Indian banking industry, specially PSU banks, are on a recruiting spree, going for massive recruitments at all levels, specially Probationary Officers (PO) and Clerical cadres – the reason why you might be seeing recently almost eight out of ten articles on this blog notifying you about these job opportunities in Indian banks as well as telling you how to prepare for them.

As a close watcher of this recruitment drives for last two years, some very interesting facts have been gathered by me, which I would like to share with you. In a previous blog post of mine titled: Bank Exam pattern analysis: Similarity in Bank Exams, I had informed you that almost all Bank PO exams are identical and hence a good preparation for one exam would surely get you success in other bank exams too.

Now I would like to revise my above contention – not only Bank PO exams, but also Bank Clerical exams are identical. Preparation for Clerical exams for one bank exam would help you get the job for other banks too.

And what more, on doing a close analysis of Bank PO exams vis-à-vis Bank Clerical exams, I found that if you prepare for Bank PO exams, you can sit for Bank PO exams as well as Bank Clerical exams too, with minor extra-preparation like for any additional paper like: Marketing Knowledge, Computer Knowledge, Specialist IT paper, Clerical Aptitude etc.

This extends to even the academic eligibilities for PO exams and clerical exams, which are almost same.

Let me compare them one by one. In the comparisons of eligibility & exam patterns below, I have tried to generalize the PO exams as well as Clerical Exams – there are minor variations you may find in specific bank exams. And at the end of this blog article, I would tell you how this comparison is going to help you in getting that bank job.

For Bank PO exam: Min age: 21 years, Max age: 30 years

For Bank Clerical exam: Min age: 18 years, Max age: 28 years

My finding: If you are in between 21 years to 28 years, you can sit for both Bank PO exams as well as Bank Clerical exams.

For Bank PO exam:

1.0 Minimum 60% marks (55% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) in graduation.

2.0 You need to have successfully completed a computer course of at least 6 months' duration from any Institute recognized by Central/State Govt. / AICTE.

For Bank Clerical exam:

1.0 Min. 50% (45% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) marks in Class-XII or its equivalent OR a degree in any discipline. In some banks like SBI/UBI, minimum %age is 60% (55% for reserved candidates) in class-XII.

2.0 Essential – Ability to read, write and speak the Official Language for the state for which applying.

3.0 Desirable – Completion of a Foundation Course on Computer Awareness & Office Automation for a duration of minimum 3 months from a Computer Institute.

My finding: You can appear in both Bank PO exams as well as Bank Clerical exams, if:

With above findings, let us go on to compare the pattern/format of Bank PO exams & Bank Clerical exams.

You would be surprised to find that even the exam pattern of PO exams and the Clerical exams is also very similar – written exam of both of them have following four common sections of paper:

1.0 Reasoning Ability.

2.0 Quantitative Aptitude.

3.0 General Knowledge.

4.0 English Ability.

Quantitative Aptitude paper is called Numerical Aptitude in Clerical exams. Also in Bank Clerical exams, there is an extra paper called Clerical Aptitude. The standard of questions obviously is a little higher for PO exams compared to clerical exams.

The other difference in the selection process between Bank PO recruitment vis-à-vis Bank Clerical recruitment is: Bank PO recruitment has GD (Group Discussion) after the written test and before the interview. But in most Clerical recruitment, there is no GD – on being selected in the written test, you face the interview directly.

I would like to give below a generalized comparison of PO & Clerical exam papers along with distribution of test paper-wise marks:

The cut-offs in the written test for most of the Bank PO & Clerical exam is 40% (35% for reserved candidates). In addition to scoring these cut-off marks, you need to be ranked high in the merit list to be called for interview/GD. Generally 3-times the vacancies are short listed in the bank written tests for interview/GD.

With above, you might have found that once if you have the eligibilities, you can appear in both PO as well as clerical exams. And since the written tests are so similar, you actually need not go for so much extra preparation.

So although you may be aiming for Bank PO exams, suppose if you do not click in the exam – go for Clerical exams too. Once you are inside the banking industry, the experience helps to answer interview questions. And you can than again appear for Bank PO exam – this time to become a Probationary officer!

This is the benefit I was talking about by showing you my above comparison – many of my blog readers (and now friends) who could not do well in Bank PO exams and whom I convinced on taking this route have now become Probationary officers!

For a detailed exam pattern of Bank PO exams along with the study materials – the sample papers & books for PO exams, I would like to point you to my following blog post:

SBI Bank PO Exam Sample Papers, Books & Exam Pattern

Similarly, for a detailed exam pattern of Bank Clerical exams along sample papers & books for Clerical exams, I would like to point you to my following blog post:

SBI Clerical exam 2009 pattern, Sample papers & Books

Also, I had published a comprehensive list of 35 Bank Recruitment websites through the blog post titled: Bank Recruitment Notification and Result websites, which contained links to the recruitment pages of 22 Public Sector Banks and 13 Private Sector Banks. After you make your preparation for the bank exams, keep checking those websites periodically to find if any recruitment notification has been published.

Hope with above information you can find that dream bank job.