GK holds as much importance as anything else. It would be good, if you take a glance over all that is important from static point of view, one or two days before the exam also.
Static GK that needs to be studied is –
- Important Days
- Important Events
- Capitals & Currencies ( especially those currently 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
Stay updated with these daily GK updates, weekly and monthly capsules.
NIACL AO Mains English Language – General Preparation Strategy
English Language is a subject which needs a lot of attention and practice. In order to improve your language, you need to include it into your daily routine to be able to learn and speak it with as much ease as you speak your mother tongue. Firstly, you do need to treat it as a normal subject in your mind and let that fear out. You just need to follow some basic steps to make it happen.
- Read , read and read – Nothing can improve your language as regular reading. Reading is the only major way that can help your way through the battle and make you win.
- Look out for new words – As and when you read anything – an article, a book, a newspaper, online reading portals or magazines – you should highlight any new word that you spot and also note it down.
- Maintain a separate notebook – English needs separate attention as it requires an extra effort as compared to other subjects. Thus, would be good if you maintain a different notebook where you jot down all important points.
- Practice exercises – Practice never goes out of fashion. Learning should always be followed by practice, so that you are able to record all learning permanently. Thus, try to get yourself to practice more and more grammar exercises as possible, in order to be well prepared for any challenge that the examiner throws at you.
NIACL AO Mains Quantitative Aptitude – General Preparation Strategy
NIACL AO Mains ‘Quantitative aptitude’ is a section that may be a hard nut to crack , when it comes to the difficulty level. Also, it holds a lot of importance and can prove a scoring section if you prepare & practice well. As it is the mains exam, you can expect a tough challenge. The good thing is, the topics that need to be covered here are similar to any of the banking examinations, thus we do not need to change our study pattern or routine as far as quant is concerned. 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.
- Number game – It’s all in the numbers. This subject of numbers will lead you to attaining more numbers in the final game! Learn to play with them. Stressing too much on the numbers will make you feel pressurised and make the subject tough. Quant is all about making use of your calculation skills well.
- Accuracy – Along with developing your calculation skills and speed, you also need to take care of the accuracy. Attempting more may also cost you more with respect to marks, which is not going to be good for you.
- Fast Formulae – Try to grasp all the important formulae from all important chapters / topics in the quant section.
- Smart Shortcuts – Sometimes shortcuts can be good! Try to learn some good and effective shortcut methods which can give an edge over others and assist you in solving a question in lesser time as expected.
- Learn by heart – Learn all the important tables, squares, square-roots,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.
- Classification – Segregate & classify the chapters according to their level and then prepare accordingly.
- Practice – Last but not the least, ‘practice’ will always make you go long way in the long run. Practice all formulae, all kinds of questions which will help you in realizing your stronger areas and make your weaker areas strong.
You cannot manage your exam well if you do not have an idea of how to utilize your time well and not waste even a second there.
These were some general tips for the common topics that come in both the exams, i.e. Generalist and Specialist category both. Some basic things to keep in mind are –
- Do not rush with your answers. Never answer in a hurry just to increase the question count.
- Always remember: Attempting more will not always prove fruitful.
- Avoid committing errors: Always remember there is no scope of committing errors, as you will be charged 1/4th of every wrong answer you save there. So always check before you click next.
- Don’t forget to keep sometime for yourself to avoid stress take over your peace of mind. Panic will never lead you anywhere but rob you off everything that you might have learnt till that D-day .
Follow all these simple and easy steps and practice your way to success with the free mock tests for NIACL AO Mains.
Also Read : NIACL AO Prelims Exam Analysis and get a complete review and more clarity that may help you in your further preparation.
ALL THE BEST!