Common entrance test planned for bank jobs from next year

The recruitment process, beginning from the advertisement to examination and interview stage to final recruitment, which now takes about a year to get over will drop drastically by a third, reducing the anxiety levels of candidates after an entrance exam.

"There will now be a common pan-India entrance test which will help in reducing recruitment-time by almost a third of what it takes now," Indian Banks Association's Chief Executive K Ramakrishnan told PTI here today.

Three to four such common entrance examinations are planned to be conducted every year and "this should begin in 2011," Ramakrishnan said.

The exam will be conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) which will declare the results of the exam and give a scorecard to the candidates, valid for up to one to one-and-a-half-years.

The exams will be mainly for clerical staff and entry-point officers, he said.