IBPS PO Study Notes 2026: Subject-Wise Notes & Revision
Notes, PDFs, and study material curated for IBPS PO 2026 Exam Overview & Study Resources.
Good IBPS PO study notes do one job: they let you revise a whole subject in an hour when the exam is a week away. Most students have the opposite problem. They collect dozens of PDFs, read few of them, and have nothing short enough to revise at the end.
This guide takes a different route. It first shows where your notes should go under the 2026 pattern. It then gives you starter IBPS PO study notes for every subject on this page: key formulas, reasoning rules, grammar rules, static banking facts and a format for the descriptive paper. Finally, it explains how to extend and revise them.
Where Your Notes Should Go: Priority by Marks
The Mains decides your merit, so let its marks decide how much space each area gets in your IBPS PO study notes.
Area | Marks in the Mains | Also in the Prelims? | Notes priority |
|---|---|---|---|
Reasoning | 60 | Yes, 40 marks | High: rules and puzzle approach |
Data Analysis and Interpretation | 60 | Yes, as quant, 30 marks | High: formulas and calculation shortcuts |
Banking, economy and financial awareness | 60 | No | Highest: pure recall, so notes matter most here |
Descriptive paper | 25 | No | Medium: formats and topic outlines |
English Language | 20 | Yes, 30 marks | Medium: rules and error list |
Awareness is the only section where marks depend almost entirely on what you have noted and revised. Give it the thickest notebook. For the full topic list, see our IBPS PO syllabus guide.
How to Make IBPS PO Study Notes You Will Actually Revise
One topic, one page. Write the concept in two lines, the formulas or rules, one solved example and the traps. If a topic crosses two pages, it has become a textbook.
Write after you understand, not while you read. Finish the chapter, close the book, then write what you remember. Check and correct afterwards.
Add an "errors" box to every page. Each time a mock test exposes a mistake in that topic, note it there. This is what turns generic notes into your notes.
Keep fixed facts and changing figures apart. The year NABARD was set up will not change. The repo rate will.
Date your awareness notes so you know what is older than six months.
Quantitative Aptitude and Data Analysis Notes
Topic | Note this |
|---|---|
Percentage | Successive change of a% and b% = a + b + ab/100. Learn fraction equivalents up to 1/20 |
Profit and loss | Profit % = (SP - CP) / CP x 100. Discount is always on marked price. SP = MP x (100 - d) / 100 |
Simple and compound interest | SI = PRT/100. Amount under CI = P(1 + R/100)^T. For 2 years, CI - SI = P(R/100)^2 |
Time and work | If A takes a days and B takes b days, together they take ab/(a + b) days. Use LCM as total work for longer problems |
Time, speed and distance | km/h to m/s: multiply by 5/18. Average speed for equal distances = 2xy/(x + y). A train crossing a platform covers its own length plus the platform |
Boats and streams | Downstream = b + s, upstream = b - s. Boat speed = (down + up)/2, stream speed = (down - up)/2 |
Mixture and alligation | Ratio of cheaper to dearer = (dearer - mean) : (mean - cheaper) |
Partnership | Profit is shared in the ratio of capital x time |
Probability and counting | nPr = n!/(n - r)!, nCr = n!/(r!(n - r)!). Probability = favourable outcomes / total outcomes |
Quadratic equations | For ax^2 + bx + c: if c is negative, the roots have opposite signs. If c is positive, both roots take the sign opposite to b |
Number series | Check in this order: difference, difference of differences, multiplication, squares or cubes, primes, alternating series |
For data interpretation, note approaches rather than formulas. Build the table from a caselet before reading the questions. Approximate when the options are far apart. In Mains sets, find the one missing value that unlocks several questions.
Reasoning Notes
Topic | Note this |
|---|---|
Syllogism | All + All = All. Some + All = Some. All + No = No. "Only a few A are B" means some A are B and some A are not B. |
Either-or in syllogism | Applies when both conclusions are individually false, share the same subject and predicate, and form a complementary pair (Some and No, or All and Some not) |
Inequality | Combine statements only when the signs run in the same direction. A > B >= C gives A > C. Opposite signs give no relation |
Seating, circular | Facing the centre: left is clockwise, right is anticlockwise. Facing outside: the reverse |
Direction sense | Draw every movement. Use the Pythagoras rule for the shortest distance. At sunrise shadows fall to the west, at sunset to the east |
Input-output | Compare the input with the last step first to find the rule, then count how many elements settle in each step |
Data sufficiency | Test each statement alone, then together. Stop as soon as you know the answer can be found; do not calculate it |
For puzzles, place the definite information first, then open cases for the rest. Use negative clues to close cases. In the exam, count a puzzle's variables before you start, and leave the longest one for the end.
English Language Notes
Keep one page of rules and one running list of errors you have personally made.
Subject-verb agreement: Each, every, either, neither and everyone take a singular verb. "One of the" is followed by a plural noun and a singular verb.
Joined subjects: With "as well as", "along with" and "together with", the verb follows the first subject. With "either...or" and "neither...nor", it follows the nearer subject.
Tense markers: "Since" takes a point of time and "for" takes a period, both with the perfect tense.
Fixed pairs: No sooner...than. Hardly or scarcely...when. Not only...but also.
Prepositions: Superior, inferior, senior, junior and prefer take "to", not "than".
Double negatives: Unless and until are already negative, so do not add "not".
Conditionals: If + present, will. If + past, would. If + had + third form, would have.
Uncountable nouns: Information, advice, furniture, luggage and equipment have no plural form.
Reading comprehension: Answer vocabulary and fact questions first, then inference questions. Para jumbles: Find the sentence that can stand alone as the opener, then link pronouns and connectors. Vocabulary: Note ten words a day from editorials, with the sentence in which you found each one.
Banking and Financial Awareness Notes
Static Facts Worth One Page
Area | Note this |
|---|---|
RBI | Set up on 1 April 1935 under the RBI Act, 1934. Nationalised on 1 January 1949. Headquarters in Mumbai |
Monetary Policy Committee | Six members: three from the RBI and three appointed by the government. The Governor chairs it and has the casting vote. It must meet at least four times a year |
Policy tools | Repo: RBI lends to banks against securities. Reverse repo and SDF: RBI absorbs funds from banks. MSF: overnight emergency borrowing at a rate above repo. CRR: share of deposits kept with RBI in cash. SLR: share kept in gold, cash and approved securities |
Nationalisation | 14 banks in 1969 and 6 more in 1980 |
NPA | A loan overdue for more than 90 days. Substandard: NPA for up to 12 months. Doubtful: substandard for 12 months. Loss: identified as uncollectible |
Deposit insurance | DICGC covers up to Rs. 5 lakh per depositor per bank |
Priority sector lending | Overall target of 40% of adjusted net bank credit for domestic commercial banks |
Capital adequacy | Basel III. RBI requires a minimum capital ratio of 9%, plus a capital conservation buffer of 2.5% |
Payment systems | NEFT and RTGS are run by RBI and work round the clock. RTGS has a minimum of Rs. 2 lakh. IMPS and UPI are run by NPCI |
Key acts | Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Banking Regulation Act, 1949. FEMA, 1999. SARFAESI Act, 2002. PMLA, 2002. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 |
Institutions | NABARD 1982, EXIM Bank 1982, NHB 1988, SIDBI 1990. SEBI set up in 1988 and made statutory in 1992. IRDAI 1999 |
Inclusion schemes | PMJDY 2014. PMJJBY, PMSBY, Atal Pension Yojana and MUDRA 2015. Stand-Up India 2016 |
Rates and Figures Tracker
Do not memorise these from an old PDF. Draw this table and fill it from the RBI website after every policy announcement.
Item | Current value | Date updated |
|---|---|---|
Repo rate | ||
SDF and MSF rates | ||
Bank rate | ||
CRR and SLR | ||
Inflation target band | ||
RBI's GDP growth and inflation projections | ||
Date of the latest MPC meeting |
Current Affairs Note Format
Keep monthly sheets with four columns: date, event, category and one exam line. The exam line is the single fact a question is likely to ask, such as the rank, the amount, the person or the organisation. Cover the last five to six months before the Mains, with extra space for RBI circulars and banking news.
Descriptive Paper Notes
The paper has an essay and a comprehension task for 25 marks in 30 minutes, typed in English.
Essay skeleton: Introduction that defines the issue, three body paragraphs (causes or background, impact with one or two facts, way forward) and a balanced conclusion.
Topic bank: Prepare five-point outlines for 10 to 15 themes, such as digital payments, financial inclusion, cyber fraud, artificial intelligence in banking, green finance, inflation and MSME credit.
Fact box: Two or three reliable figures per theme, taken from your awareness notes.
Comprehension: Answer in your own words, keep to the point, and do not lift sentences from the passage.
Typing: Practise on a keyboard. Notes will not help if you cannot finish in time.
How to Revise Your IBPS PO Study Notes
Use the 1-7-30 rule. Revise a new page the next day, after a week and after a month.
Fix a weekly slot. Spend one sitting a week only on old notes, with no new topics.
Revise before tests. Read the relevant notes before a sectional test and update the errors box after it.
Last 15 days before the Mains: Revise awareness notes daily, go through the quant and reasoning rule pages every third day, and read your error boxes before each mock.
Last two days: Notes only. No new sources.
Notes and tests work as a pair. After each IBPS PO mock test, the topics you got wrong tell you which page needs rewriting.
Reliable Sources for Your Notes
Official sources for awareness: The RBI website for policy statements, circulars and FAQs. The Press Information Bureau for government schemes. Union Budget and Economic Survey documents for economy facts.
One standard book or course per subject for concepts. More sources add pages, not marks.
Previous year papers to decide what deserves a place in your IBPS PO notes.
Ready notes as a base: If you prefer to start from prepared material, you can explore the study notes on Testkart and then add your own examples and error points. Check that any notes you use follow the current pattern, with no letter writing and no separate computer aptitude section.
IBPS PO study notes are not a collection of PDFs. They are a short, personal record of rules, facts and mistakes. Start with the pages above, add to them after every chapter and test, keep changing figures in a dated tracker, and revise on a fixed cycle. Confirm the current pattern on ibps.in before each cycle.