First Steps to prepare for English section of Bank Exams

In a series of sharing "First Steps" to prepare for banking exams I shared an overall guide and a start-up guide for GK section. Today I am sharing guide to perform well in English section.

Skills required to perform well in English Language section

Vocabulary - if you don't know the meaning of few basic words then you won't be able to read and analyse a paragraph properly.
Reading speed - You have limited time so to score more you have to read quickly.
Common sense - Yes you heard it right. You need common sense to find errors in a sentence.

Recommended Study Material

Read a Newspaper

Regularly read a newspaper. This is the first step in the preparation of English Language section.

How to choose a newspaper (Best ranked as 1 and Worst ranked as 7)

The Hindu (Best English newspaper in India but not available at the places)
The Indian Express (I personally read this everyday. Editorials are top notch and there are few ads)
Economic Times (Interesting newspaper but as name suggests, they focus on finance so it's not meant us)
Tribune (They are good but it's a local newspaper)
Business Standard (It's boring)
Times of India (Full of advertisements, biased articles and nudity)
Hindustan Times (Again too many ads and boring editorial)

I didn't want to criticize any newspaper because I know it's hard to write interesting content everyday but writing my personal opinion is my duty as well as my constitutional right.

Practice book for reading comprehensions

Practice makes a man perfect. Learning skill to attempt RCs takes time

You can either buy a hard copy book or download free RC workbook here.

I recommend Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Sujit Kumar. I don't think you need any other book for English language section.

Vocabulary

There is no proper book for Vocabulary. I strongly oppose "Word Power Made Easy". It is a 1500 pages book and on the top of it, it's boring!

Download this free Vocabulary list

I recommend you to take Daily Vocabulary on Bankexamstoday.

Grammar

Follow Quick Grammar Notes here

English Language Guide

I recommend you to download my English Language Guide here

What to avoid

GK magazines (You read 1-2 months old content in these magazines)
Hindi newspapers (They are meant for educational purpose, editorial page is not the primary section here)
All in one books for banking exams (Published by Kiran Prakashan, Disha, Arihant and many other well known brands who are minting money in the name of exams, while it is impossible to compile whole study material in 600-700 pages)
Word power made easy (It's a huge book!)
India 2015 or any other year book (Read monthly GK Digest, there is no need for a separate yearly digest)

Exam Strategies

Develop Reading habit

To crack bank exams, you need to develop reading habit.

Don't like newspapers ?

Don't worry.

Read anything you like, let it be fiction books , romantic books or magazines.

Right selection of RC's

Usually you will find 2-3 reading comprehensions in every exam containing English language section. It is really difficult to read and solve all the RC's in available time. Best strategy here is - Choose the easiest RC.

Now how to find easy RC within 10 seconds ?

Check the topic and vocabulary usage. If you are comfortable with the topic and vocabulary usage then go for it!

In case there is any difficulty, comment below.