Simplification and Approximation for Bank and Insurance Exams like: SBI PO, IBPS PO, IBPS RRB PO, SBI Clerk, IBPS Clerk, NIACL, LIC Etc

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By Smartkeeda
25 Nov 2020

Dear Aspirants, Simplification is one of the most important topic for all bank and insurance exams you can easily gain 4 to 5 marks in 3 just to 5 minutes, so in this article we will discuss types of simplification question is being asked in SBI PO, IBPS PO, IBPS RRB PO, NIACL, LIC, IBPS Clerk, SBI Clerk and other Bank & Insurance Exams. Approximation is also a part of simplification which will discuss further in brief.

In simplification questions, a normal student/aspirant would be roughly calculation for approximately 50% of the time that he/she takes to solve a question. This means that half the total time that you would spend in solving questions of basic simplification would essentially go into calculations. Thus, if the test paper consists of say 30-40% questions on basic numeracy and data interpretation you would be expected to spend somewhere between 16 to 28 minutes on these questions – which would in turn translate to approximately 18 to 24 minutes in calculations inside the test paper.

So the contention is this: If you can improve your calculation speed to 3x, the time you would require to do the same calculations would come down to 1/3th of your original time. In other words, 18 minutes would come down to 7.3 minutes – a saving of 14.6 minutes just by improving your calculation speed!!

In exams like the Bank and Insurance where you would always run out of time 14 extra minutes could easily means between 10–12 marks.

10–12 extra marks in the prelims exam could very well make the difference between getting a chance to write the mains examination in the same year versus going back to the drawing board and preparing for the prelims for another year!!

In this article, we will discuss that one has to follow while solving simplification and approximation questions.

Introduction: To solve such arithmetical questions, aspirant has to solve Vinculum Bar (-), addition (+), subtraction (–), multiplication (×), division (÷), root (√), and brackets, etc systematically. Let discuss VBODMAS rule to make this intro clearer.

VBODMAS rule gives the correct order in which various operations regarding simplification are to be performed, so as to find out the values of given expressions in simple ways. Let us see what these letters mean.

V = Vinculum Bar
B = Brackets,
Order of removing brackets
I: Vinculum Brackets (Bar Brackets) ‘–’
II:  Small Brackets (Circular Brackets) ‘( )’
III:  Middle Brackets (Curly Brackets) ‘{ }’
IV: Square Brackets (Big Brackets) ‘[ ]’
O = Of
D = Division (÷)
M = Multiplication (×)
A = Addition (+)
S = Subtraction (–)

Order of above mentioned operations is as same as the order of letters in the ‘VBODMAS’ from the left to right as

V → B → O → D → M → A → S
Left to Right
Clearly, the order will be as follows:
First Vinculum bracket is solved,
Remember[– 5 – 10 = – 15 but –5 – 10 = –(–5 ) = 5],
Secondbrackets are to be solved in order given above,
[First, then second, then third and then fourth]                       
Third Operation of ‘Of’ is done,
Fourth Operation of division is done,
Fifth Operation of multiplication is done,
Sixth Operation of addition is done, and

Seventh Operation of subtraction is done

So, aspirants need to solve a given expression at simpler or equivalent one. Here are different types of Simplification questions in the form of quizzes and PDFs which have been seen in different bank and Insurance Exams, you can take quizzes online and check your level of preparedness for SBI PO 2019, IBPS PO 2019, SBI Clerk 2019, IBPS Clerk 2019, IBPS RRB PO and even download simplification PDFs so you can solve them offline too.

Here are links:

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 33
PDF link: Download Quiz 33 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 32
PDF link: Download Quiz 32 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 31
PDF link: Download Quiz 31 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 30
PDF link: Download Quiz 30 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 29
PDF link: Download Quiz 29 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 28
PDF link: Download Quiz 28 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 27
PDF link: Download Quiz 27 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 26
PDF link: Download Quiz 26 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 25
PDF link: Download Quiz 25 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 24
PDF link: Download Quiz 24 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 23
PDF link: Download Quiz 23 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 22
PDF link: Download Quiz 22 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 21
PDF link: Download Quiz 21 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 20
PDF link: Download Quiz 20 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 19
PDF link: Download Quiz 19 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 18
PDF link: Download Quiz 18 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 17
PDF link: Download Quiz 17 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 16
PDF link: Download Quiz 16 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 15
PDF link: Download Quiz 15 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 14
PDF link: Download Quiz 14 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 13
PDF link: Download Quiz 13 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 12
PDF link: Download Quiz 12 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 11
PDF link: Download Quiz 11 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 10
PDF link: Download Quiz 10 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 9
PDF link: Download Quiz 9 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 8
PDF link: Download Quiz 8 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 7
PDF link: Download Quiz 7 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 6
PDF link: Download Quiz 6 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 5
PDF link: Download Quiz 5 PDF
Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 4
PDF link: Download Quiz 4 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 3
PDF link: Download Quiz 3 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 2
PDF link: Download Quiz 2 PDF

Quiz link: Simplification Quiz 1
PDF link: Download Quiz 1 PDF