SBI PO has now become a 3-stage process with the advent of the Prelims, Mains and GD-PI stages. Therefore each stage needs specialised treatment.Prelims:Resources: For English go over the rules regarding sentences from Wren and Martin and read the Editorial of The Hindu on a daily basis. This should suffice. For Maths use any standard aptitude book. I used Quantum Cat by Sarvesh Verma. For Reasoning I basically searched and learned all the topics from Internet. You can also use any standard book like R.S.Agarwal.How to approach the exam:1. English: As the cumulative time period for Prelims is just 1 hour , you can’t afford to give more than 10mins to this section. 10 questions will be from Reading Comprehension out of which 4 will be vocab based questions. Skip reading the RC , just do the 4 vocab based questions and move over. Also skip the Parajumbles as they are highly treacherous by nature.But POSITIVELY ATTEMPT all the remaining questions which will be from Errors, Cloze Test, Fill in the blanks. So 19 questions in 10mins.2. Reasoning: Coding-Decoding and syllogisms were missing conspicuously from this section. These are relatively easy and hence I was disheartened by their absence as easy 10 marks went up the air! So be wary of this. The crux of this section is Puzzles (Linear+Circular Seating Arrangement, 3 variable sorting,Floor sorting, etc). Expect 20–25 questions from these. But be very careful. Puzzles can easily eat up a lot of time if you get stuck in them. So move on to other questions if you are unable to solve them. Also there would be 10 questions from Inequalities, Direction Test, Blood Relations. Do them as they are usually easy pickings. Give this entire section 20–25 mins. Attempt 15–203. Maths: Solve the quadratic ( 5 qtns) first. They are very easy. Then move on to the series questions(5). Give each question 30 secs. If you are not able to find out the series logic within that , move on. Then go to the DI section(10 qtns). There will be 2 DIs. Attempt both or the easier one. Then move to the Arithmetic questions. Attempt 7–8 out of the 10. They will be based on topics such as Averages,Ratio & Proportion, Profit & Loss,Time Speed and Distance, Time and Work,Mensuration.If there is time left do 2–3 simplifications. Give this entire section 25–30 mins. Attempt 20.So you would have attempted 55–60 questions in 1 hour. Always remember there is no extra credit in topping the Prelims. You just have to cross the cutoff. The cutoff generally hovers in the 45–48 region and is totally dependent upon that year’s paper. I myself got 51 when cutoff was 47.5 (2023 paper).For Mains:2016's SBI PO Mains was really something! Unlike previous years its difficulty increased considerably , especially in the English section.1. Reasoning and Computer Awareness: Technically speaking no question came from Computer Awareness . One flowchart based question came and that too did not involve computer logic in the strict sense. Questions were either 1 or 2 marker. Puzzles, seating arrangement, blood relations, sorting again hogged the limelight. Some critical reasoning questions and came which were 2 marker in nature.2. General Awareness: This was relatively easier than the other 3 sections. Prepare the last 3-4 months Hindu Capsules of Current Affairs, Reasoning, Quant for Bank Exam, IBPS, RRB, SBI. Also brush through the tornado booster by gradestack released especially for SBI PO exam. These should suffice for this section.Excessive time alloted to this section. Give your eyes a rest after you complete this section.3. English: This section surprised almost every candidate this year. Going completely against its previous years pattern, this section threw up various new kinds of questions.Small 3-4 line passages had to be summarised in 1 sentence, the starting and ending of sentences had to be guessed, vocab based synonyms and antonyms came which were pretty tough. All in all , this was the deal-maker or deal-breaker for many a candidates. Go through The Hindu editorial daily if you want to become accustomed to such a surprise in the near future.4.Data Interpretation: Questions from DI were pretty calculation intensive and time consuming as mixture of various charts appeared in a single DI set. Questions also came from Number series, Probability.Practice CAT last year DI papers to be confident about this section.5. Descriptive: This was easy as we had to write 1 essay and 1 letter from common topics. Just be updated about current happenings and if you read the Hindu editorial daily, this section should be the least of your concerns. See the format of the letter from the internet.*to be continued